Partner

YASKAWA and MOTOMAN merge under the name YASKAWA Europe

Reading time: min

also available in <link _top external-link-new-window>

YASKAWA and MOTOMAN merge under the name YASKAWA Europe

During a recent press conference at Automatica in Munich, YASKAWA Electric Europe GmbH and MOTOMAN robotec GmbH announced their merger under the name of YASKAWA Europe GmbH.

The merger of the two YASKAWA subsidiaries, specialists for the production of inverter drives and robots respectively, is in line with the company’s new marketing strategy for the world of automation. The step allows a more integrated customer service, generating further synergies and uniting the offering under one single brand name. In future, the new business units “Robotics” and “’Drives+Motion” will operate under the roof of YASKAWA Europe, offering customers of both segments integrated solutions. Only very few competitors in the global market will be able to match the scope of YASKAWA’s one-stop product portfolio of electric drives and industrial robots.

Being closer to the customer
Through the merger, YASKAWA in Europe now employs a staff of 900, offering a very broad portfolio and comprehensive local services via subsidiaries in 14 countries. As a Japanese engineering company, YASKAWA realized early on, the importance of being close to the customer in Europe. To streamline transport logistics, YASKAWA set up European production sites for servos, inverters, and system solutions with industrial robots. Local development departments and the European Technical Centre (EUTC) support the effort by offering a strong global network to customize solutions for the needs of the European market.

In Japan, the Drive + Motion technology and MOTOMAN robots have always operated under a joint company roof of YASKAWA. After the merger of the business units in Europe – and simultaneously in the USA – the YASKAWA organization is now consistent all over the world.

Global No. 1
Every year, YASKAWA manufactures 1.6 million inverters, 800,000 servos and 22,000 industrial robots. This makes the company the global no. 1 supplier of inverters, servos and industrial robots, offering a broad range of know-how. It goes without saying that YASKAWA servo drives are used in the company’s branded industrial robots “MOTOMAN”, while the in-house robots enhance the performance of YASKAWA inverters, which are renowned worldwide for their reliability.

Global innovation leadership
YASKAWA has been known for decades as implementer of visionary ideas that were to become state-of-the-art technology in later years. The word “mechatronics”, for example, was first used by YASKAWA to describe the core technology of product development. Today it is the standard approach to all modern automation. The list of innovations made by YASKAWA also includes the 3-level inverter, the matrix converter, the dual-arm robot, and the 7-axes robot. A recent addition to the list is the service robot “SmartPal” which was presented at Automatica 2010. This mature robot generation offers solutions for the future challenges of an aging population.

Outlook
For 2012, the YASKAWA business plans envisage a sales volume of 400 million Euros, a staff of 1,000 employees, and a market share of 10 % for inverters and 15 % for robots. Today, the joint staff of the two business units in Europe generates an annual sales volume of 250 million Euros.

Founded in 1915, the parent company YASKAWA Electric Corporation presently employs a global staff of 8,000 employees and generates annual sales of more than 2.5 billion Euros.

 

From left:

Manfred STERN
President | COO
Drivers + Motion Division
YASKAWA Europe GmbH

Wilhelm SEITZ
President | COO
Robotics Division
YASKAWA Europe GmbH

Koichi TAKAMAYA
Chairman | CEO
Regional Head Europe
YASKAWA Europe GmbH

 

[14]