Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems Ltd. was founded in August 2004 and currently employs 4,900 people in a 16,000 square meter plant. It is a leading supplier of innovative solutions for fuel injection systems and exhaust gas aftertreatment systems in China. We contribute to environmental protection and energy saving through innovative products and corporate social responsibility.

As an automotive parts supplier, automation is a key production driver. Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems relies on advanced CNC systems to fulfill the need to communicate the design requirements of each part to CHIRON machining centers.

In recent years, the automotive market has been booming and the demand for increased car ownership has been passed on to the production side of the plant, requiring the plant to increase production, but there are considerable difficulties in achieving this.

Risks of increasing throughput: It may be possible to increase the productivity of a single machine, but at the same time it is necessary to keep an eye on whether it causes more vibration in the machine's bearings or spindle, and risk damaging the machine or product, or even causing production delays.

Labor-intensive maintenance monitoring: One of the biggest constraints faced by many large manufacturing plants is the inability to keep track of the machine's operating status in detail and visually. Despite the automation of computer numerical control, monitoring is still largely human-based, which results in limited physical operation and control of the machines by employees. Every three to six months, the factory arranges for three employees to spend 30 minutes checking the vibration status of each machine.

Machine quality is still difficult to control: Since the inspection is routine, it means that there are still problems with the machines that may not be solved for a long time. Moreover, it is difficult to assess the maintenance intervals of various types of machines, and there is no accurate statistical and visual analysis of the impact that damaged machines can have on production, correlation between key parameters of product quality and the condition and life of key machine components.

Looking at existing data and finding potential items that can be optimized requires a lot of effort for us," said Jinjun Ji, head of Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems Production One. My team on the shop floor needs to do a lot of manual and paper work."

Failures occur and it is difficult to find the cause: only when you know what the problem is can you find ways to improve it. The root cause of the performance loss needs to be found, but that means querying mold lots, supplier information, different grinding processes and machines, and many other relevant data." Relying on humans to find problems before they occur and relying on experience to make judgments after equipment problems occur is time-consuming and inefficient, making it difficult to respond quickly and in a timely manner. " said Zhang Liang, an expert in the technical support department and the head of the plant's Industry 4.0 project.

He also mentioned, "Before we couldn't find the cause of tool damage. We wanted to know if the connection was loose because of the vibration of the spindle."

Experience alone makes it difficult to find faults: When employees on duty are assigned to repair a faulty machine, they have to rely on knowledge and experience to solve the problem. There is no historical data to support them, no monitoring and status analysis of the machine's key parameters before the failure occurred, such as trend analysis and threshold monitoring. They cannot identify whether this failure will occur continuously or repeatedly, or in a particular situation.

Bringing about production loss: Jinjun Ji says, "If a tool is damaged during production, we can only scrap the product being produced. This would also result in a lot of lost production because we would have to replace the tool, adjust the machine, and test the tool again before we could continue production.

Industry 4.0 creates a connected environment, which means automating processes and providing intelligent, detailed data on machines that can be aggregated and analyzed to bring new insights to the business unlike any other. Of course, transformation does not operate in a vacuum, and we still need to consider budgets and existing conditions. 

For Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems, part of the task of the Connected CHIRON Systems project was to demonstrate that there was a cost-effective way to improve existing systems for smart manufacturing functions. Over the course of a year, the project has been progressed incrementally, and the next step will be taken after the team has confirmed that it does provide the functionality needed for production and solves the pain points faced in production today.

Bosch is a leading practitioner on the path to Industry 4.0, starting with improving its own production. Proven and mature products and solutions are actively applied to the external market. Feedback and demands from the external market are then used to guide product and solution iterations and rapid updates. This way, we can better meet the needs of the external market and become a superior provider of Industry 4.0 solutions.

• Reduce manual data collection

• Continuous, real-time monitoring of machine status

• Improved data accuracy

• 2% increase in overall equipment efficiency OEE

• Fast fault identification, 50% reduction in fault location time

• Pre-determined faults, preventive maintenance

• 10% reduction in tool inventory

• Annual savings of 1.6 million RMB

Wow ~ such remarkable results! How do you do all this? Many people can't wait to know. I first sell a secret, please see our next content for you to hand in a satisfactory answer!

Adapted from Bosch Software Innovation