By filling management positions with digitization experts, Bosch is pushing the continued development of the Smart Factory concept for its customers. At the same time, the group is intensifying its internal restructuring in order to resolutely align itself with the requirements of industry 4.0. Sven Hamann, whose predecessor Dr. Stefan Aßmann now acts as Business Chief Digital Officer of the Industrial Technology division, took over management of the Bosch Connected Industry division on July 1, 2019. In addition, Dr. Heiner Lang has been head of the Factory Automation unit at Bosch Rexroth since August 1.

With these personnel at the ready, the company intends to prepare its 280 global plants for future challenges. Bosch’s own factories also serve as a test environment for digitization technologies, which can then be made available to customers. By means of smart networking, Bosch was able to increase the productivity of individual locations by up to 25% and simultaneously reduce inventories by up to 30%. The company expects significant growth from doing business with industrial 4.0 solutions: while sales in the past four years totaled 1.5 billion euros, annual sales are expected to climb to more than 1 billion euros by 2022.