50% efficiency gain in spare parts management

Bosch’s initial situation: Challenges in MRO management

Improving MRO spare parts management is a multi-million ROI opportunity for manufacturing companies. Bosch, the global leader in engineering and technology, was facing significant challenges in MRO management, more specifically in terms of high spare part inventories, procurement costs, and manual effort in data management.

The process of checking new spare parts lists against the existing material master was highly manual, leading to a high error rate and considerable time expenditure. This was especially challenging given their extensive inventory and the large number of unique material numbers for spare and wear parts. Additionally, the quality of spare parts master data varied significantly from plant to plant, often missing crucial information such as manufacturer details, part numbers, and type codes.

This fragmented approach not only hampered operational efficiency but also led to increased costs due to duplicates and stock-keeping. Moreover, excess stock keeping remained hidden in the Bosch material master, increasing machine downtime risk and procurement costs.

The solution: Introduction of SPARETECH's MRO software

To address these challenges and reduce costs and unnecessary stock, Bosch partnered with SPARETECH in 2020. Key use cases were identified and implemented at the Bosch plant in Blaichach, Germany, and then expanded to 8 more plants across the country (Bamberg, Eisenach, Feuerbach, Ansbach, Schwäbisch Gmünd, and Bühl), where SPARETECH's MRO software made a significant impact.

"Through our collaborative approach, we at SPARETECH ensure that solutions are tailored to Bosch's specific needs and seamlessly integrated into their existing systems. Our collaboration has helped the maintenance team at Bosch Blaichach enhance efficiency in MRO spare parts management through our trusted MRO software and Bosch’s pioneering spirit."

Benedikt Weiss
Senior Customer Success Manager | SPARETECH

SPARETECH helped Bosch to reach set targets:

• Cost savings: Achieve significant reductions in inventory, procurement, and downtime costs
• Efficiency improvements: Minimize manual work through data optimization and automated solutions
• Inventory reduction: Create a reliable database, which is the basis for the availability platform and pooling concepts
• Digital enablement: Make spare parts data usable and create the basis for success when implementing modern ERP systems

Several features of the SPARETECH app are used at Bosch on a daily basis:

Spare parts list check

SPARETECH's automated BOM Check solution enables Bosch to efficiently check their spare parts lists against their local material master, other plants’ material master, and the leading numbers. By analyzing over 40,000 spare part list positions, Bosch was able to understand that 25% of all new spare parts already existed in their inventory, leading to significant reductions in procurement cost.

This feature also verifies BOM positions for End-of-Life (EoL) status and facilitates the creation of materials with pre-filled product information. The system then imports these new materials into the ERP system, streamlining the process.

Global spare parts search

The usage of SPARETECH’s innovative free text search for MRO, comparable to the ease of searching in Google, has boosted Bosch's spare parts search capabilities. This feature includes filters for more precise results and allows for cross-plant searches, making it easier to find spare parts across all Bosch facilities. Additionally, the system provides access to SPARETECH’s database of over 25 million products with original manufacturer data and helps identify additional suppliers.

Global duplicate reduction

SPARETECH's solution employs advanced machine learning to detect hidden duplicates within Bosch's inventory. This powerful tool identifies duplicates within a single plant (using local material numbers) and across several plants (using leading material numbers). This comprehensive approach significantly reduces redundancy and optimizes inventory management.

SPARETECH Data Lifecycle Management

This feature enriches Bosch's existing data with original manufacturer information and potential suppliers from SPARETECH's extensive database. It enhances data quality by adding crucial details such as article numbers, type codes, technical specifications, EAN codes, and e-Class information. Furthermore, it provides data structuring capabilities, ensuring a more organized and efficient data management system.

End-of-Life information

SPARETECH's solution proactively detects spare parts discontinuations, a critical feature for maintaining operational efficiency. It provides official successor information for spare parts and checks whether the successor product already exists in the material master of the Bosch plants. This forward-looking approach helps Bosch stay ahead of potential supply chain disruptions and ensures smooth transitions when parts become obsolete.

Results: Spare parts management like a Bosch

“Through our collaboration with SPARETECH, we've significantly reduced spare parts inventory, procurement costs, and manual effort, while improving the quality of our master data. By integrating SPARETECH as a standard process for checking spare parts lists for new machines and production lines at the Blaichach plant, we've realized 50% efficiency gains. This has been a game-changer for managing our high volume of new material numbers each year.”

Manuel Lehmann
Group Manager Spare Parts & Maintenance Processes | Bosch Blaichach

The implementation of SPARETECH's solutions has yielded impressive results for Bosch across several key areas:

Cost reduction

Bosch has seen substantial savings in procurement and inventory costs. These reductions have been achieved through automated spare parts list processing, more efficient search capabilities, better identification of duplicate parts, and proactive identification of end-of-life parts, enabling them to buy part successors at a lower cost.

Efficiency improvements

Bosch has achieved a 50% efficiency gain in spare parts list checking and searching through a significant reduction in manual effort.

This improved efficiency has enhanced material transparency in several ways, leading to additional benefits:

• Search accuracy has reached a 99% delivery fulfillment rate (finding the correct spare part in 99% of searches). This improvement saves Bosch employees 300+ hours annually in spare parts searches and enables more informed decision-making.
• A 75% improvement in duplicate detection for new parts, greatly contributing to inventory optimization and procurement reduction efforts.
• Higher OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and reduced MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) — the time from machine breakdown to restart.

Data quality enhancement

Data quality across the material master has significantly improved, setting a new global standard for excellence. Through analysis of over 150,000 material master positions with the SPARETECH app, Bosch has identified an average duplicate rate of 11% per plant (both within and across plants), leading to significant inventory cost reductions.

This enhanced data quality is supported by SPARETECH's industry-leading spare parts catalog and proprietary matching technology, which provides Bosch with access to over 25M original manufacturer data records adding transparency and accuracy to the material master.

The collaboration between Bosch and SPARETECH has transformed spare parts management across Bosch operations. By addressing key challenges in spare parts management with SPARETECH’s MRO software, Bosch has achieved substantial cost savings, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced data quality. The success of this collaboration demonstrates the significant impact of digitization in industrial spare parts management.