OREANDA-NEWS. July 20, 2015. The Bosch Group has recognized its top suppliers with the “Bosch Global Supplier Award 2015.” This is the 14th time that Bosch has given out global supplier awards. This year, the supplier of technology and services honored 58 suppliers from eleven countries. By presenting this award, the company recognizes outstanding performance in the manufacture and supply of products or services – notably in the areas of quality, costs, logistics, and innovations. “The Bosch Global Supplier Award honors our top suppliers, who play such a key role in Bosch’s success,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management, at the award ceremony in Stuttgart. “Our suppliers are important partners in helping us shape the connected world. We want to work with them to develop beneficial solutions for our customers.” The theme of this year’s award ceremony was “Power of partnership – connected intelligence.” Bosch continues to believe that long-term partnerships and the early involvement of suppliers are the key to success.

Many repeat winners
Bosch works with some 35,000 suppliers worldwide, and this year the company has chosen to honor the top 58 with the award. Three suppliers are winners for at least the eleventh time, while seven companies have now won the award for at least the fifth time. Almost half the companies honored are headquartered outside Germany, and one-quarter of those are located in Asia. Dr. Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, deputy chairman of the Bosch board of management, used the award ceremony as a chance to express Bosch’s appreciation of its suppliers: “Our successful collaboration with our partners is an important factor in our business success. It plays a vital role in Bosch’s ability to compete and innovate.”

Long-term alliances – drivers of connected solutions
Web-enabled products and internet-based services form one of the cornerstones of Bosch’s future sales growth. Volkmar Denner is convinced that customer focus and customer benefit are crucial for success on the internet of things. This, he says, makes it all the more important to have competitive and connected supply chains. “Our goal is to achieve supply-chain excellence,” Denner says. Strong, long-term partnerships with suppliers are essential to that goal, and are also key drivers of networked solutions. “Trust, transparency, agility, quality, delivery capability, and competitive prices are at the core of our collaboration with our suppliers.”

Getting suppliers involved early
Bosch now wants to involve its suppliers even earlier in the product creation process, and to work with them to develop solutions for the connected world. “In this context, connectivity is by no means only a subject for Bosch. It encompasses the entire value-added chain,” Asenkerschbaumer said. “We will only remain competitive if we all systematically embrace further connectivity.” For this reason, Bosch recognizes particularly forward-looking projects with a supplier award in the “Innovations” category. This year, the winners were IMS Gear GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, and 4flow. Based in Berlin, 4flow received an award for its support in the development of a globally standardized transport management system. Bosch is using new processes and systems developed by 4flow to organize its worldwide road transport operations even more efficiently and economically.

Further internationalization of supplier base
In 2014, the Bosch Group’s purchasing volume came to some 25 billion euros. Europe still accounts for the lion’s share, at roughly 60 percent of the global purchasing volume. Outside Europe, procurement is centered on China, the U.S., and Japan. Procurement mainly involves production materials such as turned parts, electronic components, and pressed, drawn, bent, or plastic parts. It also includes commodities, operating equipment, services, and capital goods. In growth markets such as China, collaborating with local suppliers is key in assuring the continued growth of the Bosch Group.