Bosch has said it wants to increase sales of industrial technology by around 40 percent over the next five years, to top €10 billion by 2028. It said rising interest in environmental sustainability will drive revenues, with sales of so-called ‘green tech’ solutions reaching more than €1 billion in 2022. The firm, among the throng of industrial vendors at Hannover Messe this week, said it expects to post “double-digit” annual growth for Industry 4.0 and factory automation solutions.
The two disciplines, both under the industrial-tech banner, are grouped separately as “strategic business units” within Bosch; they will drive the “ecological transformation of all sectors of the economy”, it said. It may be notable, or not, but Bosch has made no formal mention of industrial 5G, nor specifically of AI or IoT (or ‘AIoT’), at this year’s Hannover Messe event; it has put a major focus on 5G in previous years, and remains an influential presence with industrial cellular lobbying groups.
The firm said it will invest more than €3 billion in industrial technology across 2022 and 2023, to also drive inorganic growth. Its recent acquisition, in February, of US hydraulics company HydraForce, including all 2,100 staff, makes industrial technology its biggest M&A focus. HydraForce is to be integrated with its Bosch Rexroth business, to expand its position in hydraulics for excavators, cranes, tractors, and factory machinery.
Bosch is tasting its own Industry 4.0 medicine, it noted, with 240 of its plants making savings and raising intelligence through the use of its own industrial tech solutions, as well as solutions from others. It claims it is saving €500 million per year because of more efficient factory operations. By turn, it claims to be saving its customers €1 billion per year by selling them “environmental technology for industry”; this is a rise of 25 percent compared with 2021, it said.
The nominal billion-euro mark had been the target for 2022. “In other words, Bosch reached its sales target for 2023 one year earlier than planned,” it stated. The firm said it is developing Industry 4.0 solutions to “conserve resources, reduce energy consumption, protect the environment, and mitigate global warming”. At Hannover Messe, it is variously showing solutions for energy-efficient hydraulics, electrified mobile machinery, and stationary fuel cells.
Bosch Rexroth is also showcasing lightweight collaborative robots (cobots) that can reach around corners in seven axes to help load, palletize, and inspect workpieces. It commented: “Megatrends such as digitalization, an aging society, and efforts toward greater sustainability are driving the demand for automation. Factory automation is a strategic business area… in which we aim to achieve double-digit growth every year – and grow the market,”
