Quality control

We place quality at the core of our management, and are committed to improving the quality of our products and services at our major manufacturing plants, which have obtained quality management systems certifications such as ISO 9001. We also focus on ensuring the quality of procured items and work with our suppliers to guarantee the quality of raw materials and auxiliary materials through regular investigations and audits. We carry out quality analyses and assessments, using management systems and information sharing between sites, to improve and develop our products and services.

We have established a quality assurance system headed by the President and are further strengthening our Group-wide quality risk management system, led by the Quality Assurance Department at DOWA Holdings. In addition, the Sustainability Subommittee holds cross-Group discussions on medium- and long-term risk management issues and the progress of these quality-related measures. Particularly important risks and opportunities are reported to the Sustainability Committee for discussion.

The quality assurance departments at each manufacturing site are responsible for the quality assurance of the Group’s products and services. However, since there is only one quality assurance department per site, there was difficulty in sharing information. To discuss issues and ways to proceed with quality assurance throughout the Group, we established the Quality Assurance Managers Meeting and Quality Assurance District Meetings. The Quality Assurance Managers Meeting comprises the HD Quality Assurance Department and the quality assurance managers from each business company and each business support company, and was held four times in FY2023 to establish quality assurance-related systems and share issues. The Quality Assurance District Meeting was established as a forum for the quality assurance departments of each site to exchange information and personnel across the Group. In fiscal 2023, we held such district meetings in the Akita, Kanto, Chukyo, and Okayama regions.
These Meetings aim to identify issues and other challenges facing each manufacturing site and to address and support issues raised by the DOWA Holdings Quality Assurance Department.

The Group’s major manufacturing plants have acquired ISO 9001 certification, the international standard for quality management systems, and maintain operations rooted in a PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) cycle. Under Midterm Plan 2024, we aim to build and operate ISO 9001 compliant quality management systems at 80% of the Group’s manufacturing sites by FY 2024, the final year of the plan.

With the aim of improving the skills of internal auditors and strengthening the internal audit system, JMA Consultants Inc. (JMAC) conducted a mock audit at CEMM CO., LTD. (Nagoya City, Aichi prefecture). Feedback after the audit included opinions such as: “We had been feeling that our internal audits were becoming stale, o it was beneficial to have an audit from a fresh perspective,” and “Rather than viewing the findings in the mock audit negatively, we would like to view them as opportunities for improvement.” The audit items used in this mock audit will be shared within the Group and will be utilized in future internal audits.

Regarding employee education, we have created a Companywide education system that includes governance and compliance training. In addition, we have introduced cross-sectional, quality-related education to quality assurance managers as well as quality-related compliance training to new employees.
In fiscal 2023, we provided basic training on quality assurance to new employees. Furthermore, we provided training by experts four times a year, focusing on quality management, quality compliance, and governance, for employees in quality assurance-related departments, from managers to leaders.

Following on from the previous fiscal year, we held the Second Quality Assurance Results Presentation, which recognizes outstanding quality assurance activities. At the presentation, daily best practices, introductions to the members involved, and challenges faced by each department were shared. This year, 14 best practice awards selected by each operating company and support company were announced, and more than 100 people participated in the event, which was shared between the Head Office and each Group location via web conference.

We are working to digitize the analysis process to prevent errors in analysis work and improve work efficiency. As an initial step, we are working to digitally output analytical instrument data and eliminate handwriting, manual input, and manual calculation. In the future, we will promote the digitalization of the entire process, from requesting analysis to reporting results. As many of the recent quality issues are caused by the falsification or fabrication of inspection data, in order to “eliminate the opportunities” for such misconduct, we will cooperate with related departments within the Group and proactively advance digital transformation in analytical work.