The FA centres will offer FA product training, product support, technical consultation and technology training for customers.
Increasing demand for product support
Hartmut Pütz, president, Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation European Business Group, said the production of electric machinery is thriving in Italy, and it foresees increasing demand for product support services in the automation sector.
Meanwhile, South Africa is seeing rising investment in social infrastructure projects, which is expected to draw an increased number of Japanese manufacturers and drive growth in local industries.
“Until now, FA product services for Southern Europe and South Africa were handled by the Europe FA center in Poland,” he said.
“The two newly established FA centers will contribute to increased customer satisfaction by providing more rapid and locally tailored services to these regions.
“Wherever there is industrial growth, there is a need for automation. This is as true for Italy as it is for Africa, where we can see demand for technology growing strongly.”
One of two satellite offices
Servicing and support for FA products in Africa had previously been provided directly by the European FA centres, of which the new Italy office is now the seventh.
The South Africa FA centre Satellite is one of two such satellite offices that Mitsubishi Electric now has in the CEE region and Africa.
Pütz added, the Italy FA centre is located within the Italian Branch of Mitsubishi Electric in Agrate Brianza and the South Africa FA satellite centre is established in cooperation with Adroit Technologies in Johannesburg.
The Italy office will have 18 employees covering Southern Europe, Northern Arabic States and West Africa (25 countries).
The satellite centre will have four employees (to be increased to five in FY2016) to cover Central/East/Southern Africa (36 countries).
Mitsubishi FA Italy includes product training, technical consultations, and system proposals where the main models will be PLCs/Inverters/Servos/HMIs/Robots.
South Africa handles product training, technical consultations, and system proposals on PLCs/Inverters/Servos/ HMIs.
“There are a large number of manufacturing companies in these regions that can benefit from the high level of automation support offered by a Mitsubishi Electric office,” added Pütz.
“Both facilities will support the ongoing expansion of Mitsubishi Electric’s FA business in Africa and Europe respectively.”