GR-Award

15 teams awarded for innovative projects

In 2023, 15 teams won the GR-Award. Bosch Global Real Estate recognises particularly innovative achievements with the award, which contribute to a secure future for the company. The applicants competed in five categories.

In the “Digitalisation” category, a team from Vietnam won with their FCM console which digitises manual facility management tasks. The most outstanding project in the “People & Smart Work” category came from Brazil – the team developed onboarding training for new employees. The first place in the “Customer-Centred Real Estate Solutions” category was achieved by a team from Hungary for a project that implemented a concept for designing an inspiring work environment. The first places in the categories of “Cost Savings” as well as “Sustainability and Energy Efficiency” went to Germany. One team succeeded in achieving peak savings in energy supply: as a result, Bosch receives annual refunds from the grid operator – amounting to an average of 2.7 million euros. The project with the greatest sustainability and energy savings, on the other hand, reduces the natural gas consumption in piezo actuator production to zero. This saves around half a million euros each year.

The GR Award has been presented since 2022; prior to that, the FCM Award existed since 2017. This year, 167 teams applied for the award.

Category: Digitalisation

First Place: FCM Console

Project Team: Duong Hoang Phuc, Nguyen Dang An, Vo Ngoc Kim Ngan, Nguyen Hoai Phuong Truc, Tran Thi Kim Cuong, Lai My Ha, Do Dong Loc, Tran Cao Quoc Hieu, Nguyen Hoang Quan, Le Quang Huy, Nguyen Quang Nhut
Project Status: Realised

Project Duration: September 2022 to December 2023
Digital is better and more efficient: FCM console in Vietnam Facility management is an extremely complex matter, requiring coordination of maintenance, operations, and planning both temporally and spatially, with a constant eye on costs. With the FCM console, Bosch Global Software Technologies Vietnam (BGSV Vietnam) has now taken a giant leap into the future. The BGSV team, led by Phuc Duong Hoang, developed the console as an IT application that replaces manual coordination of facility management. The FCM console can be effortlessly integrated into web and mobile applications from desktop computers or smartphones, optimising important FCM processes. Whether it’s visitor management, the help desk, or the flexi-booking of office spaces, with the FCM console all tasks are collected in one digital place and can be accessed and completed from anywhere. The integrated access management system allows data to be shared with other digital applications.

One function of the FCM console is the emergency evacuation feature, which was awarded the FIT.Fest Innovation Award 2023. For instance, in the event of a fire alarm, every employee can confirm their individual safety status or request help using the “I need support” option. During an evacuation, detailed maps show the way to the nearest assembly point. The easy access and clear navigation enable the FCM department staff to have all relevant data in view and plan even more proactively than before. This saves valuable time. The effort required for data entry and copying, and the resulting errors, are reduced. This increases the overall productivity of the department and makes the service available more quickly.

A utility analysis showed that from the project start in September 2022 to July 2023, the FCM staff saved around 5,280 hours, and the end-users in the FMC needed about 60,260 fewer hours for work and application compared to the same period.

Category: Savings

First Place: Reduction of Peak Loads in Energy Supply

Project Team: Roland Portugall, Samuel Del Collado
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: 2022 to April 2022

Stable Profile: Reduce Electricity Peaks and Save Costs Without electricity, very little runs, especially not in production and manufacturing. The Reutlingen Bosch plant for semiconductor manufacturing is the biggest electricity consumer in the entire urban area. This is not surprising for such a large facility, as the cleanroom requires a constant temperature and humidity. Therefore, in summer, it needs to be cooled, and in winter heated, leading to high electricity consumption. However, with good planning, peak values can be avoided and costs reduced. The FMC at the location launched a project in 2020 to stabilise the electricity consumption profile. The team implemented a battery buffer in the plant’s network, which reduced peak loads. This buffer consists of a combined system with a battery storage of 3.4 MWh and a diesel generator of 1.2 MW. The lithium-ion batteries of the system have a capacity of 2.9 MW, which is roughly equivalent to that of a wind turbine. The system is fully automated and continuously monitors the electricity consumption. If the consumption rises above a defined value, a portion of the required energy is drawn from the battery. Its capacity is sufficient for most days. Only on days of particularly high outside temperature or humidity does the energy supplier need to provide support. The battery buffer leads to a stable profile of electricity consumption even during times of high demand, such as in the summer when the outside air must be heavily cooled and dehumidified. A stable consumption profile without significant peaks is of great advantage to the external electricity supplier and the public grid. As a reward, the Bosch location receives an average credit of 2.7 million EUR per year from the external grid operator. As a major consumer, the Bosch Reutlingen plant pays a network fee that is based on the highest power peak. These are good prospects also for other locations with high electricity consumption: the combined system of the battery buffer can be implemented in a wide variety of different facilities.

Second Place: Revolution through Virtualisation: Strong Enabler for IWC Office and Cost Savings

Project Team: Szilard Gyurka, Belian Vermes
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: January 2022 to December 2022

More Space and Lower Costs: Virtualisation in Budapest Digitalisation already plays a crucial role in smart work today. With applications such as virtualisation, the work environment is taking significant strides towards the future. In the Bosch Development Centre in Budapest, the FCM team has now introduced virtualisation as part of the “New Way of Working” project. The idea was to replace the desktop computers of the development engineers at the site. There was a good reason for this: in their work on new functions and innovative technology for driver assistance systems, they carried out many computing-intensive simulations using high-performance computers. Previously, each developer had their own computer at their workstation. However, not all colleagues are in the office every day, so much potential computing power remained untapped. Yet, the simulation computers caused high administrative effort, consumed electricity, and heated the offices. The consequent need to cool the rooms further increased electricity consumption. With virtualisation, the FCM team, together with colleagues from BD (Bosch Digital), was able to master these challenges. Instead of desktop computers, they installed virtual machines on central servers in data centres. The engineers can access these from any standard laptop. The computing work for simulations and other uses takes place on central servers that provide sufficient computing power for all users. As a result, around 500 desktop computers were decommissioned. The virtual machines require less electricity than all the desktop computers combined previously. With the new solutions, unnecessary heat is no longer generated by computers in the offices, less cooling is required, and the temperature in office areas can be more easily maintained at a normal level. Each employee can now use a standard notebook instead of a high-performance computer, which brings additional cost savings, as maintenance and administration efforts, as well as hardware and software costs, are lower. With the project named “Revolution by Virtualization” in Budapest, Bosch will save three million euros in operating costs over five years. Office space was freed up for about 200 engineers, which is now being used for the implementation of smart work and IWC with desk sharing. Virtualisation can be an intelligent solution for any research and development site in the future to save space and costs. The blueprint for this was created by this pioneer project in Budapest, where FCM, BD, and the user departments worked together across sectors.

Third Place: Cost Saving Process

Project Team: Hans-Joachim Eichler, Maria Guadalupe Mercado Colin, Esteban Lopez Suarez
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: 2017 to present

Compare and Save: Cost Optimisation Process in Mexico Buying cheap often means buying expensive, especially when hidden costs are not taken into account. This was also frequently experienced by an FCM team at the Toluca location in Mexico with offers from suppliers. Usually, the supplier with the cheapest offer in a direct comparison got the contract. Since local market costs were not considered in the decision, there were often additional subsequent or extra invoices. After a thorough analysis, the team in Toluca developed an optimised cost process (Cost Optimization Process, COP) and implemented it at the plant in 2017. The core of the process is a software-based price database, which allows for comparison of individual items in supplier offers. By also standardising the characteristics of the database queries, the information density was further increased – and this makes the cost optimisation process applicable to other locations as well. The COP has now been introduced at all Mexican locations. Between the years 2017 and 2022, it has enabled savings of around 700,000 US dollars per year across Mexico, totalling more than 4 million US dollars.

Category: Customer-Centred RE-Solutions

First Place: IWC Provided by GR as OneGR

Project Team: Laszlo Bolkeny, Szilard Gyurka, Tobias Siever, Zita Timea Vas-Takacs, Mate Dalos, Vladimir Slavkovsky
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: Q4 2022 to Q4 2023

Comprehensive Team Performance: IWC Offices in Slovakia Many things are better when done together. This is true for Global Real Estate (GR) as well. How effective collaboration across all levels of the new GR organisation works is demonstrated by Project Roadrunner in Slovakia. At the new Presov plant, e-bikes are produced, and around 700 employees are active on site. The leased property covers about 22,000 square meters, 3,000 square meters of which are office spaces. Project Roadrunner aimed to design the new, yet empty office spaces, including the communal areas, as well as the canteen and kitchen. An internal GR regional planning team was formed, consisting of employees who all had experience with Inspiring Work Conditions (IWC). The team members were supported by the global GR team with a focus on IWC. Part of IWC also includes smart work and desk sharing, which is a significant change for many employees. To facilitate this, the team offered mentoring and workshops for successful change management. The local FCM team at the new Presov location worked closely with the regional planning service team, and together with the very experienced global IWC team, they could cover the entire IWC planning and the canteen planning with their own capacities. No external interior architects were involved. A major advantage was the ability to exchange comprehensive best-practice solutions for the offices across regions. This allowed the team to pool experiences and knowledge and meaningfully link the complex conception from the area analysis and space planning for the office and communal areas, as well as for the canteen and kitchen, to the monitoring of the execution on-site. The large, global GR network ensured the project could be implemented efficiently and economically. The team grew closely together during the project and presented themselves as OneGR. This approach resulted in high satisfaction from the client.

Second Place: Construction of a Hydrogen Plant for F&E

Project Team: B K Anandakumar, Kumar S Dinesh, Raju G Ganga, K Harsha, P Jaishankar, M P Krishnan, K Y Lingaraju, V K Rajkumar, Rajendra Kumar Jagadeesh, K G Somaiah, Imran, S Sudhakara, Karalingannavar Aravind A, M Pradeep, Kumar K Prashanth, V C Mohan, Shivanand Pujer, Rakshith Ramachandra
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: Q2 2021 to Q1 2023

United for the Future: Hydrogen Infrastructure in India Hydrogen plays a crucial role in climate protection and sustainable economic practices. Bosch is also betting on hydrogen as the energy source of the future and is researching and developing technologies for its production and use. A large, multidisciplinary FCM team in India, located in Adugodi, Bengaluru, has now designed and built a state-of-the-art hydrogen infrastructure: a hydrogen high-pressure gas storage facility. This facility specifically serves research and development as a testing centre for innovations and experiments, as well as a hydrogen testing facility—the first of its kind for Bosch in India. In this joint project by FCM with RBIN/ETW-IN, RBIN/HSE-BAN and C/SER-IN, the focus was on the exchange of experiences, with all participants benefiting from each other. For the team, this project initially meant learning everything about hydrogen: fuel properties, safety requirements and regulations, as well as fuel handling. Two of the biggest challenges were the lack of specific guidelines or rules for hydrogen storage (PESO) and the realisation of pipelines with seamless connections. Moreover, the team recognised the importance of cooperation between government, science, and research to advance hydrogen fuel technologies, allowing innovative ideas to be reviewed, implemented, and a robust design for the infrastructure to be developed. The expertise of suppliers and the know-how of colleagues from Germany, who had already built similar facilities locally, were also incorporated into the concept. The new storage infrastructure supports employees in research and development at the site in testing H2 combustion engines and fuel cell power modules (FCPM). It meets high safety requirements to prevent any risk to the site and people. Fifty percent of the infrastructure capacity has been migrated to the testing of H2 combustion engines, and a new testing infrastructure for FCPM has been established. The storage is scalable and offers the possibility of expansion with an electrolysis plant for own H2 production and a vehicle refuelling station. The collaborative work was successful. The Bosch facility in Adugodi is one of the first hydrogen infrastructures to be approved by Indian authorities and has become a benchmark for other such facilities in the country, particularly for the efficient safety systems from storage to the use of hydrogen. The concept included the future from the outset, with the infrastructure capable of being expanded with many elements, such as an electrolysis plant for hydrogen production.

Third Place: Renewal of the air conditioning without interrupting production

Project Team: Fernando Strazza

Project Status: Realised

Project Duration: January 2021 to November 2022

Exchange Without Downtime: New Air Conditioning System in BrazilKeep moving. This maxim is particularly true for manufacturing. When machines and conveyor belts come to a halt, revenue losses can occur. At the Bosch location in Campinas, Brazil, employees produce a variety of products for the automotive market, which are sold directly to automakers and the aftermarket. One of these products is the command unit. A controlled temperature and humidity are required in the manufacturing process to ensure the integrity of the electronic components during product assembly. This is the only way to meet the quality requirements. The aim of this GR project was to replace the air conditioning system while assembly continued on the production line. The undertaking required a high degree of synergy between the business unit and facility management. In particular, during the exchange of the air conditioning system, communication between the parties and the project team had to be very close. This was the only way to ensure that the assembly line was not affected by the installation of the new system and the removal of the old one.

The new air conditioning system was necessary. It is based on the product requirements and the strategy of the business sector for electronic production to generate more business with clients. With a robust climate and humidity control system, it is possible to retain existing customers and win new ones while maintaining the production level. Additionally, the old air conditioning system was somewhat outdated. The new one is more reliable, sustainable, and requires less maintenance. Furthermore, temperature and humidity control can be integrated into the site’s digital energy platform, allowing records to be virtually stored and accessed at any time. For the old system, there were still handwritten notebooks. With this project, the team succeeded in meeting customer expectations with a robust system without any production downtime or additional inventory of fully assembled products.

Category: Sustainability and Energy Efficiency

First Place: Successful Teamwork Leads to 98% Energy Savings

Project Team: Elias Chahine, Manfred Giehl, Oliver Hartmann, Ralf Krause, Bernhard Krapp
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: June 2022 until August 2023
Ideal Partners: FCM Implements a Catalytic Oxidation System in Bamberg Factory

Energy management means regularly putting processes, systems, and production under scrutiny. This was also the case at the Bamberg Piezo Actuators Plant. In 2022, FCM colleagues analyzed the main energy consumption of the site. They identified a very high natural gas consumption in the manufacturing of piezo actuators: the applied technology of thermal post-combustion (TPC) accounted for around 480,000 Nm³ (normal cubic meters) of natural gas per year. The use of such a high volume was necessary to comply with the legally prescribed limits for pollutant emissions for the plant’s 14 debinding furnaces. In the TPC process, exhaust gas is directed into a combustion chamber along with natural gas and heated up to a maximum of 850 degrees Celsius through the combustion of the natural gas. The colleagues researched more energy-efficient alternatives and came across a newly developed process: catalytic oxidation (CO). With this method, the exhaust air is purified without an open flame at a comparatively low temperature of about 350 degrees Celsius. This is achieved through the eponymous catalyst, which completely oxidizes the extracted air. Instead of natural gas, electrical energy is used with CO, saving electricity and reducing dependence on the natural gas market. The FCM team successfully implemented this process at the Bamberg plant. Production, FCM, HSE (Health, Safety and Environment), and the CO supplier worked closely together: specifications had to be defined, effectiveness proven, and a suitable installation site determined – all while production was ongoing. The project was supported by subsidies from the EEF special budget (Energy Efficiency Promotion). The conversion was completed in only 14 months. Thus, FCM in Bamberg has proven that it can implement new technologies within a tight timeframe. The total energy consumption of the Bamberg Piezo Actuators Plant was reduced by 98 percent. This corresponds to around 5,500 MWh, thus reducing the site’s annual CO₂ emissions by approximately 1,000 tonnes per year, and saving about 500,000 euros in the same period.

Second Place: Optimising HVAC to Save Energy at HCP

Project Team: Nhung Le Van, Kien Pham Tran
Project Status: Realised
Project Duration: June 2022 until January 2023

Well-tempered: More efficient ventilation system thanks to slowed airflow The energy experts at FCM are always searching for solutions at every location to use electricity and resources more sustainably and efficiently. This was also the case at HcP Vietnam in Dong Nai. One day, as the team looked at the data and figures from the Building Management System (BMS) as usual, a number caught the attention of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) colleagues: 20 degrees Celsius. That was the current temperature in the workshop. The area is usually tempered by the air handling unit (AHU) at 16 degrees Celsius. The team members wanted to find the error. They checked everything: coil, fan, filter, humidification unit. They discovered that the coil was dirty. The resulting friction made the AHU less efficient than usual. The team cleaned the coil, and the temperature returned to 16 degrees. This event sparked even more research, and the FCM team thought: we can do even better. They wanted to know how the cooling capacity and thus energy consumption could be reduced. After a two-month deep dive into the AHU system at the Dong Nai site, the team concluded that airflow velocity is the key. Slowing it down reduces the AHU’s energy consumption while maintaining the temperature. This can save 2,124 MWh of energy and approximately 136,000 euros in costs per year at the HcP site, as well as reduce CO2 emissions by 953 tons of CO2.

 Third Place: 100% utilization of recycled water @South Campus

Project Team: B A Basavaraj, D Kannan, V K Rajkumar, Guddadmane Nityananda, K Satish Kumar, Shivanand Pujer, Keshava Prasad Muliyala
Project Status: Implemented
Project Duration: June 2022 to January 2023

One hundred percent: Use of recycled water in Bengaluru Fresh water from sources, like groundwater, is scarce in many countries. In Indian Bengaluru, a Bosch FCM team therefore asked the question: Is fresh water really necessary for toilet flushing, cooling systems, or greening areas? The answer was: no. So, the team set out to explore for what purpose recycled water (from sewage treatment plants) could be used. The team members analyzed gardening, flushing, and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) systems at the South Campus location and found opportunities. To save fresh water, they pursued the so-called 3-C approach: collect, conserve, comply. This involves collecting rainwater and replenishing groundwater, conserving water resources by increasing the volume of recycled water and reducing overall water consumption, and complying with legal regulations. The team achieved that recycled water is used throughout the HVAC system of the South Campus instead of fresh water. For further use, the team members established a process to determine the required water quality: a 130-micron filtration for the drip irrigation system of green areas or the UF process for toilet flushing. Overall, the team ensured that the irrigation process became much more sustainable by replacing manual pump systems with a hydropneumatic system in automatic pump operation. 290 meters of new pipelines with a diameter of 25 millimeters and 56 meters with a diameter of 40 millimeters were installed for complete flushing and irrigation. The total fresh water consumption of the South Campus was reduced by 51%, and 100% recycled water is used for the entire HVAC retrofit (CHW circuits + CTs + AHUs).

Third Place: Intelligent Shuttle Bus Management

Project Team: Liyun FANG, Ping YOU, Minfeng HUANG
Project Status: Implemented
Project Duration: November 2022 to January 2023

User-friendly and Cost-saving: Digital Shuttle Bus System in China Shuttle buses are indispensable at Chinese sites, ensuring safe and swift transportation for colleagues to and from the factories. However, boarding used to involve several steps: finding the relevant form in the local system, downloading information, and manually printing the document. The supervisor then signed the form, and the employee took it to the site’s service desk, where the FCM team processed it manually. Subsequently, the administrator issued the shuttle card, granting permission to board. Many real steps in an increasingly digital world. This realization prompted the on-site FMC team to launch a pilot project in the PTCN of the Shanghai cluster: the digital shuttle bus system. This system streamlines the process of boarding the shuttle bus, almost entirely in the virtual realm. Employees log into the IoT system, register via mobile phone, select relevant information in the online form, and the supervisor receives a notification to approve the request directly via phone, with the shuttle bus card displayed on the phone. All of this can be completed in just a few minutes. Additionally, the phone reminds employees of the bus departure time, and its location is visible in real-time. The system also benefits transportation and bus drivers. Previously, passengers were manually counted and verified, now the system handles this with just a click. The pilot project was so successful that the system will be implemented at other sites in the future. The facts speak for themselves: the processing time for approval requests has been reduced from about 30 minutes to two minutes, and the automatic verification of passengers ensures that only Bosch employees use the shuttles, and costs are properly accounted for.