Safety / Quality

Product Responsibility

• Quality Management
• Quality Assurance Initiatives
• Chemical Substance Management
• Certification Acquisition Status

Quality Assurance Initiatives

• We reviewed our systems to ensure strict legal compliance following the revision of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and confirmed the introduction of HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) in response to the revision of the Food Sanitation Act.
• We held quality management conferences on four occasions, inviting personnel in charge of quality management in each business division, to instill the Company-wide policy and instructions and to exchange views on product quality assurance and share quality information.
• To facilitate timely and speedy response to the demand for PCR test diagnostics during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and to the market demand for sustainability-friendly solar roof systems, the administrative office of the Product Safety Review Conference conducted active pre-consultations to cover safety issues and put in place a service delivery system.
• External experts were deployed by food-related Group companies to conduct ongoing checks on the operation status of quality management systems and hygiene management, including in the supply chain, as a way to further improve quality.
• An internal audit checklist was sent to the production, sales, and administration divisions of Group companies for self-check to enhance the quality system while quantitative evaluation was carried out to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Where weaknesses were found, efforts were made in cooperation with the supervising business department to plan for the next fiscal year’s checking operations as a way to target improvement.
• We held a Quality Internal Audit Secretariat Division Meeting and confirmed the status of contracts with customers and contractors as a common confirmation item for each business division in the current fiscal year.
• Aiming to raise the quality assurance level of each employee, we sent employees to outside seminars, prepared e-learning materials on internal rules and standards, and brought in outside lecturers to hold workshops for the purpose of understanding the importance of consumer perspectives and improving the level of internal auditors.

Going forward, we will continue working to enhance the quality management system, including in the supply chain, through audits, inspections, and other checks and human resource training. In this way, we aim to ensure full compliance and product safety.

Chemical Substance Management

We take appropriate action at all stages of product development, manufacturing, transportation, sales, and disposal based on a clear grasp of the requirements of Japanese and international laws and regulations on the management of chemical substances, with each division adapting its response to its particular circumstances. For raw material procurement, we have established the Green Procurement Standards to prevent mixing of chemicals prohibited under the Control Act.(*1) When supplying products, we take active measures to convey information on the hazard level of the chemical substances, including displaying a GHS(*2) label and providing a product safety data sheet.
We also take careful note of legislative trends. Among the changes in recent years have been revisions to Chinese law requiring advance registration of new chemical substances and revisions to South Korean occupational safety law and UK law on the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances (REACH). Our response to these changes includes the use of external consultants.
As part of our in-house education efforts, we used e-learning materials to gain understanding of the Green Procurement Standards and held in-house seminars to raise the level of practitioners involved with the Chemical Substances Control Act and SDS preparation. We also brought in an outside lecturer to speak about learning from chemical substance management failures, while ensuring rigorous product safety through legal compliance and appropriate chemical substance management.

*1 Chemical Substances Control Act: Act on the Evaluation of Chemical Substances and Regulation of Their Manufacture, etc.

*2 GHS: A worldwide system for classifying and labelling chemicals according to their hazardous properties.

Certification Acquisition Status

ISO 9001 Certification

ISO 13485 Certification (*3)

*3 ISO 13485 is an international standard covering the comprehensive management system requirements for the design and manufacture of medical equipment.

ISO 22000 Certification (*4)

*4 ISO 22000 is an international standard for food safety management systems.

Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000) (*5)

*5 The Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC22000) offers a complete certification Scheme for Food Safety Management Systems based on ISO 22000, ISO/TS 22002-1, and additional FSSC 22000 requirements.

ISO22716 Certification (*6)

*6 ISO 22716 is guidelines on the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) of cosmetic products.

ISO17025 Certification (*7)

*7 ISO 17025: General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories; Criteria based on which an accreditation body assesses whether the relevant testing and calibration laboratory can produce accurate measurement and calibration results.

IATF 16949 Certification(*8)

*8 IATF 16949 is a sector standard for quality management systems based on ISO 9001 with the addition of automobile industry-specific requirements.