Interview with Marco Ghirardello
FANUC Lainate Milano Italy

“At EMO MILANO 2021 visitors will have a concrete representation of Industry 4.0 among IoT platforms, cobots and automation solutions”. 

Mr Ghirardello, what does EMO represent for FANUC and in particular what does this edition represent?

Whether it is held in Milan or in Hanover, EMO is an occasion for FANUC to promote on a large scale our way of being, i.e. suppliers of solutions to improve the competitiveness of enterprises.
This EMO is really special, taking into account the period we are experiencing. Therefore, we consider it as the ideal instrument to make the most of the recovery that is already underway. Because the exhibition will take place after difficult months and because the manufacturing world wants to start again and knows that it is possible now, given the progress of the vaccination campaign.

How do you see the current economic situation?

After the first months of public health emergency, in the second part of 2020, we witnessed a market recovery. Now, that rebound goes on. Therefore, we expect that in 2021 there will be a stabilisation of growth and in 2022 a strengthening of recovery. However, it is still unknown what effects the change of the automotive sector towards the electric motorization might have on the industry of production systems; surely, this is a delicate issue for machine tool manufacturers.

Which markets show better performances?

Exactly like the pandemic, which came from the east to the west, in the same way, in June 2020, the recovery started from China, moved to the European Union and finally reached the United States. On the contrary, the countries of Latin America are still at a standstill. In Italy, the demand for technology has a V-trend. The last months of 2020 and the first months of 2021 were record-breaking and this allows us to close the fiscal year in line with the expectations we had before the pandemic.

FANUC will be among the key players of EMO MILANO 2021 and will have a large exhibit space and many novelties. Could you tell us in advance what we will see at EMO MILANO 2021?

We will exhibit with a high-impact stand. Therefore, we have confirmed almost the same exhibit area we had during the past edition in 2015. We will present our added-value solutions, capable of improving the competitiveness of Italian enterprises.
The visitors of our stand will have, first of all, a concrete representation of Industry 4.0 before their eyes: this will be the core of our display of products. Ample space will thus be dedicated to the presentation of FIELD, the IoT platform developed by FANUC, which enables the manufacturing enterprises to connect production systems within a production plant and allows production planning, predictive maintenance and remote company’s management.
In addition, we will propose specific solutions for the new market trends, where machine tools are finding new nourishment for growth in the future, also thanks to the new CNC 30iB Plus with state-of-the-art Artificial- Intelligence functions and for 5-axis machining. Our display of products will be completed by a selection of the best proposals with regard to integrated robotisation for machine tools; among these, the CRX cobot will have great visibility, being already a standard to support operators or the simplest industrial processes.

Has the pandemic changed the market requirements? Both in terms of technology and service?

Yes, it has. The companies even more urgently need to improve their competitiveness and, if possible, to grow in the new markets. Therefore, they require solutions that can quickly be integrated in their industrial plants, improving their efficiency and capable of rapidly adapting to the new demands they will receive. They want to recover the ground lost during this crisis as soon as possible. For this reason, they require solutions for the integration of their production lines and for an improvement in the performances of their production process: quality of workpiece, reduction in production or processing time, reduction of errors and appropriate management of resources and raw materials. To put it simply, they wish to optimise processes. Therefore, there is a big demand for our CNCs 30iB Plus with Artificial Intelligence that are capable of reprogramming the operation they perform fully autonomously and rapidly.

The last question: if you should express a feature that represents FANUC related to its nationality, what would you mention?

“The change should be made before it becomes necessary”. I think this is the motto linked to the history of the country of the Rising Sun, which more identifies FANUC. Our mission is to develop solutions that enable our customer enterprises to be always “a little more ahead”, as you will see at EMO MILANO 2021.