GE Fanuc Automation Americas, a unit of GE Infrastructure, has announced a new organisational vision and structure to align with manufacturers’ evolving needs for improved productivity, compliance and reduced costs.
Referring to a “transformation” of GE Fanuc and its product portfolio, Jeff Garwood, president and CEO for GE Fanuc Automation, said the restructure included acquisitions, organisational adjustments, product directional planning, internal and independent research, and strategic assessment.
“Optimising production operations and standardising plant IT systems with truly open solutions are paramount considerations to improving performance,” said Garwood.
This includes meeting varying OEM requirements for both off-the-shelf and custom innovation, providing rapid response for lower downtime, and supporting open technology roadmaps.
As part of its commitment to boosting business performance through processes, GE Fanuc speaks of helping automation users optimise production processes, leverage existing assets, improve and track quality, and improve regulatory compliance.
GE Fanuc sees its automation solutions as providing platforms for expansion by enabling new business models, offering remote monitoring that eliminates traditional geographic boundaries, and leveraging agile operations.
To facilitate the development and implementation of open and layered solutions for industrial automation, the company has aligned its hardware and software product groups under the automation solutions business, which offers technologies such as the PACSystems family of programmable automation controllers and the Proficy family of automation and production software.
Here the company has reiterated its goal “to bring open and layered automation products to market quickly and provide users with powerful intelligent production solutions”.
The acquisitions of embedded systems companies, VMIC and RAMiX, have allowed GE Fanuc to more rapidly develop technology for the PACSystems family.
GE Fanuc speaks too of delivering on its promise for high performance on several different platforms, allowing OEMs and end users to choose the control system hardware that best suits their needs.
The recent acquisitions of Intellution and Mountain Systems have positioned GE Fanuc for an expanded offering to process industries, including value-added historian capabilities and a strong technical basis for plant performance management.
Additional restructures within the organisation include reorganising the hardware and software sales team for better end-user outcomes, and providing a better vehicle for marketing, application development and project implementation, as well as enhancing support to systems integrators.