Product Safety & Security
Quality & Environmental Policies (Device Business)
Based on our management philosophy of growing together with our customers by taking on challenges with passion and pride, and pursuing an “exciting tomorrow” with happiness and sustainability both physically and spiritually, we have set out the following quality and environmental policies.
- We will provide high-quality products around the world that satisfy customer requirements, laws, and regulatory requirements.
- We will measure and analyze the response of the customers and regions we serve to continuously improve our products, processes and systems.
- We seek to reduce our environmental footprint through our commitment to preventing pollution, reducing waste and saving resources.
Tatsuya Sada, President
Quality Policy (Unit Business)
- We will strive to raise awareness of quality, adhere to internal standards, and pursue quality work (people, organization, systems, and work).
- We will strive to pursue highly reliable and safe products that fully meet customer requirements (products).
- We will strive to constantly build and improve a quality system that conforms to international standards.
- We will carry out environmentally friendly corporate activities and contribute to local communities.
DMC Co., Ltd. will implement initiatives to prevent pollution and protect the environment with a sustainable future in mind. We will also strive to continuously improve our environmental management system to enhance our environmental performance. Specific policies are set forth below.
- Engage in energy and resource conservation
- Reduce the use of environmental pollutants
- Comply with national and local environmental regulations, international environmental standards that we deem necessary, and other requirements set forth by our company
- Separate and dispose of limited resources so that they can be reused
- Provide products and services that contribute to the realization of a sustainable society
We will establish environmental goals and targets in line with this Environmental Policy, review them periodically, and strive for continuous improvement. We will make this Environmental Policy known to all employees and all those who work for our company, and will also make it available to the general public.
Susumu Wada, Executive Vice President
Quality management system
DMC has built a quality assurance system with the aims of accurately grasping the quality expected by customers and providing safe, high-quality products and services. We conduct yearly management reviews to examine and evaluate the state of our quality management system in line with our quality and environmental policies as well as quality targets to ensure constant improvement. Yearly audits are conducted by certified internal auditors. DMC shares progress in target achievement and product quality issues at Quality and Environment Council meetings (Device Business) and ISO meetings (Unit Business) held once per month, and promotes the PDCA cycle to ensure that all employees understand quality and environmental policies and achieve ISO targets established by each division. In addition, ISO certification has been obtained for both the Device Business and Unit Business, and the Iwaki Factory obtained ISO 9001 certification in August 2023, maintaining our 100% certification coverage rate at our production sites.
Quality & Environmental Management System Diagram
Approaches to Product Quality Improvement
We are taking various initiatives to provide higher quality products. The strength of our Group is that we have the technology, knowhow, and systems that can precisely respond to the sophisticated and diverse quality requirements of our customers. As such, we have built a system that allows us to make the most of these strengths.
Monthly New Product Strategy Meeting
Product strategy meetings are held regularly (once/month) with the President, Vice Presidentand representatives from the Planning and Development, Sales, and Manufacturing departments, in a system that allows us to analyze customer needs and reflect them in our products.
Quality Improvement Activities/span>
With the aim of improving production technology and productivity, we work to ensure stable productivity and quality by conducting initiatives that originate from operations that occur daily at the manufacturing site, and by promoting the standardization of production processes and quality activities that originate from defects such as complaints. Regarding these, related departments implement initiatives by topic and report to the next meeting with important topics communicated down as instructions from the higher-level meeting.
Communication between engineering staff and customers
It is important for us to accurately understand customer requests and consider detailed specifications for products. Therefore, personnel in charge of engineering visit customers with the personnel in charge of sales to have direct communication with customers.
Quality Assurance Patrols
Losses due to complaints in FY2023 increased by 57% compared to the previous year (net sales subject to complaints decreased 20% from the previous year). This was a 75% increase compared to the FY2023 goal of reducing the amount of losses due to complaints by 10% compared to the previous year. This was primarily due to the occurrence of careless mistakes in large-scale projects and an inability to eliminate an increase in re-inspection costs. In FY2023, there were no serious product accidents, such as major injury or equipment damage, involving customers or within the company.
*QA: Conveyed as instructions by the Quality Assurance (QA) body. It is important for us to accurately understand customer requests and consider detailed specifications for products. Therefore, personnel in charge of engineering visit customers with the personnel in charge of sales to have direct communication with customers.
Improvement of Customer Satisfaction
Once a year, our Sales Division conducts a customer satisfaction survey for each of our device and unit businesses. We distribute surveys to major sales agents and others to gauge customer satisfaction. The surveys consist of 30 items for the Device Business in 7 categories (sales, sales promotion, delivery, quality, technical capability, competitiveness, and other), and 30 items for the Unit Business in 8 categories (quality, complaints, repairs, delivery dates, original products, proposals, sales/operations, and order/discipline). The aggregate results are shared with relevant divisions within the company as customer feedback. This allows us to identify issues and improve products with the goal of maintaining customer trust. In FY2023 we surveyed 11 major sales agents for the Device Business (10 domestic and 1 overseas) and 7 major customers for the Unit Business (domestic only).
Ensuring Product Safety
Proper Chemical Substances Management
DMC performs proper chemical substances management from design to disposal to ensure the safety of our products.
We use chemical substances for our products in accordance with the laws and regulations specified by each country and promote the reduction of hazardous chemical substances that may affect people and the environment. We assess the safety of all our products to ensure that hazardous chemical substances restricted by the RoHS Directive, including lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium are not contained in or attached to our products, or to ensure that the amount of those substances contained in or attached to our products is less than what is stipulated by laws and regulations. For substances judged to pose a safety risk, we reduce or cease use to ensure product safety.
We obtain a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) that describes the danger and toxicity, and precautions of chemical substances and raw ingredients containing specific chemical substances to ensure safe handling until disposal.
The division in charge of chemical substance management keeps up-to-date with the latest information on revisions to various laws and regulations regarding chemical substances and focuses on appropriate responses.
With regard to chemical substance management and inquiries from customers, the Quality Assurance Division is in charge of touchscreen products, and the Standards Management Office is in charge of unit products. External specialist companies are also utilized as necessary for investigation and response regarding hazardous materials.
Product Safety Design
In each process of development, design, and manufacturing, we take measures to ensure the safety of our products during their use. We have introduced the use of scribing machines in the development, design, and manufacturing processes, which results in the prevention of glass plate edge breakage and thus injury, ensuring safety in the use of our products.
Hazardous Substances in Standard ProductsTraining on Quality
In order to continue to create products with quality and safety that satisfy our customers, training and workshops take place in each division throughout the year. In FY2023, to address the increased amount of claim losses, we focused on investigating and addressing the root causes of defects, reviewing process operations, and providing training on defect resolution.