Fanuc – new UK set-up

Japan's CNC, robot and robomachine maker Fanuc joined with America's programmable logic control (PLC) and factory automation company, GE, in 1986. The tie-up between the two had as its main aim driving European and Americas CNC growth, with two organisations established; one in North America – GE Fanuc Automation Corporation -the other in Luxembourg – GE Fanuc Automation Europe SA. A third organisation, GE Fanuc Automation Asia, was also established, but this was only concerned with PLC and related GE factory automation products: Fanuc was responsible for driving the CNC business in Asia. Now the two are separate again. CHANGING TIMES Today, fundamentally, both markets and technology have moved on, says the company, and Luxembourg-based marketing, communications and public relations manager Ingo Kaiser expands on this. "A joint venture is always a temporary solution, otherwise you would build a separate company. Over the years, the two companies had goals and these have been reached. In addition, the market demands have changed and both partners questioned the advantages of continuing the joint venture. Now the two are free to focus and develop their two areas of expertise." As regards CNC product development, there is no effect, because this was always centred in Japan, it is added. "Fanuc has over 600 engineers dedicated to development of products. But market feedback and requirements, from Europe or America, for example, are used to direct development in Japan," Mr Kaiser explains. Fanuc is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of CNCs for machine tools. It has an installed base of over 2.2 million CNCs, more than 30,000 installed in the UK. Currently producing CNCs at the rate of 14,000/month, the company has, following a new factory development, capacity to make up to 30,000/month, with the output potential for motors put at 100,000/month. Factory automation products, which include CNCs and motors, are responsible for almost 58 per cent of Fanuc's ¥388.3 billion revenue (£2.8 billion), according to its last annual report to 31 March, 2009. Robots made up 27 per cent and Robomachines (Robodrill, wire-cut EDM, moulding, Robonano nano-machining unit) the rest. Altogether, Fanuc's export revenues are almost 69 per cent of the total. Moving on to the UK business set-up, there have, since the coming together of Fanuc and GE, been two organisations concerned with Fanuc CNCs, most recently Fanuc GE CNC of Northampton and Fanuc Service of Ruislip, Middx. In isolation of the CNC business, there is Fanuc Robotics, Coventry (024 7663 9669), while the supply of Robomachines (Robodrill and wire-cut EDM) is through the 600 Group, Heckmondwike, West Yorks (01924 415 000). Andrew Myhill, managing director of new company, Fanuc CNC UK (01895 634182) and single point of contact for UK customers, explains the difference that previously existed. Andrew Myhill, managing director of Fanuc CNC UK "Fanuc Service was responsible for servicing non-European/non-American machine tools – so Asian machine tools, primarily. It provided the warranty support and then servicing of Fanuc CNCs on those machine tools, working with the machine tool dealers. We were not authorised to sell complete CNC systems, only to offer spare parts. "Fanuc GE CNC was the company selling CNC systems to UK machine tool builders and retrofitters, and so had a sales, applications and service set-up. There was a clear separation between the two, although, latterly, there was some cross-over, with both companies offering service on any machine tool." END OF CONFUSION It could appear to have been confused, admits Mr Myhill. "End users may have American, European and Asian machine tools in their factories, all with Fanuc controls fitted. If they had a problem on the Asian machine, they would have had to call Fanuc Service, and, for the others, Fanuc GE CNC. But now they have a single point of contact." In terms of CNC sales, applications and retrofit support (retrofits are undertaken by third party companies, trained by Fanuc), the same services operate. But, on the machine tool service side, the effect has been to create a single, larger group, supporting all Fanuc CNCs on machines of any origin. So, there is now a team of 12 – a 50 per cent increase, if you were a Fanuc Service customer; 200 per cent, if you were a Fanuc GE CNC customer. The benefits are an expanded geographical network, offering the potential for faster service, plus additional know-how in a single team and optimised service; the latter meaning that engineers with specific skills/knowledge can be directed to situations requiring them, offering the potential for a faster fix for the end user. That said, it is emphasised that Fanuc's first-time fix rate is already 90 per cent-plus and Mr Myhill underlines that Fanuc engineers are continually trained, with all personnel typically undergoing two training periods in a year, sometimes in Japan. Indeed, it is part of every engineer's annual appraisal to identify areas of training for the next year, he highlights. When problems do arise, telephone conversations with skilled Fanuc personnel identify the likely parts required, with these despatched from Fanuc's spares facility in the UK, direct to site, ready for the engineer when he arrives the following day. Acknowledging that there are alternative supplies for Fanuc spares, with this a particular issue in the UK, Mr Myhill underlines that only Fanuc offers genuine Fanuc parts with 12 months' warranty, and that any serviced parts will have gone through the same full tests in Japan or Luxembourg as do new parts – and there are no authorised or official third-party repairers, it is stressed. "In the long term, the cheapest part may not be the cheapest, if it fails early or is the cause of damage. Similarly with service: our engineers are fully and continually trained, and we have a high first-time fix rate. Third-party company engineers cannot be as well trained in Fanuc products and multiple visits to fix a problem are not unknown." Fanuc CNCs – the most widely seen machine tool controls worldwide A future target for the new single Fanuc organisation is increasing the number of maintenance contracts (Fanuc units have an initial two-year warranty, incidentally), although Mr Myhill points out that this will not be in conflict with its continued close working with machine tool suppliers in supporting their customers. Fanuc has over 500 UK customers signed up to maintenance contracts. Energy management is one of the recent developments for Fanuc CNCs Click here for additional image First published in Machinery, June 2010