Why is Fanuc raising the cost of used robots?

[flatcurve]

Wow, this is all pretty eye opening to me. I've only dealt with new robots from FANUC for integration, however this does explain an issue that we had with a new robot we purchased recently whose F number wasn't in the system. I'm not at liberty to go into details, but long story short, I was being chastised by a phone rep for buying a used robot and "expecting" support. If it wasn't for the intervention of the sales guy who sold it to me, I probably would have had to fax him a copy of the cancelled check to FANUC with that five digit dollar amount on it just to prove I wasn't pulling a fast one.

[73ta455]

Fanuc felt the economy down turn just like most to the tune of about a 50% drop. Those still in need of robots turned away from new robots and started to buy used robots. Like everyone else looking for ways to make up for loss of money coming in they up'd the cost for relicensing their software.

[fanuc_insider]

Pure greed to pay some fatcats salary. This goes along great with the illegal crap they are pulling on their employees.

[TygerDawg]

I wouldn't say "pure greed", but I suspect it is more "stupid bean counter mentality" that will allow some other bot company to bypass them.  And Market Forces.

• Fanuc has sold thousands of bots to OEMs at cost or less to lock 'em up and they make their profit on parts & service.
• They build nice robust long lasting arms, but they have a factory (& empolyees) to keep running.
• OEMs go blooey and now dump bots on the market.  Bubba & Earl can now leave their mule in the field, pick up a cheap bot, and drive the Fanuc CRC guys bananas with stupid questions and gob up the CRC efficiency numbers.
• Why support old arms?  They need to keep their factories running.  "I know!" says bean counter.  "We'll filter Bubba & Earl out with high re-license fees and force the market to buy new bots and keep our factories humming".  And you know the rest of the story.
• Epilogue:  Motoman, ABB, or somebody treats their customers better, beats Fanuc out of first place in the market because BeanCounterStrategy backfires horribly.

[flatcurve]

Well, they really don't make much on the hardware FWIW

[fanuc_insider]

Well, they really don't make much on the hardware FWIW

You must be kidding right? Fanuc parts are marked up 300-400 and sometimes 500 - 600 percent and more.

[flatcurve]

spare parts maybe. but the integrator price for the whole system doesn't leave them with much margin. this is just what I understood from a discussion I had with an engineer there. he may have been misinformed...