Safety and Quality
Framework to Promote Product Safety and Quality
FANUC promotes activities to imp rove quality in all processes, from development and design of products to product quality buildups and after-sales services following manufacturing and shipment, in an effort to enhance the safety, quality, and reliability of its products. In order to ensure product safety, we conduct risk assessments at the design stage to identify sources of danger, evaluate and reduce risk, and confirm effectiveness. We also conduct risk assessments when a problem occurs, and evaluate the magnitude of the risk based on the severity of the hazard and the frequency of occurrence, and determine the appropriate response. We believe that product quality and reliability are built in at the development stage, and so we incorporate verification and validation, including reviews and reliability assessments, into the development process. In addition, in order to achieve rapid problem resolution and recurrence prevention, the Research & Development Divisions are responsible for achieving high reliability.
To ensure that these activities are effectively implemented across all of our products, we have established the Research & Development Promotion / Support Division that is responsible for promoting and supporting the development of all products. In addition, a section devoted to reliability development for each product has been established in each Research & Development Division. We also share information on quality, reliability, technology, security, etc. not only within each division but also through various regular meetings across divisions, and work to improve quality and reliability.
ISO9001
FANUC strives to ensure customer satisfaction, compliance with laws and regulations, and the safety and quality of its products through a quality management system based on ISO9001. We also review and evaluate the results of quality management system activities, and plan and implement internal quality audits to verify conformity with ISO9001, assess effectiveness, and make improvements.
| Domestic | 100% |
| Overseas | 100% |
It is essential to guarantee the impartiality and fairness of internal quality audits. To reinforce this aspect, we have established an Internal Quality Audit Committee that reports directly to the Representative Director, President and CEO. The Internal Quality Audit Committee is responsible for assessing compliance with applicable laws and regulations, identifying potential issues that could lead to quality misconduct or fraud, and reviewing improvement proposals. Furthermore, the committee assesses the effectiveness of internal quality audits and presents its findings to the Representative Director, President and CEO, as well as to relevant divisions. In addition to following the instructions of the Representative Director, President and CEO, the relevant divisions also consider improvement proposals and review rules on a voluntary basis, based on the information provided by the Internal Quality Audit Committee.
“Visualization” of Quality and Reliability
The status of quality and reliability in all processes, from product design to manufacturing and after-sales services, is monitored in order to promptly respond to defects. We collect data from our after-sales services, analyze it, identify issues, and give feedback to our production divisions and Research & Development Divisions. These activities improve our products’ quality and reliability.
Reliability Development Technology
We promote the development of a framework to design and manufacture highly reliable products, as well as sharing of knowledge, in order to enhance the reliability development ability of our researchers.
The Research & Development Promotion / Support Division works with members of the reliability development departments in each Research & Development Division to regularly review methods to improve reliability-related issues and proceed with standardizing reliability development methodologies.
In addition, the Defect Management Procedures have been established to systematize rules regarding response procedures when defects arise, and Incident and Vulnerability Handling Guidelines have been established to set out the procedures for responding quickly to security incidents and vulnerabilities in products.
All defects that arise are registered in a management system, which centrally manages the entire range of processes, from the investigation of the cause to the measures taken. This allows us to “visualize” the progress of the response, and prevent any oversights. The knowledge and lessons of the management system are utilized companywide, and have proven to be effective in terms of quality buildup and quality improvement measures, prevention of the occurrence and recurrence of defects, and the education of young engineers. Furthermore, the Reliability Evaluation Building has an area featuring lessons learned from past defects, where actually used products with quality and performance are displayed. This area is used to educate research engineers by encouraging them to learn from past failures.
Reliability Evaluation Technology
As FANUC products are used in manufacturing sites, they are exposed to extremely harsh environments. In order to ensure that our products can operate stably for long periods of time under these conditions, while contributing to minimizing downtime in our customers' factories, we are promoting the standardization of evaluation tests by conducting them in a variety of surroundings.
The Reliability Evaluation Building, which opened in 2016, has a total floor area of approximately 22,679 square meters (103 meters wide × 198 meters deep), and houses a variety of equipment for thorough reliability verification.
This facility is equipped with dedicated test rooms, such as an anechoic chamber, an EMS (electromagnetic susceptibility) test room, a vibration test room, a mist test room, a variable temperature room, a variable humidity room, a capability limit test room, a noise measurement room, a submergence test room, a clean room, and a precision measurement room. In this facility, a variety of tests are performed while taking into account variations in data under various conditions, including the accelerated life test to evaluate long-term reliability.
Reliability Evaluation Building
Anechoic chamber
Mist test room
Ensuring Customer Safety
FANUC contributes to the improvement of safety and the minimization of downtime at its customersʼ factories. To this end, it is essential to enhance product safety in order to protect operators from danger. FANUC engages in research and development to realize a higher level of safety, and its FA, ROBOT, and ROBOMACHINE products comply with the relevant safety standards.
| Complying with safety standards | We fully meet safety standards, such as ISO and IEC, and have been certified by certification bodies. The ROBOSHOT α-SiB series meets the newly established safety requirements for injection molding machines (ISO20430, JIS B 6711). This will ensure the safety of operators and molding worksites in accordance with the new safety standards. |
|---|---|
| Dual Check Safety (DCS) | The CNC complies with safety standards (IEC61508 SIL 3*, IEC62061 maximum SIL 3*, ISO13849-1 PLe*) and has been certified by certification bodies. (*SIL 2, PL d applies if spindle motor is included.) Safety-related signals are duplicated for comparative monitoring. In the event of a failure in one hardware safety circuit, the other detects the failure, thus maintaining the safety of the system. |
| Custom Programmable Machine Controller (PMC) safety function | In our ROBODRILL, the customer or system integrator can apply the abovementioned DCS to the control of peripheral equipment that is additionally installed on the ROBODRILL. This will make the separate safety circuits and control equipment unnecessary. |
| Malfunction prevention function | The design gives consideration to safety, such as by halting and issuing an alarm in the case of accidental operations by the operator. In the future, we will work on a feature that stops functions pertaining to hazardous and accidental operations, as well as one that prevents such choices. |
| Fully covered structure for injection units | The ROBOSHOT injection unit is fully covered to prevent accidental contact with the hot injection unit, which is heated by the heater. |
| Collaborative robots | Collaborative robots do not require a safety fence, because they securely stop operating when coming into contact with humans. These robots are used to assist in tasks alongside human workers, enabling operators to avoid heavy lifting, so that persons with less physical strength can perform tasks safely. |
| Smooth stop function | This function stops robots on a procedure that has been confirmed to be safe in the shortest possible time, in case of any abnormality. |
| Brake error diagnosis function | If a failure occurs on a brake while the robot is in operation or at rest, the power of the brake may decrease, causing the robot's gravity axis to fall. This function provides early diagnoses of such brake malfunction, and notifies the user in advance. |
| Cyber security support | We have developed the new robot controller R-50iA, which is the world's first robot controller (according to our research) to have obtained international cyber security certification (IEC62443-1, IEC62443-2). It blocks cyber-attacks from external sources, allowing you to build a reliable robot system. |
Product Design
In line with our “Simple & Smart” design policy and the human-centered design (HCD) concept, we create products that fulfill our users’ requirements and greatly satisfy them, without being deficient or excessive. While complying with ISO, JIS, and local laws and regulations, we aim for designs that seriously take into consideration user-friendliness and safety. We are in the process of formulating related guidelines. Our new collaborative robot CRX, released in December 2019, gives the rough, rugged image of industrial robots a fresh new look. The clean, rounded lines of this novel design offer a soft external appearance that allows the operator to share space with the CRX comfortably.