Bosch Rexroth: Aligning technology, processes, and architecture with strategic goals for continuous transformation success
Explore Bosch Rexroth’s journey with SAP
Global automation solutions provider Bosch Rexroth AG integrated SAP Signavio and LeanIX solutions to unleash the power of process data for decision-making. Now, with transparency across its business processes, application portfolio, and enterprise architecture, Bosch Rexroth can continuously plan and execute large-scale transformation projects, including a move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Industrial manufacturing | Lohr am Main, Germany | 32,100 employees |
source of business process truth for a staff-led transformation.
saved in process design approval time, down to a few seconds.
of new process designs approved automatically.
Lead Business Process Management Architect, Bosch Rexroth AG
Making use of the connection between processes and applications
Part of Robert Bosch Group, Bosch Rexroth AG is a leading global provider of automation solutions for industrial and mobile applications, including electric drives and controls, industrial hydraulics, linear technology, and pneumatics. Its innovative products and services enable customers to move everything that needs to be moved with ease and efficiency. With the company’s focus on digital innovation, sustainability, and its own people, Bosch Rexroth is committed to supporting automation in industries and helping to make the planet a better place.
Looking to maximize the value of process data for insights and decision-making, Bosch Rexroth needed to build a transformed and future-ready organization. This required careful planning, the right materials, and sophisticated tools. Markus Schüßler, lead business process management architect at Bosch Rexroth, explains, “Unleashing the power of process data meant migrating to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. This would be a complex migration because our processes have evolved over a long time, we operate a scattered ERP environment, and we’re a mature company with different needs around the world.”
Head of Landscape Management, Robert Bosch GmbH
Creating a culture of continuous business process transformation
Robert Bosch Group operated several instances of the SAP Signavio portfolio across the organization and was a longtime user of solutions from LeanIX, a company acquired by SAP. These enterprise architecture and business process management tools allowed Bosch Rexroth to crowdsource and verify data relating to its application portfolio and IT landscape. They also provided a visual representation of that information for stakeholders and business users to access and view.
When gearing up for its enterprise-wide business transformation on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Bosch Rexroth sought to adapt its use of these tools for the project’s process methodology. The company knew the project could create extensive disruption, as the change would impact its applications, processes, and operations throughout the company. So democratizing both business processes and enterprise architecture management for the right people across the organization would be key to the project’s success.
By integrating SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub and the SAP Signavio Process Governance solution with LeanIX solutions, the company can connect business processes and the application landscape. This creates an independent source of truth that is accessible to everyone across the organization, simplifying collaboration and underpinning transformation success. Marco Walter, head of landscape management at Robert Bosch GmbH, comments, “The central aspect of the integration with LeanIX solutions is how you utilize that data to inform process lifecycle management and application volume management.”
The company also benefited from the accelerated implementation service for SAP Signavio solutions to assist with the solution integration. Schüßler explains, “We used SAP Services and Support offerings last year for help connecting SAP Solution Manager. This kind of partnership and collaborative approach between the solution supplier and us as a customer helps us stay ahead.”
This close connection with SAP Services and Support also helps Robert Bosch Group keep a close eye on future needs. Schüßler continues, “I appreciate getting help with testing new models and features for SAP Signavio solutions and also getting feedback on our use cases.”
On the move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Schüßler adds, “Before we implement our processes in a new system, we can optimize them. Blueprints of process models created for the implementation, including specific IT requirements, are automated with SAP Signavio Process Governance and connected to SAP Solution Manager. With SAP Signavio, we have process governance workflows with dictionaries and connectors bringing all this together.”
Head of Landscape Management, Robert Bosch GmbH
Connecting the business and IT view
Thanks to the integration of SAP Signavio and LeanIX solutions to connect the business process view to the enterprise architecture view, Bosch Rexroth can capture the entirety of its business.
“From my point of view, when you think about application portfolio management and eliminating an application or investing in a new one, you need to consider which applications deliver bottom-line benefits,” comments Walter. “This is possible only if you know which processes are important for delivering this outcome. It’s a no-brainer to bring together the processes and the architecture world, as it makes no sense operating them in isolation.”
Walter continues, “We provided IT and business stakeholders, including application landscape managers and process owners, with accurate current-state information to help them make informed decisions. Using SAP Signavio Process Governance for our workflows means both business and IT teams get clarity, and it simplifies approving a process model for implementation.”
As the organization moves ahead with its planned transformation on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, the exchange of information between these systems will enable continuous visibility.
Lead Business Process Management Architect, Bosch Rexroth AG
Enabling holistic business process management in advanced ERP
With its continuous transformation mindset, Bosch Rexroth’s focus for the year ahead is making a proof of concept for process governance. And it hopes to adopt a holistic plan-do-check-act approach for measuring the conformance and performance of processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.
Walter explains, “The first step involves drawing up a methodology to capture process performance indicators, then identifying how to measure that. Next is getting the tool chain right so that we can measure and compare it to the ‘to-be’ model from SAP Signavio solutions. And with that comparison, we can then manage conformance checking and performance values. We plan to choose a big task to develop this methodology to implement it for the proof of concept. And with the lessons learned from that, we can then roll it out at scale when we’re running SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.”