Bosch India has transformed its headquarters into a smart campus. Ashish Bhatia with inputs from Sumesh Soman looks at such heavy investments in advancing technology to become future-ready.
Bosch is gearing up for the future. It has measured investments to tap into future trends like e-mobility and Artificial Internet of Things (AIoT). To expand its activities in line, the company picked its headquarters at Adugodi, in Bengaluru. As per Filiz Albrecht, Member of the Board of Management and Director of Industrial Relations at Robert Bosch GmbH, the “Smart” campus christened ‘Spark.NXT’ will spark user-centric innovations. “The Spark.NXT campus will provide inspiring working conditions for associates to focus on the development of user-centric innovations for a better quality of life in India,” he averred. The company, however, has been strengthening the foundation for some time now. Over the last five years, the company is known to have invested Rs.800 crore in developing the campus.
The Spark.NXT campus has the capacity to potentially house 10,000 associates. The 76-acre site is also Bosch’s first smart campus in India. It features multiple smart solutions based on sustainability, security, and user experience for associates, visitors, and facility management and timed with the centenary celebrations at the company. “It is a special year for both India and Bosch India, as the nation celebrates 75 years of Independence and Bosch celebrates a century of its presence in India. 100 years ago, Bosch came to India as a German company and now it is as much Indian as German. This is a great example of German engineering and Indian energy,” stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural address. Inaugurating the Bosch Smart Campus, he lauded the development and expressed hope that it would take the lead in developing futuristic products and solutions for India and for the world. He urged Bosch leadership to think of doing more in India and set goals for the next 25 years. Speaking at the inauguration, Soumitra Bhattacharya, Managing Director of Bosch Ltd., and President of the Bosch Group, India, said, “Bosch has been part of the transformation in India for the last 100 years, and during this era we have revolutionised the mobility and the ‘beyond mobility’ ecosystem. With our new Spark.NXT campus, the company continues to invest in smart and sustainable solutions that are ‘Invented for life’ and supports the government’s vision for an Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as the chief guest at the ceremony, applauded the work done by Bosch India, especially at a state level, in Karnataka. He expressed, “The company has had its presence in the state for several decades now and it is heartening to host its largest smart campus here in India.” Karnataka, primarily Bengaluru, has long been the flag bearer for technological innovations. Deemed as a technology hub, it houses the largest number of R&D centres across the globe. This campus is another feather to its cap, he cited. He further drew attention to the campus boasting of R&D capabilities not just in automotive but beyond, in non-automotive products and services. He expects it to elevate the city’s stature in the field of technology to greater heights.
The smart capabilities at the Spark.NXT campus
As an AIoT company, Bosch India leveraged its world-class AI, IoT, automation, and digitalisation capabilities to develop its smart campus in pursuit of its vision for a sustainable, self-reliant, and future-ready India. To further enhance its R&D capabilities for the new way of working, the company has also trained over 10,000 associates through a comprehensive reskilling initiative over the past two years.
As a global player, Bosch brings together associates from more than 150 different countries. We foster a flexible and inclusive working culture that combines authenticity with cultural diversity. With its array of smart solutions, this campus proves our commitment to creating a greener ecosystem. This empowers us to remain an employer of choice while driving sustainability in everything we do,” Albrecht stated. The company has set aside Rs.50 crore (Euro six million) towards the goal of reduction in energy consumption alone over the long term. The campus will meet up to 85 per cent of its total energy needs with in-house solar panels and the purchase of green group captive power. Almost two-thirds of annual domestic water demand at Bosch in India is set to be met through rainwater harvesting projects. Furthermore, enhanced green cover with nine-million-litre capacity underground tanks for rainwater harvesting, is expected to reduce water demand by 60 per cent as a testimony.
Bosch has applied multiple smart, sustainable, and user-friendly solutions that move the campus towards the future of work. Bosch DEEPSIGHTS is an advanced AIoT-powered analytic platform for Industry 4.0 that provides smart energy and water management to bolster sustainability and excellence in optimising resources and managing utilities. While saving up to six per cent energy per annum, the platform also improves operational efficiency by eight per cent. In other initiatives, the Bosch Intelligent Air-Conditioning and Comfort Assistant (BIANCA) is a smart solution developed to improve employee comfort at the campus and reduce the latter’s carbon footprint. By optimising Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning operations (HVAC) based on occupancy and thermal preferences, BIANCA can reduce HVAC energy consumption by 30 to 50 per cent. The company has also deployed an ambient air-quality monitoring solution to constantly monitor key noise and air pollutants. This data will be shared with associates in real-time to enhance their well-being. The ‘WayFinder’ application helps in navigating the campus with ease. Additionally, the smart parking solution Park ZEUS offers a seamless parking experience for both associates and visitors, making the task convenient and sustainable. The reduction of three- to four minutes in parking results has the potential to yield annual savings of 1500-plus man-days, 2500 plus litres of fuel, and 5000 plus kilograms of CO2. This solution also reduces manual security efforts by 50 per cent.
Bosch Building Technologies offers smart solutions to maximise the security of people and premises. These discreet applications combine access control, intrusion detection, and intelligent surveillance with advanced video analytic featuring two-factor authentication. The visitor management system is designed to offer a delightful visitor and employee experience at the Spark.NXT campus while streamlining facility management, reducing wait times by 75 per cent. ACI
