The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 402,000
associates worldwide. The company generated sales of 78.1 billion euros in 2017. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT company, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, smart cities, connected mobility, and connected manufacturing. 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 create solutions for a connected life. 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 subsidiaries and regional companies in 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network cover nearly every country in the world. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 125 locations across the globe, Bosch employs roughly 64,500 associates in research and development. The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861–1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.”
The history of the company started in a backyard in Stuttgart-West on 15 November 1886. One year later, Bosch presented the first low voltage magneto for gas engines. Twenty years later, the first magneto for automobiles followed.
The first factory was opened by Bosch in Stuttgart in 1901. In 1906, the company produced its 100,000-th magneto. In the same year, Bosch introduced the 8-hours day for workers. In 1910, the Feuerbach plant was founded and built close to Stuttgart. In this factory, Bosch started to produce headlights in 1913. In 1917, Bosch was transformed into a corporation.
In 1926, Bosch started to produce windscreen wipers, and in 1927, injection pumps for diesel. Bosch bought the gas appliances production from Junkers & Co. in 1932. In the same year, the company developed its first power drill and presented its first car radio.
In 1937, Bosch was transformed into a limited liability company.
Bosch’s subsidiary, Dreilinden Maschinenbau GmbH (DLMG) was an arms manufacturer in Kleinmachnow. This subsidiary employed forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp detainees. There are two books published by Angela Martin and Hanna Sjöberg that report about Bosch’s use of slave labor. Since 2006, there is a commemoration in the former forced labor camp. On 12 March 1942, the company’s founder, Robert Bosch, died at the age of 80.
After the Second World War, Bosch established a partnership with the Japanese company Denso.
In 1964, the Robert Bosch Stiftung was founded. Bosch founded a new development center in Schwieberdingen in 1968, and headquarters moved to Gerlingen in 1970.
In 1981, the company participated on an equity basis in the Telefonbau & Normalzeit GmbH that was renamed Telenorma in 1985, and acquired completely in 1987. In 1994, this part of the company was renamed as Bosch Telecom GmbH.
The most relevant inventions of the company until 2000 were the oxygen sensor (1976), the electric motor control (1979), the traction control system (1986), the xenon light for cars (1991), the electronic stability control (1995), the common rail direct fuel injection (1997), and the direct fuel injection (2000).
In 2000, Bosch sold the Private Networks area. In 2001, Bosch acquired the Mannesmann Rexroth AG, which they later renamed to Bosch Rexroth AG. In the same year, the company opened a new testing center in Vaitoudden close to Arjeplog in north Sweden. A new developing center in Abstatt, Germany followed in 2004.
Important inventions in these years were the electric hydraulic brake in 2001, the common rail fuel injection with piezo-injectors, the digital car radio with a disc drive, and the cordless screwdriver with a lithium-ion battery in 2003.
Bosch received the (German Future Prize) from the German president in 2005 and 2008. A new development center was planned in 2008 in Renningen. In 2014, the first departments moved to the new center, while the remaining departments followed in 2015.
In 2006, Bosch acquired Telex Communications and Electro-Voice.
In 2009, Bosch invested about 3.6 billion Euro in development and research. Approximately 3900 patents are published per year. In addition to increasing energy efficiency by employing renewable energies, the company plans to invest into new areas such as biomedical engineering.
China has developed into an important market and manufacturing base for Bosch. In 2012, Bosch had 34,000 employees and a revenue of 41.7 billion Yuan (about 5 billion Euro) in China.
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