Bosch has reported that its business in North America continues to develop. In the first six months of 2015, the technology and services company achieved a significant increase in sales in the region, in which it employs nearly 29,000 associates. “Based on the current economic situation, we expect to continue growing through the end of the year,” said Dr. Werner Struth, the board of management member of Robert Bosch GmbH responsible for the Americas. In 2014, Bosch already managed to increase its total sales in the United States, Canada, and Mexico by 8.6 percent to 8.5 billion euros ($9.3 billion USD).
Adjusted for exchange-rate effects, the increase was as much as 9.3 percent. “We are on track to double our sales in the Americas by 2020,” Struth said. All four Bosch business sectors in North America are performing very well, he noted. Mobility Solutions and Industrial Technology have been especially successful, Struth said, and the Consumer Goods and Energy and Building Technology business sectors are recording stable growth.
Investments Underscore The Region’s Importance
Over the past 10 years, the company has invested approximately 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in expanding research and development and local manufacturing. Bosch says it wants to continue expanding its activities in North America over the next few years as well. “We are planning to invest nearly 370 million euros in North America in the current year. This commitment underscores the region’s importance to the Bosch Group,” Struth said.
In August 2015, the company will officially open a new plant for Thermotechnology in Tepotzotlán, Mexico. The site has been producing gas-fired instantaneous water heaters for the Mexican and Latin American markets since June 2015. Plans also call for expanding the Bosch plants in Juárez, San Luis Potosí and Mexico City, Mexico, in the years ahead.
Bosch already strengthened its local presence last year. In the United States, for example, the company opened its first communication center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while to the south it began operating a new software development center in Guadalajara, Mexico. This software development center offers programming and application services for the automotive industry and Bosch plants in North and South America. “A strong local presence is crucial in being able to make the very most of opportunities in the region,” Struth said.
Opportunities With Connectivity And Automation
In North America, Bosch believes that the areas of connectivity, automation, electrification and energy efficiency in particular harbor great potential. As a result, the company is a leading provider and exponent of connected industry in the United States. At its plant in Anderson, South Carolina, Bosch is optimizing its production processes by analyzing big data, for example. The site is also using smartwatches for its manufacturing activities. These high-tech devices promptly notify associates if a machine malfunctions. Thanks to real-time monitoring, it is possible to prevent disruptions to the manufacturing process and thus gain additional production hours. As a member of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), Bosch is working with a number of American and other partners on concrete use cases of connected manufacturing.
Apart from Germany, the United States is another key locationa for Bosch in terms of its efforts to further develop automated driving. Since 2011, a team in Palo Alto, which is located in Silicon Valley, has been driving forward the development of functions for the necessary software and sensors, while colleagues in Abstatt, Germany, are responsible for systems integration in the vehicle. Bosch has been performing automated driving tests on public roads since early 2013. So far, engineers have successfully driven several thousand kilometers on both the German A81 autobahn near Stuttgart and U.S. Interstate 280 in California.
