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.

Each of the Group’s manufacturing bases oversees quality assurance for its products and services. However, since there is only one quality assurance department at each base, it was difficult to share information. With this in mind, we have held a Quality Assurance Managers Meeting and Quality Assurance District Meetings since fiscal 2022 for Group-wide discussion and sharing of issues and initiatives related to quality assurance.

Under Medium-term Plan 2024, we carried out various measures with the aim of building a quality assurance framework at or above industry standards. Through these measures, we exceeded the targets set for the indicators “Creation of an ISO 9001 compliant system” and “Establishment of quality assurance education.”

We are building a system for Company-wide education on quality assurance, including governance and compliance, centering on the Quality Assurance Department of DOWA Holdings. Specific education includes quality education relevant to all of our businesses for managers and personnel in the quality assurance and manufacturing departments of each site and education on quality and compliance for new employees. Starting from fiscal 2024, we introduced a quality assurance and compliance program to our Company-wide e-learning programs.
The education programs have been enhanced since fiscal 2022, with education given to a total of 389 employees in quality assurance-related departments, from managers to leaders, during the three-year period of Medium-term Plan 2024.

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.

Starting from fiscal 2022, the Company has held a Quality Assurance Results Presentation, which recognizes outstanding quality assurance activities, every November. At the presentation, the Group companies that were selected introduce best practices used in their daily quality assurance activities and share initiatives by personnel involved in each of those activities. The aim of this is to share knowledge and know-how about quality assurance throughout the Group and further improve quality.

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.