Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue - 9

DISCUSSING FANUC'S AUTHORIZED
SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR NETWORK
The Value of Partnerships in Robotics
BY OWEN HURST
This early expertise on a wide variety of projects provided him the
opportunity to join FANUC as an engineer. Once Dick worked at
FANUC, he enjoyed working in a variety of positions including several in
project applications and product development.
He was then given the opportunity to manage FANUC's
picking/packing/palletizing systems integrators and had that role for
six years. After that, he ran the southern US region for just under five
years, and then returned to the US headquarters in Rochester Hills to
take on his current role as director of FANUC's Authorized System
Integrator Network. And, as Dick puts it, " that's 36 years in a nutshell. "
At this point we turned our attention to asking Dick and Tanya about
the Authorized System Integrator Network.
Integrators and Robots have been paired together since automation
first made its way on to the scene. Integrators have worked closely and
were a bridge between robot manufacturers and the industries that
adopted robotics right from the beginning.
Recently Panel Builder & Systems Integrator had the opportunity to sit
down with Dick Motley, Director of FANUC America's Authorized
System Integrator Network (ASI) and Tanya Proietti, of FANUC Canada
to discuss the merits of the program and the benefits it has provided to
both parties.
We started off chatting a bit about Dick's history, as he refers to himself
" as a 36-year robot guy and 31-year FANUC Man " . Dick began his
career with GE as part of an automation systems group working on a
wide variety of projects and developing automation solutions.
C A N A D I A N A U TO M AT I O N

1) What was the founding principal and concept for
FANUC's Authorized System Integrator Network?
First off Dick and Tanya both note that to really understand the
founding of the network, we need to take a moment and look at the
history of the company. The company really began as a robotics
producer for the automotive sector. This occurred in 1982 when GMF
Robotics was founded by GM and FANUC.
Although growing initially in the automotive sector, the recession of
1987 hit the young company hard. GMF recognized that to thrive, the
company would have to diversify its robotic offerings beyond a single
market. With this diversification of markets came the need to develop
regional offices throughout the US and Canada to try and get closer to
customers.
Dick notes that the new offices were staffed with sales and engineering
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

9

https://www.fanucamerica.com/support/robot/field-service/fanuc-canada-location https://www.fanucamerica.com/integrators/robotics https://www.fanucamerica.com/support/robot/field-service/fanuc-canada-location

Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue

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