Manuela Kessler15.02.2023Lohr am Main / Germany | PI 002/23
Open and modular training system for new and modernized career profiles
With the Automax 600, Bosch Rexroth has developed a training system for both initial and further education, which brings abstract digitalization content to life and shows students the direct results of their work in a practical manufacturing context. (Image source: Bosch Rexroth AG)
The ability of manufacturing companies to compete in today’s market is dictated by the speed at which they can successfully complete the digital transformation. In many cases, however, there is a distinct lack of skilled workers for this very job. That is why we are currently witnessing the appearance of new career profiles such as management assistants for digitalization management, accompanied by the modernization of established profiles such as mechatronics engineers or IT specialists. With the Automax 600, Bosch Rexroth has developed a training system for initial and further education in these disciplines. It brings abstract digitalization content to life and shows the direct results of the students’ work in a practical manufacturing context.
In developing its new training system for initial and further education, Bosch Rexroth harnessed the practical experience gathered in Bosch plants all across the globe. Entire processes have been successfully digitalized in these plants for many years now. The training system provides open interfaces and programming environments, ranging from the field level to IT systems, and promotes interdisciplinary work encompassing computer science, automation and intralogistics. A wide range of exercises allows students to grain first-hand experience of the practical relationships between productivity, quality and flexibility in production.
Modular and expandable
The Automax 600 training system consists of individual modular stations, which thematize a digitalized manufacturing process encompassing everything from initial removal from a magazine to processing with a press and storage in a high-bay warehouse. The system can also be supplemented with optional extras, such as a manual workstation, a 7-axis cobot and an autonomous transport system for loading and unloading the line.
The exercises cover the entire value stream. The coordinated movements of the modules and the visualization of data and user interfaces are programmed by the students using different controls.
From the field level to the cloud
The training system is based on an open platform and simplifies the connection to various higher-level IT systems, ranging from production planning and control to cloud applications such as data analysis and AI-based machine learning. The open nature of the system makes it compatible with software expansions such as ERP and MES, thus allowing learning content from commercial IT or production management to be integrated.
In the practical exercises, which are based on the German core curriculums for new and modernized professions, the training system covers important topics of the future, including IT competence, data management, digitalization and connectivity.
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of drive and control technologies, Bosch Rexroth ensures efficient, powerful and safe movement in machines and systems of any size. The company bundles global application experience in the market segments of Mobile Applications, Machinery Applications and Engineering, and Factory Automation. With its intelligent components, customized system solutions and services, Bosch Rexroth is creating the necessary environment for fully connected applications. Bosch Rexroth offers its customers hydraulics, electric drive and control technology, gear technology and linear motion and assembly technology, including software and interfaces to the Internet of Things. With locations in over 80 countries, more than 31,000 associates generated sales revenue of around 6.2 billion euros in 2021.
Basic Information Bosch
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 402,600 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2021). The company generated sales of 78.7 billion euros in 2021. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in some 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. With its more than 400 locations worldwide, the Bosch Group has been carbon neutral since the first quarter of 2020. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 128 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 76,100 associates in research and development, of which more than 38,000 are software engineers.
