By 2016, the sales in e-commerce in Germany are going to grow to almost 30 billion euro. This is predicted by a study of the German Internet Business Federation. Fast ordering of books and clothing is already a daily occurrence; now the trend has reached the machinery industry. The fact that Bosch Rexroth AG already fulfills the logistic requirements for this is due to an ordering and delivery process developed by its regional subsidiary in the U.S.

When technical innovations are affected, the specialists at Bosch Rexroth in Germany contribute a large part of the development work; the worldwide regional subsidiaries then adjust new developments to their local customers' needs. In the development of a new distribution channel, things have run the other way at Bosch Rexroth: The U.S. regional subsidiary was first, and now the parent company can benefit from the user experience gained by the drive and control specialist with its innovative GoTo distribution program.

There, the company already began orienting its processes for standard products towards e-commerce in 2009. Currently, the digitalization of all information regarding approximately 4,200 GoTo products plays an essential role. Defined GoTo products are equipped with an RFID chip or a QR code. If a customer needs a spare part, he can retrieve all order information via smart phone or tablet PC and triggers the order, without having to search for further information.

“One distributor in the U.S. has calculated that he is saving 15 man days with GoTo for the selection and ordering of our products and has considerably reduced inventory," says Chairman of the Executive Board, Dr. Karl Tragl, in describing measurable advantages. These exceed the pure ordering process: Once the product has been delivered, machine manufacturers or end users retrieve all assembly and start-up information via the RFID chip or the QR code on the internet.

Since its implementation, GoTo has grown annually in the U.S. at high double-digit rates. Bosch Rexroth has already expanded the distribution model to Canada, Brazil, and Mexico and is currently implementing it in Europe.