An exclusive interview with Mr. Vijay Ratnaparkhe, MD & President, RBEI, India
“To strengthen our global competitiveness we need to increase our innovation, research and development capabilities. At RBEI, we have a three-fold strategy. Firstly, we are looking at developing competence or domain expertise such that we take on more responsibilities for the projects we do out of India, so that we can deliver more. Secondly, we are creating innovative solutions for Bosch, so that we come up with non-linear growth. Lastly, we are looking at a world beyond Bosch for service in our non-core areas. These are the three pillars, which, we hope shall take us towards 2020”, says Mr. Vijay Ratnaparkhe, MD & President, Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solutions (RBEI), India, in an exclusive interview to MOTORINDIA.
RBEI is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, one of the world’s leading global supplier of technology and services, offering end to end engineering, IT and business solutions. With over 12,500 associates, RBEI is the largest software development centre of Bosch outside Germany. The company has a global footprint with its presence in the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It has seven hi-tech facilities spread across Bangalore and Coimbatore in India and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
The company owns responsibility in the powertrain domain for the whole BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) region and for certain classes of automotives on a global level, like the low price vehicles sector. An example of the specialised infrastructure the company set up to facilitate work is the automotive systems laboratory in Bangalore, which is a state-of-the-art facility for studying live engine and vehicle systems. This laboratory allows engineers and researchers to study the modern running-mechanism in live engine and vehicle systems by providing hands-on experience with engine management systems, clutch and brake systems, exhaust systems, etc., along with the sensors and actuators.
Mr. Ratnaparkhe has disclosed that RBEI has developed embedded software for electrical control units (ECUs), tools and diagnostics. It handles complete ECU projects, including hardware, software and system development. The company also offers integrated system solutions in the areas of manufacturing automation and PLC engineering support. The company’s configuration software and smart phone apps development are the latest addition to its service portfolio.
According to him, in any new generation vehicle, the present trend is such that its software component is increasing to 15 per cent of the vehicle and its hardware is becoming standardised and commoditised. The company strategy going forward is to meet the changing demands of customers and the market.