Robert Bosch’s first product, circa 1887, was a low voltage magneto for petrol engines. It was only in 1927 that Bosch launched its bread and butter product – injection pumps for diesel engines. Contemporary engines use a technology called Common Rail Diesel Injection. In the older design of fuel pumps a mini engine of sorts would have pistons pumping up the fuel for injecting into the cylinder.
A common rail direct injection (CRDI) system uses a high-pressure fuel rail to deliver fuel. The system stores fuel in a high-pressure rail, which is connected to the engine’s fuel injectors by pipes. The fuel pump controls the pressure in the rail. The injectors spray the fuel directly into the cylinders. CRDI systems help improve combustion efficiency and power, while simultaneously reducing emissions. These systems were first introduced in cars – and are now being put in trucks and buses. Tractor and off-road segment vehicles are expected to adopt them in the current years – ensuring that Bosch continues to rule the roost in diesels.
Manufacturing a fuel injector requires precision machining. A typical Bosch factory has Spark erosion, electrochemical surface treatment and specialised coating machines. Pravin has been a lifer at Bosch Gmbh. Here is an excerpt from his LinkedIn profile:
As Plant Quality head for Bosch Nasik plant he is responsible for Quality management and methods since Jan 2020. He is responsible for driving continuous improvement for achieving Zero defect strategy of Bosch Nasik Plant. Prior to this assignment, He was Project leader for the change Initiative Industry 4.0 and responsible for IT and Innovation in manufacturing at Bosch limited located at Bangalore Bosch corporate office. As a project leader for the Project Industry 4.0 at Bosch, he was responsible for implementing this project across all Business units and across 16 manufacturing Bosch plants in India.
He has worked in Bosch Bamberg in Germany for 3 years. He worked in Simultaneous Engineering team and contributed significantly with Transfer projects from across globe to Bosch India. Before taking over the responsibility of the project Industry 4.0 , he was one of the key member in developing and implementing Bosch manufacturing strategy for common rail Injector manufacturing with machines manufactured in India which are automated with Robots or Gantry.
Before Pravin shared Bosch’s philosophy of quality, he wanted to know the audience’s definition of quality:
- Better than what the customer requires
- Meeting Performance parameters
- Continuous improvement
- Build as per design specs
- Good resale value of your product
Robert Bosch, the founder, operated on a philosophy that it is better to lose money than losing customer trust. So for Bosch, a components manufacturer, one of the key metrics is the OEM – aka customer success. So even if it is bad fuel that is causing problems – it is as much a problem for Bosch as it is for Mahindra. Incidentally, the current ethanol blending can create problems for older engines. Apart from lowering fuel efficiency – ethanol has lower calorific value than petrol or diesel – another challenge is that ethanol can corrode plastic and rubber components in the engine and injector.
On the subject of fuels, we did some crystal ball gazing. Pravin believes that the immediate future will be ruled by gases – CNG, Hydrogen. Bosch will be happy to see Hydrogen ICE engines instead of fuel cells – because that would mean that engineering challenges in ignition will continue to exist. Irrespective of energy generation, transportation and storage is an even bigger challenge in hydrogen’s case. The jury seems tilted in favour of ammonia for that. But well, that deserves a separate blog, so I stop here.
Injector holes can have diameters as low as 80 microns, so it is important that the assembly be done in clean rooms. Even dust of diameter 3-4 microns can impact performance. Water in fuel can cause rusting – and can affect performance. Pravin takes cleanliness and 5S very seriously – and has invited counterparts from international Bosch plants to understand what needs to be done to achieve fab level cleanliness in the Nashik plant. Incidentally, Pravin has been a regular winner of the copymaster award at Bosch – which honours folks who flatter by imitating.
Bosch’s injectors have a failure rate of less than 2 parts per million (ppm). Small numbers tend to lull the manufacturing team into complacency – so Bosch is mulling over changing metrics from ppm to ppb – parts per billion. Pravin went on to talk about 14 quality basics. You can find details here:
Of the 14, here are a few I find that manufacturing organisations tend to neglect:
- Instructions: Prioritise the 2-3 instructions that are important at a station – and ensure that the operator is reminded about those through big font text, in a language that she understands.
- Left over parts. If design, process or material has changed, there should be a clearly outlined storage area or scrapping policy.
- If any part drops to the floor, it needs to be scrapped.
- When there is a breakdown or a bio break, and operators restart a process, they need to follow a SOP.
- Test equipment calibration is not done at the frequency it should be done. Checking the checker is a practice that needs to be done regularly. As more of inspection moves to visual based systems, Pravin is busy devising tools that can check these systems too.
Pravin mentioned Mahesh Hegde, who runs https://learnexconsulting.com/ , as a good resource person for training on human error prevention. Mahesh works on getting simple habits to form – which can help reduce chances of error. For instance, car drivers often open the door without looking at people approaching from behind. If they open the door with the left hand, then they will be forced to look back – thereby ensuring that they glance at who is coming in from behind.
One interesting discussion that happened was on the role of data in manufacturing. Almost all machine tools are fitted with sensors nowadays. What if sensors and actuators could talk to each other and set themselves in auto-correct mode. Tool readjustment done based on tool wear measurement. Millions of data points can also help identify ways of reducing power consumption and improving finish quality. Real machine learning! As of now, Bosch wants humans to be decision makers, with tools being supplied by data analytics.
We concluded with an enquiry into the correlation between legacy and quality. Any company that has survived 50, 100 or 150 years could have only done that if they have been consistent in delivering quality. This can happen only if core values are transferred from the generation that started to subsequent generations that run the company. Like the Tatas, Bosch is 94% owned by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, a charitable institution. Bosch was one of the first companies to start an apprenticeship scheme to train young folks in the Bosch way.
And still there are lapses that do happen. In 2006, Volkswagen executives asked Bosch for help in developing software for their emission defeat devices. Volkswagen is one of Bosch’s biggest customers. Volkswagen engineers provided detailed specifications to Bosch, which wrote the necessary code. Bosch was apparently concerned about the legality of the software and asked Volkswagen to assume responsibility if the fraud was discovered, but Volkswagen refused. Bosch, unwilling to antagonize its key customers, complied – and ended up paying half a billion dollars in penalties for its role in DieselGate.
Mukesh K ended with a rapid fire round for Pravin:
- Top 3 priority areas: Customer journey, data driven quality, and remaining product / correct part focus in 14 Q Basics.
- Biggest challenge faced: Bosch was developing a CRDI injector system for Tata Cummins. Even with Bosch’s experience of having supplied 50 m injectors, complacency caused delays in developing new competencies that were required for this new tech.
- Most satisfying achievement: The implementation of robotics and automation in Nasik plant, during his stint in production middle management in Nasik plant. A lot of senior management was not convinced about why the investments in automation need to be made in a country with relatively lower labour cost.
- An incident that changed his perspectives on life: Most of us know Pravin as a calm and composed guy. But it was not always that way. Circa 1996, Pravin was driving his brother’s Maruti 800. A scooterist banged the car from behind. Pravin lost his temper, and beat up the scooterist. Later on, he asked the scooterist about why he was in such a hurry. The reply was that our friend’s brother had been involved in an accident and had just been hospitalised. So the hurry was to get to hospital. Pravin, who till then had been quite aggressive in his personal and professional life, changed to a new mantra of collaboration.