The work cell producing Bosch's CP4 diesel pump owes its productivity to people, not automation.
Bosch officials laud the benefits of Germany's dual-track education system that prepares young people for skilled manufacturing jobs.
Bosch is pursuing ambitious sustainability goals and benefiting from employee involvement in efforts to lower CO2 emissions.
Growing the Skilled Workforce
Bosch benefits from Germany's dual-track school system, which provides students with a vocational education path that introduces them to manufacturing skills and offers them apprenticeships at employers such as Bosch.
"The German education system gives us a big boost," says Müller, who strongly endorses the skills training and introduction to actual manufacturing environments.
At the Feuerbach complex, for example, more than 500 young people are training for technical or commercial careers. In addition, Bosch's occupational training department supervises 200 students from the Baden-Württemberg University of Cooperative Education.
In 2011, 1,500 young people started an apprenticeship at Bosch in Germany. Altogether, Bosch had 6,600 students in apprenticeship programs around the world.
Sustainability Pays Off
Bosch's associates also play a key role in the firm's ambitious sustainability efforts. Company executives have set targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 15% by 2012 and 25% by 2020 compared to the 2007 baseline. At Feuerbach, company executives divided up the work on the goals among departmental teams and encouraged employee ideas for energy-saving projects.
One approach was simply to stop using energy when it was not needed. If lines were not running on the weekends, for instance, department leaders were authorized to use the building management system to turn off power, switch off lights and take other appropriate measures.
Other actions have involved retrofitting machines, such as introducing frequency converters on high-pressure washing machines. For energy-saving investments, plant officials look for a payback period of 2 years or less.
To help employees understand the energy saving goals, plant officials translated the goals in kilowatt hours and referenced the energy output of a nearby wind turbine that the local utility had erected. That windmill produces 767 megawatt hours of electricity in a year. In 2011, Bosch was able to save energy equivalent to the output of 28 windmills.
Bosch is on target to slightly exceed its 2012 goal at Feuerbach. Company officials note with pride that this was a goal no one thought was possible when it was set five years ago. Moreover, that dedication to energy efficiecnyis helping the facility save more than 2 million euros annually.
And, notes Müller, "Most of the changes are coming from the workforce, not engineers."
