Basic Concept
The Nisshinbo Group aims to create new and original value in its products and contribute to the creation of an affluent society.
The Group strives deliver products and services that meet its customers’ demands for product performance and quality in a timely and stable manner, and gains the satisfaction and confidence of its customers with outstanding quality. The Nisshinbo Group works to create value for them.
Promotion System
In order to provide products and services that satisfy customers, the Nisshinbo Group's manufacturing and quality assurance department are promoting activities to improve quality and customer satisfaction required for each product. In order to achieve the "Continuously promote measures to improve customer satisfaction" in the Sustainability Promotion Plan, under a system in which the Director and the Chief of the Corporate Strategy Center of Nisshinbo Holdings, Inc. is in charge, the Quality Assurance Group of the Corporate Strategy Center manages targets and Key performance indicators (KPIs).
Specific Initiatives of The Nisshinbo Group
Under the "Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan," the Nisshinbo Group is working to improve quality and customer satisfaction as Key Action Items.
In FY2023, in accordance with the "Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan", the Group sets the KPIs of ① the number of violations of the Product Liability Act to "0" and ② Understand and share the status of quality claims for each segment and proceeded with activities to achieve the target while implementing the PDCA cycle.
Status of PL Law Violations and Claims
In FY2023, there were no cases of Product Liability (PL) Law violations in the entire Nisshinbo Group. Since the determination of claims and complaints varies depending on the industry and type of business, the Nissinbo Group checks the annual trends for each company within the Nisshinbo Group. None of the companies has seen a continuous increase in the number of complaints over the past three years, and all companies are on a decreasing trend.
Acquisition of Certification for Quality Assurance
As of September 2023, the Nisshinbo Group has acquired "ISO 9001" certification, a quality management system established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), for 40 companies and 48 organizations. In addition, to meet industry-specific requirements, 34 organizations in 31 companies have obtained certification under the "IATF 16949" automotive industry quality management system standard. The three companies that manufacture medical-related equipment have obtained "ISO 13485" certification, the international standard for medical device quality management systems.
Specific Activities of the Group Companies
Maintenance of Quality Learning Rooms
Nisshinbo Micro Devices Inc. has established a special firefighting team to quickly resolve quality problems and convenes a quality meeting to ensure corrective and preventive actions for quality problems, such as complaints. These activities ensure that the true cause of quality problems is addressed. Through these activities, the company strives to improve quality by identifying the true causes of quality problems, implementing countermeasures and preventing a recurrence, and ensuring horizontal deployment.
In addition, Nisshinbo Micro Devices has implemented the following measures to address past quality problems,
- ① Never make the same mistake again. To this end, the company passes on what happens when quality problems occur.
- ② Develop human resources and leave a legacy for future generations. To this end, we will pass on the lessons learned from quality problems.
For this purpose, the Yashiro Plant has set up a quality learning room. In this room, posters and actual products are always on display, and are used as a place for education and handing down lessons. The Kawagoe Plant has also set up a mobile exhibition environment, although it is not a permanent installation, for the purpose of conducting education on the company's quality heritage.
Both facilities will continue to pass on lessons learned from the past and utilize them for better manufacturing.
Sustained Quality Improvement, Enhanced Development Quality Verification
Saeron Automotive Corporation in Korea has formulated recurrence prevention measures to achieve zero outflow of defective products to customers and is continuously implementing Error Proof (Poka-Yoke) implementation activities.
To ensure the quality of new item mass-produced products, the company is implementing mass-production advance from the development stage to identify and improve defects in advance. In 2023, for products for new automotive customers in Europe and the United States., the company provided training to raise quality awareness to all employees prior to the start of mass production.
In addition, in order to continue process quality improvement, the company sets improvement tasks and targets for each type of defect, and the company holds quality exchange meetings at each site to share information on defect types and horizontally deploy improvement activities at all sites to improve quality across the board.
Quality Month for Quality Improvement Activities
Nisshinbo Saeron (Changshu) Automotive Co., Ltd. has been implementing activities establishing Quality Month since 2015, with 2023 marking the ninth time.
During Quality Month, slogans were solicited and first to third prizes were awarded at a convention. In addition, quality improvement proposals were solicited from workers and managers at each workplace, and gold, silver, and bronze awards were presented. 2023 was the first year that process assurance inspections were conducted in each work process based on work instruction manuals, and improvements were made after finding work errors, contamination of different products, and points that made work difficult.
Other activities included inspections of past complaints and inspections of process capability indices and PFMEA*. The Quality Month activities have led to an increased awareness of quality and improvement among all employees of the company, and creating an atmosphere of interest in quality has also led to the strengthening of the system for preventing problems before they occur and reinforcing measures to deal with abnormalities.
The company will continue to conduct quality month activities that contribute to the improvement of its quality management system, and will continue to provide customers with high-quality, safe products to increase their satisfaction and reliability.
* An analytical method to analyze and evaluate the impact of possible defects in the manufacturing process and to implement countermeasures.
Promote Group Kaizen Activities That Lead to Quality Assurance
Nisshinbo Mechatronics Inc. holds group quality assurance meetings and kaizen activity presentations at each of the Nanbu Plastics Co., Ltd. companies, Nisshinbo Precision Instrument & Machinery Hiroshima Corp. as well as at overseas sites in order to share kaizen examples that have been successful in preventing quality problems, reducing defects in production processes, and improving efficiency in indirect operations.
In the past few years, the Group's kaizen activities have focused particularly on digitalization with a digitalization promotion project team formed in 2020 and a digitalization promotion section established in the Quality Assurance Department of the Miai Machinery Plant in 2023. The section is developing and testing digital tools produced in-house and will continue to disseminate digital improvements to the entire Group.
As of the end of 2023, more than 10 AI abnormality detection systems have been installed at the production sites of the company, Nanbu Plastics Co., Ltd. companies, Nisshinbo Precision Instrument & Machinery Hiroshima Corp. The system has contributed greatly to reducing defects and preventing the outflow of defects and has been highly evaluated by our customers.
Core Quality Improvement Recurrence Prevention Room Initiatives
The Recurrence Prevention Room at Kyushu Nanbu Plastics Co., Ltd. is a central place for quality improvement efforts. The room has been established and put into operation as a place to painstakingly analyze actual defects and seriously examine their root causes and impact on customers. The Recurrence Prevention Room is also a place to thoroughly investigate why defects occurred and to seek specific improvement measures to prevent similar problems from occurring again.
In addition, not only the manufacturing site but also indirect departments, such as general affairs and accounting, are visited once a month to provide an environment where quality issues can be addressed from a company-wide perspective. Through this initiative, the company recognizes that quality improvement is not merely the responsibility of the manufacturing site, but is the shared responsibility of all employees, and the company is working to deepen cooperation.
Furthermore, new and returning employees are also trained in this room. Kyushu Nanbu Plastics aims to achieve zero recurrence of complaints by remembering that even with the advance of automation and mechanization, human insight and experience are essential for quality control.
Chemicals Business Group Kaizen Activities
In the Chemicals Business Group, kaizen activities are carried out by six teams, consisting of the four business divisions of Nisshinbo Chemical Inc. (Heat Insulation Dept., Carbon Dept., Performance Chemical Dept., and Fuel Cell Dept.), the Business Management Division, and the subsidiary Nisshin Environmental Planning Inc. Under the motto of "kaizen activities with the participation of all employees," these activities are aimed at kaizen at production sites and improving the efficiency of daily operations. A kaizen presentation meeting is held around December each year. The purpose of this meeting is to share the results of each team's annual kaizen activities.
In FY2023, there were presentations of kaizen results from activities of the automation of manual work, cost reduction through product cost analysis and other measures, quality improvement through operational improvements, consideration of inexpensive alternative raw materials, and improvement of operational efficiency through the use of IT technology. At the Kaizen Presentation Meeting, Board members screened the presentations and selected representative teams to participate in the kaizen presentation meeting for the entire Nisshinbo Group. The Chemicals Business Group is also examining whether the good activities of each team shared at the presentation meeting can be horizontally deployed in our own workplaces, so that each business divisions can utilize them for further kaizen improvement.
Quality Improvement Initiatives
In addition to analyzing samples brought in by customers, Nisshin Environmental Planning Inc. also provides on-site collection services for analytical samples. There are many types of equipment used for sample collection, ranging from electric drills for collecting ceiling and wall materials to suction pumps for collecting ambient air. Correct sampling and analysis using the correct equipment and methods in accordance with the official methods will ensure correct results.
Although the company is a professional in terms of analysis and sampling itself, there are still areas of weakness in terms of minor nonconformities and operational efficiency. In order to reduce the occurrence of nonconformities, quality patrols are conducted along the workflow to confirm traceability and identify potential risks, and to strengthen areas of inadequacy in order to maintain and improve quality to gain customer trust.
In addition, the company will promote the use of eYACHO from handwritten data at the time of on-site collection to electronic data recording to improve operational efficiency and the accuracy of data transcription.
OMO Strategy That Integrates Its Own Stores and E-commerce Site
Since the Corona disaster, consumers' lifestyles have changed and are rapidly becoming digitalized. In the wake of today’s situations, Tokyo Shirts Co., Ltd. is working on an OMO (Online and Offline Merging) strategy that combines its own stores and e-commerce site.
The company's OMO services include store shipments, in which products are shipped from a nearby store to the customer's home even if the warehouse does not have the product in stock when the customer orders online, store pickup, in which the customer can pick up the product at a store designated by the customer, store payment, in which the customer can pay at the store, and store order, in which the company will arrange for the product requested by the customer at the store if it is not available. In the event that a product requested by a customer is not available, a tablet terminal installed in the store can be used to place an order for a product in the warehouse or another store.
In 2023, more than 9% of all sales came from one of these OMO services. The company is committed to improving customer convenience and satisfaction by providing customers with both the convenience of an e-commerce site and the attentive customer service of a store.