Bosch reveals tech-laden future in India

As always, on its annual Tech Day, Bosch Ltd revealed a host of product- and technology-led plans to drive growth in its India operations.

Come Bosch’s annual Technology Day in Bangalore and you can expect the components major to announce a range of new activities, new investments, and new products. The ninth edition on September 20 was no different and saw the company announce a range of new products over a variety of lines like exhaust treatment, diesel systems and aftermarket divisions while also revealing new generations of existing products in infotainment systems, two-wheeler ECUs and wiper driver assemblies.

That’s not all. Bosch also hinted at heavier investment in its India operations. Not surprising considering its India contribution to Bosch’s global revenues are set to more than double to 7.5 percent by 2020 from the current three percent. Its worldwide turnover in 2011-12 was a mammoth 51 billion euros (Rs 3,59,652 crore). India’s contribution to diesel systems alone is projected to rise to between 15-20 percent by 2020 from the current 10 percent.

Enunciating on the plans for the diesel systems, R Baskaran, vice-president, diesel systems (R&D), says that the “split implementation of emission norms in the country shows uncertainty.” Adding that the onus is on the government to implement more stringent emission norms, he says that if the lower sulphur targets of BS V norms are to be achieved by 2015, oil refineries in India have to upgrade their infrastructure. Issuing a warning note, he says, “The initial plan was to take BS IV to 100 cities by 2014.That implementation isn’t going to plan and this means the shift to BS V may not happen in 2015.”

Baskaran also says that the split implementation and its delay have posed some challenges to his team. He says, “The uncertainties are challenging both for us, the manufacturer, and for our customers. Added to that, of course, is the on-board diagnostics. We also face tough decisions on which product line to ramp up.” However, he adds that the Indian market poses some unique challenges in terms of its product portfolio.

“You wouldn’t see something like the Tata Ace anywhere else in the world. We have engines with one or two cylinders, which also need to migrate to the future norms. But we do not have the technology for this line in Europe. That’s why we have to build it here. On the other hand, the Indian CV market still thrives on traditional engines that are two-valve and naturally aspirated.” To tackle this longstanding issue, his team has developed a new line of engine pumps called the ‘Value Line.’ The Value Line CB 18 pump is a plug-and-play oil lubricated pump that can adhere to BS III norms. “For BS IV, a generation-3 1800 bar pump will be launched in a year’s time,” reveals Baskaran.

He also announced a new exhaust gas treatment solution termed Denoxtronic 6.5. This is a dedicated exhaust solution for the emerging markets and will see, initially, applications in the off-highway segment. The system is both BS IV- and V-compliant and comes with an ECU and a standalone Dosing Control Unit (DCU). Baskaran says that the unit can improve fuel efficiency by up to three percent while reducing NOx emissions by about 90 percent.

An updated version of the single-cylinder solenoid pump developed in 2009 and used in the Mahindra Maxximo was also announced and Bosch claims that this system gives a 6-7 percent bump up in fuel efficiency. “Instead of raising the pressure of the injector and wasting a bit of fuel and energy by the side, we are metering what we supply to the pump and pressurise that supply, thus resulting in the improvement in fuel efficiency,” says Baskaran.

A product in the pipeline is a diesel pump for a 55kw multi-cylinder engine, essentially a common-rail for small diesel engines. This will see the use of a second-generation fuel control unit. This product will be fully indigenous and will be BS IV-compliant.

Action on the two-wheeler front

For two-wheelers, PrabhuPanduranga, head of two-wheeler business and system development, Gasoline Systems India and head of diesel and gasoline systems, announced an improved version of its current ECU. “At present,” Panduranga said, “We make a 56-pin ECU. There is a 44-pin ECU in the pipeline and by 2015-16, we think that a 32-pin ECU is possible.” The reduction in the number of pins saves both cost and space, while ever-improving technology in the semi-conductor field allows for more functions to be adopted.

Panduranga also explained a new Engine Management System (EMS) that is under development, an early variant of which is being used in the KTM Duke 200. “With the help of an ECU, we can program the bike to start when the throttle is twisted, thereby removing the need for a kick-starter or even an electronic start button. This is basically like a start/stop for bikes where the engine is ignited by twisting the throttle and when the throttle is in the idle position, a light flashes on the dash to indicate to the rider that within six seconds, the bike will be switched off. All the rider has to do to cancel that would be to raise the throttle a bit. And this doesn’t get turned on again. It will wait for the next cycle of acceleration-deceleration and only then will the next warning be flashed. This has resulted in a direct fuel efficiency of 6-7 percent.” He adds that the KTM Duke 125 will also use this type of an EMS.

In the vehicle infotainment system space, Bosch’s Car Multimedia division has developed a dashboard screen which allows the driver and the front passenger to see two different visuals on the same display. In this ‘Dual View’ screen, pixels from each of the images are arranged alternatively in the display screen and using a prism layer, the alternate pixels are refracted to the side angles of the screen so that when a user sees it, he can see one complete image on his side. The product is now being used by Jaguar in its latest line-up of cars. The 8-inch monitor enables optimisation of space and power utilisation as the need of an additional monitor is avoided.

Alternatively, Vijay Ratnaparkhe, managing director, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, emphasised his 11,700 member-strong team’s core strengths of software development and application. RBEI also develops tools, diagnostics, systems testing and development. Importantly, he hinted that as of now, RBEI is very “software heavy” and that they will look at “software standardisation.”

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INTERVIEW WITH S MURALIDHARAN, HEAD — AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET, BOSCH LTD



Bosch’s automotive aftermarket division contributed €300 million (Rs 2,115 crore) last year to Bosch India’s revenue. Speaking exclusively to Autocar Professional, the chief of the automotive aftermarket division revealed the Express Bike Service centre business model and his team’s measures to control the spread of spurious products.

What is the business model for the Express Bike Service centre? You’ve said that it won’t operate in the franchisee model.

It will be a straightforward dealership. It’s an authorised workshop run by a private party who brings in the investment, a minimum of Rs 1 lakh. We provide the technology help, branding layout and support. The branding is what will help him stand above the clutter.

As of now, we have 10 centres in Coimbatore that were inaugurated in July. We are looking to grow this number up to 50 across the country by the end of this year. As such, we don’t have a competitor in this space as the market is so big. We are a category creator. We do not see an OEM as a competitor. The only place where we share space with the OEMs is when it comes to the use of genuine parts. In this category, a middle-class person has a chance to get excellent service from someone who’s not the OEM or the roadside garage. Our USP is simple — ‘Parts, bytes and services’. We will supply genuine Bosch spares and expect the centre to sell our parts. We don’t want to be restrictive in terms of choices to the customer at this stage in this concept. When we say ‘Bytes’, we are referring to our diagnostic capabilities along with the top-of-the-line equipment at an EBS centre.

What about logistics? How will you ensure each centre gets its parts on time?

At the moment, materials are supplied from our main distributor in Coimbatore. That main distributor will get his parts from our warehouses. We are in the process of modernising our warehouses.

My personal view is that five years ago, our warehouses were actually godowns in terms of technology, space, infrastructure and most importantly the processes. There’s a lot of computer involvement now, so it’s constantly monitored. One of the warehouses we have modernised is in Bangalore and the one in Chennai, which will take care of Tamil Nadu.

The ability to do business in small volumes is something the warehouses will develop. The other thing in the warehouse is that the larger distributor for a truck, for instance, can deliver parts to the service centres say once a month. The smaller distributors for two-wheelers will probably dispatch once a week and from there, the local distributor will, say, dispatch every day to the EBS. So it’ll be more like a milk run. That’s why we need certain economies of scale. It’s easier for a small distributor to supply to, say, 10 EBS centres rather than just one in a day.

Since the EBS doesn’t interact with us — the company — directly, there’s always a bit of a buffer created at these various levels of dispatch.

Would you involve yourself in training mechanics?

We did some arithmetic sometime back. The number of people who need to be trained as mechanics runs into a few millions. By 2015, even if you make a very conservative assumption that there are 100,000 two-wheeler garages in the country and a couple of people per garage need to be trained, you’re talking of a few lakhs already. So, we are not restricting our training to one big training centre in Bangalore. We already have training tie-ups with educational institutions, like SRM University in Chennai, a polytechnic college in Nagpur. We are looking at a few other institutes in the North and West.

This won’t be just for two-wheelers; it’ll be for cars also, where the market has a similar issue. You have more technology there. It’ll also be for high-end trucks. We have training understandings where we provide the training modules. We will both train others to become trainers and be trainers ourselves. We’ll continue to have a central training institute in Bangalore. That will provide training for anything high-end. We have approximately one local training centre in each state. With this, we train close to 20,000 people a month for two-wheelers/cars/CVs/tractors.

What will the growth curve for an EBS centre look like?

Even in cars, we have ‘Express’ car service. It’s a two-tier workshop concept where the entry level is ‘Express’ car or bike service, you reach a certain level of confidence and then you become a Bosch car/bike service centre. I wouldn’t call it a promotion, but it’s an upgrade. Today we are starting with ‘Express’ bike service, so maybe there will be Bosch bike service centres soon. But there will be a quality and technology difference between an Express car service and Bosch car service centres. I wouldn’t expect an owner of a luxury car to go into an Express car service centre.

We have about 500 centres which service an average of 10 cars a day, so we’re talking about 5,000 footfalls a day. The car business today is about 20 percent of the €300 million revenue. We have to see how much of it translates to the bike concept. It is early days still.

One of the mainstays in your everyday operations is tackling spurious products. What measures are you taking against this?

We have a cell within our division which conducts raids. We do two raids everyday somewhere in the country. We don’t conduct raids only at workshops or garages. We do it across the value chain. There are times when we have caught people making fake cartons, sometimes the products itself. We get a lot of support from the government authorities. We have, with the help of the Customs authorities, caught spurious products coming in from China and Taiwan. This is a non-stop process

We also give training and education in all levels of the trade about how genuine parts are value for money and how to identify genuine parts. The bad effects of a fake part aren't seen overnight. Somebody usually realises much later. We definitely need stricter legislation as the government loses out on excise duty and sales tax.

We also take on ourselves to continuously upgrade our technology, so that it’s tougher for the guy down the street to make a fake product. An inline pump can be copied; a distributor pump is a bit tougher while a common-rail pump is extremely difficult to copy. Our personal view is that this will never be eliminated.

KARTHIK H