Bosch revolutionizing connected supply chain

New Delhi: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has stirred up a wave of digital transformation that has prompted mass adoption of technologies, heightening opportunities and productivity within the ecosystem of various industries. This transition has eventually paved the way for the creation of the theory -‘Factory of the Future’. In the past few years, the supply chain sector has made expansive digital adoptions, which have fuelled the spawning of what we know today as ‘The Supply Chain Innovation.’

In line with the changing technological needs in the industries, the world’s leading global supplier of technology and services, Bosch, invented Trac360, a Connected Supply Chain Solution, supplemented with state-of-the-art technologies such as IoT, AI, Blockchain, Big Data and Analytics to buoy up the supply chain planning, enable predictive decision-making, automate processes and ultimately augment the supply chain visibility. The one of its kind innovative IoT solution, Bosch Trac360, empowers OEMs to keep a real-time track of their parts and shipments. Integrated technologies like GPS, RFID, Sensors and IoT support end-to-end product traceability and visibility based on demand rather than supply.

“It has disrupted the ecosystem ever since it made its debut. In a span of about two years, Trac360 has tracked around a million bins of parts and has been used for shipping parts for 30,000 invoices across 45 warehouses, fulfilling 5000 trips per month in India. Apart from these, “the application has not only integrated multiple systems and data, but has also increased visibility and traceability from the manufacturer through delivery and increased customer satisfaction, guaranteeing 100% delivery of the right parts in the right quantity at the right time,” informs Chandrasekar R, Delivery Head - Cloud & IoT Practice at RBEI.

Owing to the voguish digital trends that are orbiting the industrial society, it has become quite imperative for the sector to embrace diverse technological innovations. Sequentially, the digital sentience has persuaded several organizations to deliberate over reconstructing their supply chain facilities. This revamping has by far and away altered the conventional stance of the supply chain system, providing an elbow room for organizations to perceive opportunities, operational effectiveness, and transparency in every dealing. In short, these facilities are supporting manufacturers overcome the problems they come across while managing their supply chain activities. “Implementation of Trac360 increases customer satisfaction, reduces inventory carrying costs, fortifies returnable bin management, and surges warehouse productivity. In the main, Bosch Trac360 was created to solve distribution challenges between Bosch factories in India and car manufacturers with plants in India,” says Chandrasekar.

Talking further about the product, Srinivasulu Nasam, Cloud & IoT CoE Head and Technology Consultant for Enterprise Applications at RBEI, says, “Trac360 uses a breadth of technologies to continually track parts, reusable bins & pallets, and documentation. It offers a one-stop portal that integrates multiple sources of supply chain and business intelligence, improving planning and warehouse productivity. It automates warehouse operations using numerous technologies, along with IoT sensors to condition-monitor goods and vehicles. Smart contracts simplify the financial transactions built on certain conditions between the entities. Trac360 produces a real-time “digital travel diary” of shipments, freight carriers, and other details. The end-to-end Connected Supply Chain proposed by Bosch Trac360 bestows a suite of technology solutions to regulate container management, product traceability, assisted user experience, transparency, condition monitoring, fleet management, real-time tracking, and many more.”

Rapidly evolving technologies have kept supply chain companies on their toes to single out measures to correspond with new-fangled innovations. They have had to upgrade themselves to be more competent, faster, explicit and excessively granular as nascent technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, IoT and Blockchain have made these things intelligible and possible. These provisions help oversee the pattern in which they intend to distribute the deliverables on time and to the right place in order to meet the ever-changing customer demands and expectations. With supply chain service providers readily accepting and acting in response to the variations and changing times, sustained profitability seems to be quite inevitable.

On the other hand, manufacturing organizations who are firm about contributing to the digital supply chain can definitely think up an alternative, which can be termed as Connected Supply Chain. This will for sure make the supply chain more opportunity-driven and cost-centric. Trac360 provides comprehensive visibility across the supply chain, increases warehouse and process productivity, while integrating with IoT, Blockchain, and enterprise systems. “Furnished with cutting-edge technologies, Bosch Trac360 is moulding the future of manufacturing. The quest of meeting the constantly changing technologies and industry needs will keep organizations positive about adopting the Connected Supply Chain which will in due course make room for a digitized supply chain process that will help manufacturers address every supply chain challenge,” adds Raghuram Joshi, General Manager & Practice Head, Technologies for Connected at RBEI.