Bosch ‘Beyond Mobility 2.0’: Making giant leaps in clean energy and connected technology

If the presentations made by the dignitaries at Bosch at its ‘Beyond Mobility 2.0’ event held at Bengaluru were anything to go by, the future looks bright. There are several reasons to look forward to it where the future is clean and green, thanks to the use of sustainable energy solutions like solar energy. The future is also connected and smart, courtesy the Internet of Things (IoT) that is gaining rapid pace in the country. IoT is simply embedding objects that we use in our day to day lives with electronics so that they can receive, connect and exchange data, which is supposed to make life better. This has enormous applications in healthcare, automotive and other industries. Other topics presented were sustainable energy, Industry 4.0, robots for industries, smart security solutions, personalized home appliances and digitized services and power tools.

Emphasis was made on clean energy via roof mounted solar panels, for which Bosch has been one of the leading companies in the country to implement it for many large scale projects. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd’s four plants in the country have been equipped with 19MW rooftop solar power plant apart from providing integrated heating and cooling solutions for the manufacturing facilities. The impact on reducing carbon footprint has been large for HMSI, as Bosch claims 20,200 tons of carbon dioxide emission has been cut per year and also saving Rs 231 million per year for HMSI. Bosch also says that more than 200 enterprises have benefited by its clean energy solutions, saving more than Rs 330 crore till date and by generating 980,000 units of clean energy every day. As a result, Bosch has won many awards for its roof top solar projects.

To make life easier for the manufacturing sector, Bosch had also presented about Industry 4.0, where the focus was on automation, digitization, connectivity and IoT to boost productivity, quality and safety. Rejections can be reduced by monitoring the trend and implementing preventive measures in advance and predictive maintenance can be more effective to reduce breakdowns, too. Bosch is targeting SMEs also to provide digital solutions at an affordable cost. Bosch also stressed on the fact that cross functional teams are key to success in the IoT era. It is also pursuing its 3S strategy – sensors, software and services in areas like security, automation, personalised home appliances and in manufacturing sectors.

The power tools presentation was the funny part of the programme. The presenter started by asking three women in the gathering if they knew their carpenter/plumber/electrician’s name. Smart are the women nowadays, as two out of three said yes, which wasn’t what the presenter was expecting. He was looking to drive his point home by implying that the unsung heroes (your carpenter/plumber/electrician) whose names you don’t know (supposedly) use Bosch power tools to make your life better. Bosch also showed us a couple of videos where artists from remote villages were portrayed as heroes because they upgraded from knives and sledgehammers to Bosch power tools to make their artistic work. It was touching to say the least. On a serious note, the company has to be commended for penetrating deep into the remote corners of India and making its tools available for the people to make their lives better.

On the Bosch ‘Beyond Mobility 2018’, Soumitra Bhattacharya, managing director, Bosch Limited and president, Bosch Group, India said, “Our business is in a process of profound transformation from a hardware focus to models that focus more on services and data. We have the capability to develop greenfield technology that can power industries in a new-age manner. The key to success will be partnership with local players to drive connectivity forward and a localised strategy to meet consumer demand. ”

Bosch has only three AI centres in the world and they are located in Germany, USA and India (Bengaluru). It also invests eight per cent of its turnover for R&D activities. Bosch is the largest private sector company in the world. The company has also been instrumental in providing technology solutions for Cochin International Airport Ltd, which is India’s only green airport, earning it the status of ‘Champion of the Earth’ award by UN.

The Bosch ‘Beyond Mobility 2018’ experience tour gave a glimpse of the company’s achievements since it started operations in the country back in 1922, by showcasing the company’s history, timeline of achievements since the company started its India operations back in 1922. In four years, the company will be celebrating its 100^th birthday in India.