Sustainability
Pursuing Safety for Products and Services
Basic Approach
The NGK Group positions the pursuit of quality and product safety as one of our key material issues. We pursue safety for our products and services through quality activities that follow our quality policy based on the NGK Group Corporate Business Principles and Code of Conduct.
NGK Group Corporate Business Principles and Code of Conduct
Pursuing Quality for Products and Services
Activity System
NGK's Quality Activity System consists of a Group-wide system led by the Quality Committee Chair (Director and Managing Executive Officer), and activity systems within each business division led by the heads of each business group. We promote activities for pursuing safety of products and services within this Quality Activity System. The Quality Committee Chair also periodically reports on the contents of these activities to the Board of Directors.
To learn more about NGK's Quality Activity System, refer to the Quality Activity System section.
Risk Assessment
We mainly carry out the following activities to assess safety risks concerning our products and services.
- We position the safety of products and services as one of our six quality items requiring conformance under our quality assurance rules. The system is designed to implement and verify these rules through QRE-P Activities*1. Moreover, we have established companywide guidelines based on ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014, a basic international standard concerning safety. These serve as the guiding principles for the activities of our business divisions and development divisions.
- We investigate the safety of products and services through a product development DR*2 based on the requirements of IATF 16949/ISO 9001 and IEC QC 080000. We also use internal and external audits to assess risk and correct deficiencies in the work process. The Corporate Quality Management Department participates in the business division DR and Product Quality Assurance Review Meeting for newly developed products to confirm/support the risk evaluations from each department.
- This activity system ensures that in the event of an emergency related to the safety of products and services, or when a particular incident is recognized, the company will be able to take action based on our Basic Rules of Crisis Management.
- We conduct customer satisfaction surveys after products are shipped. Meanwhile, we monitor products in the market or periodically sample products from the market and take necessary corrective measures with respect to product safety.
1 QRE-P (Quality Risk Elimination Process): An operational protocol intended to more effectively eliminate quality-related risks at every stage when bringing products to market, from product planning to mass production.
2 DR: Design Review
In FY2024, we implemented necessary corrections and enhancements, while encouraging the concepts of our company-wide guidelines to take root through discussions with business divisions. We also reconfirmed that our system is capable of quickly notifying and warning customers when risks are detected after a business division creates or commercializes a product.
Communicating with Customers
In the NGK Group Corporate Business Principles and Code of Conduct, the NGK Group states that we will accurately and promptly disclose information required by society. We will also provide appropriate information about our products and services. We introduce products and disclose information related to product handling through the product information on our website, and provide handling precautions for each specific case. And we are working to strengthen our system for providing information related to the safety of products and services. When developing products, we check the regulations of the destination country or region to ensure safety in compliance with those regulations. Depending on customer request, the Quality Assurance Department in each business group takes the lead in cooperating with surveys of chemical substances contained in our products, as well as disclosing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). In addition, the NGK Group Environmental Policy, Procurement Information, and NGK Group Supplier Code of Conduct stipulate that we will implement initiatives together with our suppliers which include the safety of products and services. Therefore, our product stewardship activities include prioritizing procurement of environmentally friendly materials, parts, products, and equipment, as well as working to ensure proper management of the chemical substances contained within our products.
NGK Group Environmental Policy
NGK Group Supplier Code of Conduct
Employee Training and Education
NGK, and our Group companies in Japan, invest in systematic human resources development across all job areas from the time an employee joins the NGK Group, and at every stage in their advancement. Our company-wide training includes content related to the safety of products and services. Specifically, we provide training on IATF 16949/ISO 9000, as well as study sessions on the safety of products and services with regards to the Product Liability Act. In FY2024, we expanded the education focused on the safety of products and services that we started in FY2023. 103 primarily technical employees attended a total of four training courses. In FY2025, we will continue such education and further promote widespread understanding of these concepts among employees.
Please refer to our FY2025 Company-wide Talent Development Structure Chart for more information on company-wide training.
Please refer to Pursuing Quality for Products and Services for more information on quality education.