FANUC History

FANUC's history dates back to 1955 when young engineer Dr. Seiuemon Inaba was appointed to lead a new project team for Japanese telecommunications giant Fujitsu. Within one year, Dr. Seiuemon Inaba developed the first numerical control (NC) for the Japanese private sector.

Evolving from the automation of a single piece of machinery to the automation of entire production lines in the following decades, the new business segment grew successfully under Dr. Seiuemon Inaba's lead and in 1972 FANUC was established as an independent company.

Always striving to push back the boundaries of automation, increase productivity, produce a better product and reduce costs, Dr. Inaba and his team followed this up with a robot that employed the same principles to load the machine tool. Dr. Inaba's work soon meant that other manufacturers and engineering companies around the world were also benefiting from this technology, lowering costs and increasing productivity. And with world-beating products like the ROBOCUT, ROBODRILL and ROBOSHOT hitting factory floors through the 70s and 80s, FANUC was able to provide optimised solutions for an increasingly wide range of industrial applications and customers. In Japan, FANUC had become the first company to build and operate an automated factory with NC machine tools and robots.

Almost 70 years since its first successful product development, FANUC is the leading global manufacturer of factory automation. Yet one thing remains the same: FANUC's deep commitment to pushing back the boundaries of automation and helping its customers to optimise their production processes.