Fanuc: a Japanese Robot Maker

choi

Eric Pfanner, Secretive Robot Maker Emerges--a Bit. Wall Street Journal, Mar 27, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/japanese-ro ... -secrets-1427384420

Note:
(a) "OSHINO, Japan—Twin statues of Ebisu, Japan’s Shinto god of prosperity, guard the gates. A stone marker proclaims that this is 'Fanuc Forest.'”
(i) Oshino-mura, Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture  山梨県 南都留郡 忍野村

* Yamanashi Prefecture is on the west of Tokyo.
* The village is at 富士山麓. Japanese Wikipedia says its name is derived from the merger of 忍草村・内野村 in 1875.
(ii) Ebisu (mythology)
Ebisuen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebisu_(mythology)
(Japanese god of fishermen and luck; the only one of Seven Gods of Fortune 七福神 to originate purely from Japan without any Hindu or Chinese influence)
(iii) The company, in its own (bilingual) words is:

"ファナックの本社は富士山の麓、 広さ47万坪にわ たるファ ナックの森の中にあり ます 。 富士山麓に展 開する本社研究所、 工場群  The Headquarters of FANUC are located in its own forest of 1.5 million square meters in area at the foot of Mt Fuji."

* Note the first letter of “forest” is not capitalized, indicating it is not a proper name.
* For the forest, view the photo at page 1 (page number is displayed at right lower corner) of company booklet:
Introduction to FANUC 会社案内. FANUC, undated.
www.fanuc.co.jp/ja/profile/booklet/pdf/corporateprofile201502.pdf

(b) Japanese English dictionary
* sei-gyo 制御(P); 制禦; 制馭 【せいぎょ】 (n,v): "control; governing; checking"
* genkotsu げんこつ 《拳骨》 (n): "(clenched) fist  <彼はげんこつでテーブルをたたいた。 He struck his fist on the table>"
* tsune 常 【つね】 (n): "usual state of things  <私は彼と学校に行くのが常でした。 I used to go to school with him>"

(c) "In the last year, sales of machine tools and industrial robots have surged to smartphone providers such as Apple Inc * * * "

The sentence could be written this way: sales of machine tools and industrial robots to smartphone providers such as Apple Inc have surged
, but "have surged" has to move forward, because the clause "to * * *" is too long.

(d) "Fanuc Chief Executive Yoshiharu INABA 稲葉 善治 * * * Mr Inaba’s father, Seiuemon Inaba, oversaw the birth of Fanuc as a division of the electronics giant Fujitsu Ltd. in the 1950s and led the company after its spinoff from Fujitsu in 1972."
(i) FANUC Corp, whose Japanese name is ファナック株式会社 (pronounced "fanakku"), got its name from an acronym of "Factory automation numerical control."
(ii) English Wikipedia says nothing about its establishment. Sei-u-e-mon INABA 稲葉 清右衛門 (1925- ).
(iii) "1972年 - 富士通の計算制御部から、富士通の子会社として独立した。当時の社名は「富士通ファナック株式会社」。"  ja.wikipedia.org
translation: 1972 - from Fujitsu's computer numerical control department, through a Fujitsu's subsidiary to the independence. At the time, company name was Fujitsu Fanuc Corp.

(e) Fanuc “is riding a wave of factory automation in China. Its Robodrill machine tools are used to help shape the aluminum cases for smartphones from Apple, Xiaomi Inc of China and other brands, according to analysts and other people familiar with Fanuc’s business. Apple and Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Xiaomi declined to comment.”

Products. Fanuc, undated
www.fanuc.co.jp/en/product/robodrill/index.html
(Robodrill)

(f) “Fanuc’s traditional strength is computer numerical control, or CNC, equipment, which is used to control the movement of machine tools—both its own and those from other providers. * * * Its industrial robots, traditionally used by car makers, are now in demand elsewhere. In the company’s technical center, a demonstration robot takes a container full of pills, detects the color of each and sorts them into piles by color in a matter of seconds. Sal Spada, an analyst at Arc Advisory Group, said Siemens AG of Germany has an edge at the high end, with customers seeking the most precise CNC equipment, but Fanuc has an advantage in volume. It is helped by the efficiency of its factories, which rely on the company’s own robots to do much of the work. One 86,000-square-foot (8,000-square-meter) factory in Oshino, making industrial robots, is staffed by only four people at a time.”
(i) In Youtube.com, search “M-1iA.”
(ii) a 2-page brochure:
M-1iA Genkotsu (fist) Robot. Fanuc, undated
www.fanucrobotics.com/cmsmedia/datasheets/M-1iA Series_11.pdf

(g) “Chieko TSUNEOKA 常岡 千恵子 contributed to this article”