A globally renowned factory automation player achieves significant reduction in product development management workload with Siemens’ centralized data management solution

Introduction

FANUC, one of the world’s largest players in the factory automation (FA) field has consistently pursued and promoted automation and efficiency in customers’ factories. The starting point was when a project team responsible for controls was established in 1955, which went on to successfully develop the first NC and servo system in the private sector in Japan, in 1956. FANUC fully supports customers in over 100 countries, through more than 270 service locations throughout the world.

FANUC engages in the FA, ROBOT and ROBOMACHINE businesses. The FA Business encompasses basic technologies consisting of NCs, servos and lasers, which are also applied to the ROBOT and ROBOMACHINE businesses. To uphold their corporate strategy of ensuring products that are reliable, predictable, and easy to repair, it is essential to have a solution that allows designers with authority to access necessary data anytime, anywhere, by anyone. However, the traditional data management environment was dependent on individuals working independently using manual methods, making it complex and prone to errors. While centralized data management systems were introduced early in software development environments, such systems did not exist in hardware development, particularly in electronic design environments. This led to significant efforts in building and maintaining systems internally based on field requirements. Additionally, ensuring data consistency was challenging, with issues such as mis-matches between circuit design data and board design data and errors in handling versions of in-progress data.

Addressing data management challenges

FANUC’s approach to data management is rooted in its corporate philosophy of product development and maintenance. FANUC’s design assets, managed since the era of paper drawings before CAD was introduced, include products used by customers for decades. Consequently, many projects involve maintaining products from ten, twenty, or even more years ago. This historical context means that the policies and operational mechanisms for managing design deliverables have remained largely unchanged since before digitalization. However, the design environment itself has transformed with the introduction of CAD, necessitating centralized management of post-digitalization data while managing generations of paper drawings separately. Over time, FANUC has implemented measures to address various challenges and field requirements, but these patchwork solutions have reached their limits, necessitating the introduction of a management system specialized for electronic design.

Reliability backed by Siemens’ long track record

FANUC adopted Xpedition™ EDM software as a management system specialized for electronic design. As a long-time user of Siemens’ PCB design environment, including Xpedition’s predecessor Board Station, FANUC trusted Siemens’ solutions. After evaluating the data management system alongside the migration of design data and libraries, FANUC decided to adopt it.

“By adopting Xpedition EDM, data management has become easier, resulting in fewer management errors and improved operational efficiency,” says Yuji Sone, Senior Development Engineer Section 2, Hardware Development Promotion Department, CNC Hardware Research & Development Division, FA Research & Development Division at FANUC corporation. “The ability to review schematics and layouts through a browser has streamlined design reviews and comparing old and new schematics and layouts has enhanced design efficiency. Additionally, searching for designs that use specific components has become easier, simplifying the process of handling component end-of-life and reducing workload.”

Today, the Xpedition Enterprise design environment is indispensable to FANUC’s manufacturing operations, yielding numerous benefits across the development process. Firstly, centralized data management, the primary objective, has resolved various issues arising from designer dependency. The system ensures proper check-in/check-out of master data, addressing issues like data mismatches due to designer assumptions and maintaining consistency through managed annotation information. From a system administrator’s perspective, handling unexpected system downtimes has become easier, with backup functions provided as Xpedition standard features, ensuring reliable backup of design assets and quick recovery from downtimes.

Secondly, the system’s ability to manage design data history has proven invaluable for tracking design progress and verifying changes during design modifications. This capability helps eliminate unintentional errors before finalizing designs, even under tight development schedules.

Thirdly, the unified design environment of Xpedition Enterprise enhances verification solutions. A single platform facilitates various DFM analyses and verifications before manufacturing, avoiding the challenges of interfacing design data from multiple vendors.

Conclusion

FANUC is thorough in implementing its basic principles of Genmitsu (strict preciseness) and Tomei (transparency) and promotes following these policies united as a group. By doing so, the FANUC Group aims to become an ever-lasting organization by making customers feel more secure and confident about our group, as well as by adapting to severe changes in the environment. Upholding our fundamental perception that our products are capital goods to be used in manufacturing sites, FANUC develops products meticulously,
ensuring that they are reliable, predictable, and easy to repair to minimize downtime and maximize the operating rate in their customers’ factories. The streamlined process with Xpedition Enterprise benefits yield improvement and reduces rework during the prototyping phase, achieving approximately a 15% reduction in the PCB design process, and the integrated Siemens EDA solutions are indispensable for FANUC and its customers’ continued success. FANUC plans to expand its design environment to further improve quality
and responsiveness, providing better products and services worldwide.

“Even though we’ve been utilizing the tools extensively so far, there are more features we’d love to adopt and further expand our use of the Xpedition Enterprise design environment, including Xpedition EDM, in the future,” Yuji Sone concludes.