Bosch Rexroth bets big on Industrie 4.0

 At a time when India aspires to be a global manufacturing hub for the world, Germany-based  Bosch Rexroth is revolutionising it with Industrie 4.0 practices and solutions, taking into account the importance of a growing number of connected devices.

In a telephonic interaction with Deccan Herald from Homburg, Bosch Rexroth Managing Director Johannes Thomas Grobe said Industrie 4.0 will result in the rapid transformation of manufacturing, where the virtual world of information technology, the physical world of machines, and the internet will become one.

“Manufacturing is facing volatile markets, individual customer requirements, shortened delivery times and product lifecycles, 24/7 service, social behaviour, new business models, etc. Also, as per the statistics available, it is estimated that by 2025, 50 billion devices will be connected, bringing an altogether changed world.”

Grobe said Industrie 4.0 is a relevant part of IoT. “With decentralised intelligence, rapid connections, open standards, and real-time context integration, autonomous behaviour result in new value-added networks, thus creating new business models and process product and production design.”

Bosch Rexroth — the drive and control technology company from Bosch Group — bundles global application experience in mobile applications; machinery applications; and engineering, factory automation, and renewable energies to develop innovative components as well as tailored system solutions and services.

He said Bosch Rexroth’s Homburg plant has nine workstations with multi-product line and intelligent networking. “Being connected allows Bosch Rexroth to produce around 300 different hydraulic modules all on the same line. Decades back, skeptics would have questioned such a possibility,” he said.

With the advent of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, every workpiece is guided at the plant. “As a result, production in small batches is made more efficient. The multi-product line enables different modules to be assembled in the same line simultaneously. This is how you can witness massive growth in production using this technology,” he said.

He says Industrie 4.0 gives relevant, onscreen information on the product line. It also helps to avoid human error and increase efficiency. “Operator errors will be completely eliminated by the use of technology where workstations prompt what needs to be assembled when and how,” he said.

When asked about Bosch Rexroth’s India operations, he said the company has got two production locations and one customising unit. “The Sanand plant being a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will be an ideal choice for Bosch Rexroth India. As of now, a lot of standardised data in production processes are available at our plant. This data is only being accessed and analysed on demand. Under the pilot project, a platform creation using production/engineering know-how from the plant and software from Bosch will be done,” said Grobe.