Bosch: Pioneering Green Engineering with IoT

Bosch is a Fortune 100 company and one of the world’s largest suppliers of technology and services. It is an organization well aware of its social and environmental responsibility. For more than thirty years, Bosch has been developing corporate policies that protect people and the environment and reinforce the importance of sustainability. Bosch is a long-time user of Altium’s earlier design software, Protel99. As part of its continued efforts, Bosch decided to design its latest Rexroth Frequency Converter Fe series to be more economical and environmentally friendly.

Large corporations are increasingly under pressure to address environmental concerns while maintaining their business operations. The challenge lies in the perceived trade-off between corporate strategies and environmental responsibility. Many organizations struggle to see the opportunities in green engineering, while others are simply confused by the numerous principles and guidelines that can differ for each industry and organizational department. For instance, electronics engineers can influence the impact of their products by adhering to various design principles such as green engineering, sustainable design, green design, or design-for-environment. These principles share the same basic rules: make it smaller, more reliable, and consume less power. However, engineers must also consider product life cycle, reusability, and how to eliminate toxic chemicals before they can start touting themselves as ‘green engineers’.

Bosch, a Fortune 100 company and one of the world’s largest suppliers of technology and services, decided to design its latest Rexroth Frequency Converter Fe series to be more economical and environmentally friendly. To realize the environmental objectives, the engineers needed to reduce parts, size, and power consumption, while improving reliability and stability. Bosch upgraded to Altium Designer, a tool that provides a user-friendly interface and improved features for board design. The engineers could exploit Altium’s intelligent pin and part swapping capabilities, which simplifies board layout, reduces the numbers of layers used, and overall board size. Bosch also took advantage of Altium’s high-speed capabilities to carefully control track clearances, track lengths, and trace widths to safeguard against integrity issues. Using Altium Designer’s integrated database libraries, Bosch could link into its various ERP systems to Altium Designer, allowing it to easily oversee suppliers, factory, reseller, and even customer information, monitor resources, and manage waste with greater efficiency.

• The upgrade to Altium Designer brought immediate benefits for Bosch. The tool's user-friendly interface and improved features for board design allowed engineers to simplify board layout, reduce the numbers of layers used, and overall board size. This resulted in a more lean and green board design that requires fewer materials. Bosch was also able to carefully control track clearances, track lengths, and trace widths to safeguard against integrity issues. Furthermore, by linking Altium Designer’s integrated database libraries to its various ERP systems, Bosch could easily oversee suppliers, factory, reseller, and even customer information, monitor resources, and manage waste with greater efficiency. This not only improved their product design but also enhanced their operational efficiency and environmental responsibility.