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News and Press Information
Company News
[2/10/10]
Driving improvements: Drive and control giant’s pneumatics division powers customer service to new levels
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Global drive and control giant Bosch Rexroth’s Pneumatics Division is taking the lead in the marketplace with new innovations and initiatives both globally and in Canada that are driving customer service to new heights.
That service is critically important for Bosch Rexroth Canada’s customers, who, in today’s economy, need every edge they can get to stay competitive. The new initiatives allow them to receive Rexroth’s superior pneumatics products in as little as one day.
The fast, responsive and high-quality service is what customers have come to expect from the company, which has been known for its innovation, using constantly-developed knowledge and industrial experience that dates back more than 200 years.
Today, the Rexroth Division of the Bosch Group has more than 67 manufacturing and customizing locations in 25 countries and company-owned sales and service locations in 39 countries, including its Canadian subsidiary, Bosch Rexroth Canada, headquartered in Welland, Ont. With annual revenues of more than €45 billion (approx. $71 billion Canadian), the company is at the forefront of innovation with regards to hydraulics, pneumatics, electric drives, controls, and linear motion and assembly technologies.
State-of-the-art distribution drives up customer satisfaction
Chief among Rexroth’s Pneumatics Division improvements is the brand-new, state-of-the-art distribution center in Hannover, Germany. The distribution center warehouses virtually all of the company’s pneumatic products before they are shipped to customers and locations worldwide, and is an automated marvel.
“The entire distribution warehouse is fully automated inside,” says Cord Neemeyer, Sales Development Manager Americas. “There are barely any employees working inside it. There is no manpower inside the actual warehouse itself; the only humans are in packing, shipping and receiving.”
The distribution center uses the latest in automated technology, and has approximately 44,000 bin locations and 2,500 pallet locations. When a truck arrives at the dock delivering finished products from a Rexroth plant, receivers unload the trucks and sort items into the bins. That’s when the human touch ends, as the automated system has conveyors that carry the bins and put them away in their proper locations.
When it comes time to pick items, the automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) find the parts and bring them directly to the picker. This virtually eliminates any picker travel time and the picking errors commonly associated with manual distribution.
These new efficiencies are then passed directly along to Rexroth customers, particularly in the form of reduced lead time. Customers who place an order before 2 p.m. in Germany can be assured their products will be picked and shipped that day.
The state-of-the-art Hannover DC isn’t the only area where Rexroth has invested in its customers either. Bosch Rexroth AG invested €16 million to expand and modernize the production of pneumatic system components in its plant in Eger, Hungary.
The new factory layout and operating sequences in Eger was designed in accordance with the Bosch Production System, a unified lean manufacturing concept for setting up production processes. The Bosch Production System is orientated towards the overall process, with the main focus on customer satisfaction. Production units following the Bosch Production System achieve first-class results with respect to quality, productivity and lead times.
Canadian initiatives equal faster turnaround
The changes Rexroth has made to its Pneumatics Division overseas aren’t the only ones that are benefitting Canadian customers. As part of its drive to success, the company’s Canadian division, Bosch Rexroth Canada, recently launched its own new initiative designed to get pneumatic parts to customers in as little as one day.
The company introduced a new Pneumatics Core Products catalogue, a 39-page publication that showcases the company’s most popular pneumatics items all in one place.
“The whole idea was to make it as easy as possible for customers to find and order the pneumatics products they need,” says Brian Rundle, product manager pneumatics with Bosch Rexroth Canada.
The publication lets Bosch Rexroth Canada promise customers they can have any product in the catalogue in one day, a boon for Canadian manufacturers who can’t afford downtime in a tight economy.
In addition to the new catalogue, Bosch Rexroth Canada is also consolidating its entire pneumatics inventory to its Welland, Ont. distribution center. The Welland facility is another state-of-the art warehouse, which features new lean lifts that improve productivity and reduce errors.
The 24,500 sq. ft. facility incorporates almost 1,700 bulk storage pallet positions and more than 200 feet of material conveyors. The separate shipping and receiving areas make the facility ideally suited for lean process flow and dispatch for loading the full range of trucks that enter the complex. The building replaces a series of storage locations on the campus providing a secure, more efficient, temperature and humidity controlled environment for Rexroth products.
Customer order picking for small components is facilitated through five dual-access and fully integrated Hanel Lean-Lift vertical storage carousels which house more than 30,000 SKUs. The unique installation provides seven feet of underground storage and 24 feet above ground storage for a wide range of hydraulic components and spare parts.
To speed-up customer deliveries, a separate inventory conversion area handles basic conversions for product not requiring a more sophisticated assembly and test facility. The area is equipped with a one tonne, two speed floor-mounted crane that makes light work of ever increasing logistic demands.
The end result of these changes is that Rexroth has bolstered its already strong product offering with the fastest lead times available in today’s marketplace and raised the bar to a new level for customer satisfaction.
Bosch Rexroth Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth AG, one of the world’s leading specialists in the field of drive and control technologies. Under the brand name of Rexroth the company supplies more than 500,000 customers with tailored solutions for driving, controlling and moving machinery used in industrial and factory automation as well as in mobile applications. Bosch Rexroth is a partner for industrial applications and factory automation, mobile applications and using renewable energies. As The Drive & Control Company, Bosch Rexroth develops, produces and sells components and systems in more than 80 countries. In 2008 Bosch Rexroth AG, part of the Bosch Group, achieved sales of around 5.9 billion Euro with 35,300 employees.
For more information please visit: www.boschrexroth.ca
Company Information:
Bosch Rexroth Canada
Ontario, CANADA
www.boschrexroth.ca
info@boschrexroth.ca
(Magazine Note) Please send any Bosch Rexroth reader inquiries to:
Karen Park
Bosch Rexroth Canada
3426 Mainway Drive
Burlington, ON
Canada L7M 1A8
Telephone (905) 335-5511 x332
Fax (905) 335 4184
karen.park@boschrexroth.ca
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