Beyond Boundaries: How C.H. Robinson Elevates Bosch's Automotive Logistics—Globally

Bosch, renowned for its expertise in mobility, industrial technology, and building technology, is also a leading Tier-1 automotive supplier. In the fast-paced world of automotive supply chains, their commitment to delivering top-quality, reliable products was at odds with the overly complex supply chain—800+ European suppliers; 32 delivery locations; various Tax IDs; and eight business units, each with their own logistics process and requirements.

Container utilization and consolidation challenges

Looking to streamline their United States infrastructure, the company performed a holistic process review of their automotive supply chains and determined a need for greater end-to-end visibility to and utilization of their buyer’s consolidation program.

Historically, they’ve managed this program with their own people and transportation management system (TMS) technology. The study revealed the company’s existing container utilization was under 50% on average. This was heavily limiting their flexibility and impacted their logistics landed costs, creating an opportunity to lower the cost of goods sold.

Bosch seeks supply chain efficiency provider

Recognizing the need for a transformative solution, Bosch set out to find a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) provider capable of aggregating and optimizing their buyer’s consolidation optimization program from Europe to North America—the most challenging trade lane in their assessment.

Leaders at Bosch sought a provider with the infrastructure to support their initiatives today and into the future, one with extensive industry experience implementing similarly sophisticated programs, and the company also needed to offer a robust and flexible technology platform to meet their needs.

Strategic transformation with C.H. Robinson

Enter C.H. Robinson, a global logistics provider equipped with extensive supply chain experience and industry-leading technology. Using detailed shipment data from Bosch, C.H. Robinson initiated a comprehensive assessment of their current state and future goals. "The collaborative approach and innovative solutions proposed by C.H. Robinson were the right solutions for our needs," shared [PERSON A, TITLE,] Bosch, "they understood the importance of balancing logistics efficiency with flexibility in our growth journey better than other providers we considered."

Leveraging proprietary technology, Navisphere^®, C.H. Robinson delivered the end-to-end visibility Bosch needed—down to supplier and container-level details. Through this data-driven, root cause analysis, C.H. Robinson identified problematic suppliers and trade lanes, paving the way for multi-faceted solutions.

New strategy for consolidation center locations

As part of the solution development process, C.H. Robinson applied their supply chain consulting team to Bosch’s most challenging issues. Through this process, the company strategically nominated four European consolidation locations and four U.S. deconsolidation locations to improve Bosch’s optimization challenges.

This solution was developed based on Bosch’s existing pain points and shipment history, including shipment characteristics, cargo value, historic supplier performance, rate trends, carbon emissions, procurement factors, order cycles, inventory implications, warehousing overhead by market, and perhaps most importantly—both supplier and end customer locations.

Automated billing at the purchase order level

In addition to the proposed consolidation locations, C.H. Robinson also offered agile solutions at the purchase order (PO) level. Because any single consolidated container could have cargo from several of Bosch’s business units within it, C.H. Robinson proposed an automated billing program that prorates invoices based on container utilization. This not only allows for more timely and compliant customs releases on all consolidated shipments, but also helps Bosch track their spend by business unit.

Collaboration success: Impact and achievements

Greater visibility to reduced costs

Armed with the analysis from C.H. Robinson, Bosch decided to focus their efforts on three main cost areas:

• Inventory costs
• Transportation cost per pound
• Carrying costs caused by increased transit time

By tracking container utilization and transit time as the primary key performance indicators (KPIs), Bosch can directly correlate these with savings per pound. Real-time dashboards, created by the data science team at C.H. Robinson, provide ongoing visibility into these and other KPIs.

Distribution model boosts service flexibility

The expansion to four consolidation centers in Europe reduced road freight costs and lowered the company’s carbon footprint—contributing to the company’s sustainability goals. In the United States, the distribution model decreased inventory costs and increased service flexibility. The program effectively decreased the cost of goods sold more rapidly than the market, resulting in an overall reduction in logistics spend.

Continuous improvement and growth opportunities continue

After the initial consolidation solutions were implemented, Bosch and C.H. Robinson worked on continuously improving their collaboration. This included a switch to double-floored containers with load bars, proposed, sourced, and implemented by C.H. Robinson, to allow for better cargo stackability.

"The strategic solutions from C.H. Robinson have not only optimized our consolidation program but have also helped us gain better control over our planning processes, enabling us to cut costs while remaining flexible," explained [PERSON B, TITLE,] Bosch, "We look forward to implementing more innovative solutions into our integrated supply chain with support from C.H. Robinson."

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