How Bosch Automotive Improved Production Issues Management

About Bosch Automotive

Bosch is a massive technology and service provider with over 440 locations and 260 production facilities worldwide. Their business sectors include automotive, building technology, consumer goods, and more. Bosch Automotive Charleston in South Carolina, employs nearly 1,500 individuals and specializes in powertrain and e-motor parts.

Improving Communication

Bosch Automotive began their Poka pilot program to replace two-way radios, which were extremely inefficient as they limited associates to reaching only one person at a time. With Poka’s communications module, they jumped lightyears ahead. They can now track, share and update valuable information to multiple people at once through rich media such as pictures and videos.

The pilot was a huge success, so 7 months later, they decided to expand the use of Poka to other lines. To further increase visibility, they set up Poka TVs throughout the plant to showcase preventative maintenance dashboards that gather all the open tasks. In addition, process technicians were issued Poka-connected Fitbits that automatically notify them of maintenance requests or possible issue solutions.

They also created a “war table” which displays the Kanban boards of main production lines - highlighting new issues, calls for help and resolved tickets.

Every team is onboarded and using Poka, from process technicians to engineers to directors, creating a clear escalation route for any problems they may face. It also empowers frontline workers by giving them a voice heard throughout the organization.

Fastest Product Startup in Corporate History

In the midst of the connected worker pilot, the plant faced a new product startup. Matt Bazzle, Data Analyst and Power BI Developer, and his team were able to execute a rapid ramp-up, where they went from setup to full-time production to customer delivery quicker than they have ever done in over 50 years of operation. Poka contributed to this accomplishment, by helping get the technicians on hand, resolving issues, and reaching optimal runtime.

Skills Development

The Charleston plant uses a performance-based pay system that offers an incentive determined by the number of trained and demonstrated skills an associate has recorded in Poka. The skills matrix allows workers to showcase their level of proficiency for every skill and puts the power to proactively learn on the job in their hands

This granular tracking provides visibility for management to see who is actively trying to grow their knowledge and who is out of date. Because team leaders can see which employees possess the necessary skills, it allows more flexibility for shift transfers and new assignments.

Looking Forward

They are working with other plants around the world using Poka to expand their use of the platform. Learning through collaboration enables them to use trusted and tested strategies and transfer existing content rather than creating everything from scratch. Currently, the largest project they are working on involves designing a quick and efficient onboarding process that integrates new hires well into the team so they can hit the ground running and become productive and proficient contributors to their team.