At Bosch Rexroth, Industry 4.0 is no longer just a concept. Bosch Rexroth is a leading practitioner of Industry 4.0. Its hydraulic valve production line in Humboldt, Germany is the most powerful proof. With its rich experience in value stream design and optimization, Bosch Rexroth has carried out Industry 4.0 transformations on the original production line. The transformed production line can produce 2,000 different products of six major product families with zero switching, and realize small-batch customized production. It is a single product production, which improves production efficiency by 10% while reducing inventory by 30%. This production line was awarded the "Industry 4.0 Award" by a well-known German industry magazine for achieving the best interconnection between people, machines, objects and IT systems.

No need to switch tooling

At the beginning of the design of the Humboldt factory renovation project, the logistics and production department worked closely with the production plan and the IT department directly under the headquarters to conduct research on the manufacturing process and value stream, and jointly constructively put the modern and innovative concepts into practice. The production line of the Humboldt factory perfectly combines production and logistics. It can produce a wide range of product types without the need for technology and logistics to change tooling. The switching time has been changed from the original 40 seconds to zero switching, thus greatly improving production efficiency. There are huge gains.

Personalized interconnected workstations

The interconnection of people, machines, and products is the core tool to increase flexibility, speed up processes, and master product diversity. Through information preparation before and after the process, the Humboldt production line can realize intuitive operation guidance, so that people are always at the core of the value-added process. The designer has set up a series of functions on this production line to make the work of employees easier and more comfortable: the assembly station can be individually adjusted, the appropriate font size and native language are used on the screen to display the required information, and the The specific assembly process displays the corresponding in-depth information; employees can wear Bluetooth, and important information can be automatically transmitted to the assembly station through Bluetooth. In work, each product's workpiece tray is equipped with an RFID radio frequency identification chip with its identification code, through which to control the operation of the tray on the production line, and can inquire about what is needed in each station in time Assembly work and materials, etc.

Decentralized production plan

Compared with the original production line, the Industrie 4.0 production line at the Humboldt factory has a completely different production method. This production line is no longer controlled by the central SAP system. Instead, the machine is controlled by the workshop software solution (Opcon Suite) in the workshop. This kind of decentralized production plan can report its own availability, whether it needs maintenance or malfunctions and other information in a timely manner. In addition, the production line of the Humboldt factory is also equipped with an intelligent dynamic production management system (ActiveCockpit). This production information and control system uses a flexible and expandable App to work, which can visualize and efficiently communicate all the data required in the Industry 4.0 production process in real time. , Quickly and effectively solve the problems encountered in the production process. Of course, the final decision-making power is still in the hands of the person, who can obtain supporting documents including all timely available information, and make the correct decision based on this.

A production alliance that combines suppliers and customers

The construction of the Humboldt factory's Industry 4.0 production line aims to improve the competitiveness of the production base, and strive to better respond to market changes, make products operate faster in the market, and cover higher product diversity with lower costs. The implementation process of the project always abides by the basic principles of the Bosch production system, and establishes the most advanced Industry 4.0 solution that represents future development. This Industry 4.0 production line will continue to evolve in the future. The production line is equipped with a variety of complete functions, ready for the next development step: this is to integrate suppliers and customers into the process, and pass the product intelligence to customers, providing customers with value-added and service benefits. In short, it is to develop new business models.

The conceivable example is: the final product can notify the customer when the after-sales service is required or when it must be replaced, and at the same time, an order is initiated at the factory and the supplier. A more ambitious goal of Bosch Rexroth is to implement Industry 4.0 standards in factories all over the world, and through a decentralized organizational structure. Bosch Rexroth envisions providing all the information and data to factories around the world through a cloud computing platform, which will be controlled by the leading factory. This system will be implemented in the value stream of the Bosch Rexroth factory in the future.

Greater transparency and greater security

In a multi-variety production line such as the Humboldt factory, there are also many kinds of parts, which puts forward higher requirements on the production line: all parts must appear in the right place at the right time and in the correct quantity. . In addition, the production line must be well integrated in the logistics process of the factory and other production lines. Bosch Rexroth’s long-term logistics goal is to integrate suppliers and customers well. The boundaries between companies will gradually be broken, and more forms of networked work will be adopted to exchange more information.

Due to the highly digitized production data, the Industry 4.0 production line of the Humboldt factory has higher security, and can achieve early warning management of process errors and quality deviations. A variety of fool-proof designs are added to the production line to avoid operator errors, reducing the rate of defective products and liberating labor. At the same time, the time of failure of the production line can also be shortened as much as possible, because the system can get the signal from the components as soon as possible, and the preparation of the spare parts has been started before the maintenance work is required.

Bosch Rexroth adopts a dual strategy in the field of Industry 4.0. It is not only a leading practitioner of Industry 4.0, but also an excellent supplier of Industry 4.0. Bosch Rexroth can rely on the advanced experience of Industry 4.0 including the Humboldt factory, integrate the rich resources of the Bosch Group in the field of Industry 4.0, provide customized solutions from project consulting to software and hardware, and effectively help manufacturers improve their competitiveness. Take the lead in future market competition.

About Bosch Rexroth

Bosch Rexroth is committed to providing safe, accurate, efficient and cost-effective transmission and control technology for all kinds of machinery and system equipment. The company combines and leverages global application experience, develops innovative products, and tailors system solutions and services for customers in each market segment of mobile machinery, mechanical applications and engineering, factory automation and renewable energy. Bosch Rexroth also provides customers with various hydraulic, electronic transmission and control, gear, linear transmission and assembly technologies. The company has operations in more than 80 countries around the world, with more than 33,700 professional employees, and global sales in 2014 were nearly 5.6 billion euros.