Bengaluru/Pune January 23, 2017 – Pune is gaining increasing significance, both as an auto and industrial hub. The visit of Winfried Kretschmann, Minister President of the Southwest German federal state of Baden-Württemberg, and his delegation at Bosch India’s Pune plant, underlines this. Background of the visit is the sister-state relationship the Indian state of Maharashtra and Baden-Wurttemberg share. Minister President Kretschmann stated: “Smart cities, smart mobility, and innovative solutions for engineering and automobile production are the focus of our trip. And this is why I am especially pleased that we are beginning our trip here in Pune at Bosch – a company that is ensuring that cities and mobility systems worldwide become smart.”

The delegation members got an overview of Bosch’s development and manufacturing capabilities driver assistance and safety systems domain, primarily the Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS), the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and Hydraulic Actuation Products. Spread over seven hectares of land, Bosch’s plant in Pune commenced operations in 1997 (formerly was Kalyani Brakes, the Group acquired the company in 2005). Bosch currently employs around 1,000 associates at two manufacturing facilities and one development centre in Pune.

With technologies like ABS and ESP, the Bosch Group has been making strong efforts to increase road safety in India and around the world. This was also acknowledged by the Minister President: “Bosch Group has already contributed significantly to the development of technologies that bring us closer to the vision of emissions-free and automated cars as part of a future digitally connected mobility system. This means that infrastructure will be better used, traffic jams avoided, and multimodal transportation improved. Moreover, the number of traffic victims will decrease drastically, and energy consumption and pollution will be reduced,” Minister President Kretschmann further stated.

The sales of vehicles fitted with ABS in India in 2016 improved significantly owing to a combination of factors, such as legislation mandates and improved customer awareness. These factors led to strong demand and sales, as India currently registers an ABS fitment rate of approx. 50 percent. As a leading provider of the technology in the region, Bosch has benefitted significantly from this development and expects to further leverage this advantage in the coming few years. To keep pace with future demands the Bosch Group in India has been building capacity at its Pune plant. “Over the past nine years Bosch has invested over 400 INR crores in Bosch Chassis Systems India Pvt., Ltd. We are committed to growing this segment of our business and to that end the development of the Pune plant is crucial and necessary,” commented, Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya, managing director, Bosch Limited, and president, Bosch Group India.

Bosch’s Chakan plant is a member of the International Production Network (IPN) for the ABS and the ESP. Each single machine for the ABS line is connected, not only with each other, but also with other ABS lines in the IPN. These lines are managed by a Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). The MES has an Andon system, including some benefits to enable quicker react to deviation in the manufacturing process, continuous improvement and finally, online benchmarking with the rest of the global manufacturing plants. Through this, Bosch’s Chakan plant has achieved a quality level close to zero defects and is a global benchmark in the IPN in some aspects. Furthermore, it has also recorded very high customer satisfaction apart from seeing significant increase in productivity. The plant has started implementing Energy Management Solutions. In the near future, the plant will look to implement Industry 4.0 solutions for preventive maintenance, and Operator Support Systems.