THE MICROTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION PORTAL/THE SHOW
13.03.2024
C - Automation
Is the "right to repair" coming?
What happens to things that break or cease functioning? Well, once the warranty period has expired the common response is to throw them away, not least because a repair is often not feasible or commercially viable. But times are changing: the European Commission wants to enforce a "right to repair" for mobile phones and tablets that protects consumers and avoids waste. At the same time, more and more companies are pursuing the goal of a "circular economy" in which products and raw materials remain in service for as long as possible.
While many companies in Europe are in the middle of the change process, Japanese automation specialist FANUC integrated lifetime service, repair and recycling into its business model from the very beginning. The company designs its products to be long lasting and easy to maintain. Furthermore, FANUC operates a worldwide service network that includes repair centres and spare parts warehouses.
What for many years users took for granted as "good customer service" is now developing into an unexpected competitive advantage for FANUC, largely because industrial companies from all sectors have discovered the topic of sustainability in production for themselves. This strategy starts with CO2 neutrality, extends to waste avoidance and recycling, and ends with the long-term use of production equipment.
Retrofitting instead of building new
"We are finding that our customers are retrofitting their production lines more frequently, instead of building them from scratch," reports Daniel Evard, Service Manager at FANUC Switzerland, who indicates that preventive maintenance and the retrofitting of old products is on the increase. "It’s not uncommon for our service technicians to work on FANUC products that are older than they are,” he adds.
Such an approach often pays off for customers, not only from a sustainability viewpoint, but also financially, as Evard explains: “If a 20-year-old machine that has been running smoothly in an established production line suddenly comes to a standstill, a repair is usually worthwhile, even for very old products like this." As a point of note, there are customers who have had FANUC wire EDM machines in operation for more than 35 years.
But not every company will be able to offer such a repair service at short notice. According to Evard, it is necessary to have low susceptibility to faults, easily repairable products, high availability of spare parts and an efficient service network. The creation of databases with blueprints of old model series, information on possible sources of faults and repair instructions is also crucial so that service staff can act in the most effective way.
Quality lowers error rate
In order to exclude possible product weak points from the outset, it is important to have strict quality controls, which can go as far as setting up a company's own test centre. The test centre at FANUC’s headquarters in Japan, for example, simulates harsh factory environments. The products have to survive dust, steam or water baths, while the company also subjects cables and hoses to extreme stress tests. FANUC's development department uses the results for continuous improvements as part of a Kaizen-based approach.
Another important factor - easily repairable products - is achievable with a well thought-out design, as Mitsuyuki Taniguchi, Executive Vice President of FANUC Europe, confirms: "We develop our products from the beginning to facilitate easy repair.”
The company’s use of many robots in manufacturing and assembly means product assembly takes place in simple, robot-compatible steps, while also ensuring straightforward disassembly by service technicians should the requirement arise.
High spare parts availability also needs meticulous planning, even during the production of a new model series. It is vital to determine how many spare parts and which ones will be needed in the future to meet customer demands or even a "right to repair". Then, it becomes necessary to procure and stock these parts for years, if not decades. And finally, the parts must be in the right place at the right time to support expedient customer service.
Extensive stockpiling
The implementation of these strategies can be an organisational and financial challenge. FANUC, for example, keeps around 600,000 parts worth several million euros in its European spare parts warehouse alone. In order to use these parts efficiently and for as long as possible, FANUC regularly undertakes recycling activities.
"When our service technicians replace worn or defective parts during customer service, they send them to our repair centre in Luxembourg as part of standard procedure," explains Evard.
Spread over two levels and 2400 square metres, the repair centre houses 28 employees who overhaul between 14,000 and 16,000 parts a year, from servo motors and robot wrists to circuit boards and amplifiers. To ensure the technicians can carry out correct fault analysis even on very old products, there is not only modern but also legacy test equipment available to test analogue spindle boards from the 1980s, for example.
"We replace all worn parts, clean and paint the surfaces, and perform software updates to bring the parts to like-new condition," reports Burkhard Molitor, Head of the Repair Centre.
Occasionally, products even receive a hardware upgrade, such as when employees replace old cathode ray tubes with modern LCD screens. Most components go to the FANUC spare parts warehouse and wait for their next service assignment, although the company returns some to customers for lineside stocking if there is a request for on-site availability.
High spare parts availability
Recycling and long-term stock planning are having an effect: "We stock 99.96% of all spare parts required by our service technicians throughout Europe," reports Molitor. "And if we do miss a part, we can usually have it delivered from other FANUC locations within a few days." Customers can even still obtain 40-year-old operating software from FANUC.
It will clearly take manufacturing companies many years of work and great commitment to implement a "right to repair". Fast action is necessary to set the course for the coming years and decades.
Concludes Molitor: "As recently as two years ago, we would have visitors ask whether it was worth the effort for us, but today they seem to be thinking about why they haven't seen this elsewhere!”