If something wrong happened on KUKA Group? Any new products hit the market?

    Hi guys, greetings. I just want to know if something wrong happened on KUKA Group since Chinese company Midea acquired most of its shares in 2017.


    I am guy doing industrial segment investment and I learnt KUKA`s CEO Reuter has left and Midea has done lots of changes on the board. I also leart KUKA has not issued any new product (not including the modifications on the previous models) since 2013 and its met some problems to catch up with those competitors like Fanuc, Yaskawa and ABB.


    So I would like to know if you guys, the experts in this area, has any comments or idea on KUKA? I would be very much appreciated on any advice or sound from you.H

    Hi and welcome at Robot-Forum :hi-bye:
    Well that are very good Questions.
    I really don't know what happens in KUKA Group.
    What I feel, that KUKA was Number 1 in Robotics here in Germany, maybe Europe. :applaus:


    Since the last 5 Years the competitors comes more and more into Factories, where KUKA was the only one Robot Supplier.
    Maybe KUKA ist right, because they Focused on the markets in Asia, maybe they loosing they Base in Europe that for. :hmmm:
    The Robot itself is a great robot, very good for integrators and factories.


    I think that market is so big, and it's growing very fast.
    KUKA will find its place there like other robots too.
    The future in robotics is very exciting, im sure KUKA will be there in next future with a big WOW Update of there Robots, like they always did :top:


    Greetings from Germany :yessir:

    Last I had heard, the KRC... 6?... was supposed to come out soon, with an option for either KSS/KRL, or Sunrise/Java (as on the iiWA). But that was about a year ago.


    The KRC4 continues to get evolutionary updates, and KSS 8.6 / WorkVisual 6 just came out (or is in beta release, I'm not sure).


    The KRC1 and KRC2 had a similar evolution path. The entire industry has a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, so any major changes or releases are pretty far apart, with small updates/upgrades in between.


    As far as the Medea purchase, the one major change I know happened is that KUKA Aerospace had to be spun off as a separate company (due to federal regulations concerning Aerospace and Defense work), and was soon after bought by another American aerospace supplier.


    Thank you Werner, danke schön:) As I am a financial guy and when I read KUKA`s financial report, I saw in last year, 2018, KUKA have a slight drop on its order amount and revenue, but a huge decline on it earning. I found KUKA`s cost jumped significantly, which is not logical. Based on my past 8 years experience, it seems a normal company was quite rarely seen such phenomenon, so I would like to discuss with you guys about this. Of course, I will totally agree KUKA is most like to be the best robot manufacturer in Europe, I would pay more attention on it to see if KUKA will gain more shares from those Japanese competitors. :icon_smile: :icon_smile:



    Thank you very much, SkyeFire. I am actually not a guy from this area, but focusing on investment. So I would really value the ideas from experts in this forum, like you :icon_smile: For the past couple of months, I was told KUKA was in some kind of dilemma, as the Rueter has left, those top guys changed a lot and even some guy from China told me he had not seen KUKA`s new product initiation for long time (which I presume he meant KUKA`s totally new model, not those modification ones). These news worries me with the pretty unfavorable financial report of 2018. But now I saw your message listing a bunch of new products which has been and will be released, I feel quite excited about it. At least it means the situation is now as bad as those rumors said. Thank you very much.

    I know, that KUKA plans to bring a own Scara robot on the market end of next year.
    And maybe next year a Delta Robot.
    That's are not very big markets, but KUKA will have the full range of Industrial Robotic Kinematics then.

    Quote from qztsxhe111


    Thank you Werner, danke schön:) As I am a financial guy and when I read KUKA`s financial report, I saw in last year, 2018, KUKA have a slight drop on its order amount and revenue, but a huge decline on it earning. I found KUKA`s cost jumped significantly, which is not logical. Based on my past 8 years experience, it seems a normal company was quite rarely seen such phenomenon, so I would like to discuss with you guys about this. Of course, I will totally agree KUKA is most like to be the best robot manufacturer in Europe, I would pay more attention on it to see if KUKA will gain more shares from those Japanese competitors. :icon_smile: :icon_smile:


    Well Kuka is reducing costs in Germany massively. Every tenth employee lost his job at KUKA.
    I think one of the most benefits of KUKA ist the Service Concept.
    For example Japanese Robot Manufactuers have Problems to Support Spare parts in Europe.
    If Kuka can solve this in Asian Market and can give good German Support, I think they will have a chance in the east.

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