FANUC opens UK headquarters

Robotic systems supplier FANUC opened a brand-new headquarters in Coventry yesterday (May 16).

Costing £19 million, the 10,000 m2 facility at Ansty Park provides FANUC the space to expand its range of robots, after doubling production over recent years.

FANUC’s new headquarters is four times larger than its former plant in Coventry, and brings all business aspects – design, research, manufacturing and sales - under one roof. After opening the centre, Tom Bouchier, Managing Director of FANUC UK, said: “We feel the opening was very successful – we have had every industry and application here, customers big and small. I think the power of FANUC shows it’s a global brand but with a local network. We may be a massive corporation going back up the chain, but here it is still one FANUC family.

“It’ll be nice to settle in this facility now, to just have one job to do of running this place, as opposed to the job of moving everybody here and building it - it does take a lot of work and a lot of people to make this happen and we’re in a position now to go onwards and upwards.”

Over 100 FANUC staff have moved from several locations around Coventry, and the firm anticipates further growth of its workforce in the coming months.

The business specialises in factory automation, which is split across three categories: robotics, machine tools and factory automation systems. Its extensive product portfolio comprises vertical milling centres (ROBODRILL), plastic injection moulding machines (ROBOSHOT), wire EDMs (ROBOCUT), industrial robots and CNC systems.

Bouchier explained the driving plan behind the facility: “Our UK business has doubled in the last four years. And the plan is to double it again in the next four years. We were bursting at the seams in the last year or two and the plant we had was starting to creak.

“Now we’re in a position where we have the next couple of years of growth already here, in terms of space, with the ability to add more as and when we need it - we’re confident that we will need that space in the next few years.”

Customers of robot solutions receive FANUC’s in-house tutoring on the systems, and at Ansty Park, FANUC will host a variety of training programmes, with four training rooms in a dedicated education space to provide courses for apprentices and experienced engineers.

Programmes are offered on FANUC technologies such as Roboguide and FANUC iRVision, while bespoke training can be created based on individual customer application requirements. Bouchier considers training a principal concern: “We have a number of apprentices in our own business, it’s something we decided some time ago, that we needed youngsters in the business, so we have a lot of apprentices. And adult training is something we are taking very seriously with the new classrooms. We need to do the training on the whole branch of products - FANUC Japan has start training programmes for the development centre in Germany, so now we can react faster to what our domestic and European customers need.”

Between Coventry and Rugby, Ansty Business Park is a new Midlands’ hub for technology, with the Manufacturing Technology Centre and factory for the Geely London Taxi Company. The company is proud of its contribution to Midlands’ and British manufacturing, Bouchier said: “British manufacturing is starting to embrace more technology. The UK is a high wage economy, and we can’t compete with low wage economies by doing it by hand, so we have to use automation.

“Partners and customers, everybody believes that whatever the outcome of leaving the single market, we are here to serve the UK business. But the thought is from many manufacturers that more products are to be made in the UK, made locally at source. We are a huge market, with 69 million people, and we’re a net importer. As long as we’re a net importer we have room to grow manufacturing.”

As technology improves production capabilities and efficiency, Bouchier believes the take up of FANUC systems could be far broader in application. “Even smaller companies are waking up now to the fact that it’s not expensive - some people think that to put a robot in costs a lot, but the return on robots is very fast. And you don’t have to buy bespoke machinery for that one product.

“It’s the flexibility that goes with it that keeps a robot there for the next 50 years. We will give you the flexibility to make your product match what the customer wants today and tomorrow.”

Particularly in the field of complex requirements for plastics moulding, FANUC is focussing on accuracy and repeatability for its all-electric ‘Roboshot’ injection moulding machines. “In certain areas, all-electric injection moulding machines are the way forward. Certainly, in the high-end industry and medical it’s the only product in the game. We are growing the range of machines slightly, we are looking at a next size up of the Roboshot so we need a slightly bigger machine, I think the only areas we can’t compete in are the very heavy 5000 tonne upward moulds.

We have the range of products, and our focus is on accuracy, calibration and repeatability, so that the last product is the same as the first product.”