Sustainability
Pursuing Safety for Products and Services
Basic Approach
The NGK Group pursues safety for our products and services through quality activities that follow our quality policy based on the NGK Group Corporate Business Principles.
NGK Group Corporate Business Principles
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 (Executive Vice President), 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 have established companywide guidelines for activities related to the safety of products and services. These guidelines present our approach to safety and approach/method for risk assessment and reduction in a format that complies with ISO/IEC Guide 51:2014. This is a basic international guideline concerning safety which forms the basis for promotion of activities related to the safety of products and services by our business divisions and R&D departments. Moreover, the concept behind these guidelines forms the quality assurance rules that are positioned as one of our six quality items requiring conformance. The system is designed to implement and verify these rules through QRE-P Activities*1.
- Products and services developed by business divisions are subject to design review based on the requirements of IATF 16949/ISO 9001 and IEC QC 080000. We have included items related to the safety of products and services in the items to be discussed in the design review, and ensure they are discussed during the design stage. We also use internal and external audits to check the risk assessment status and uncover deficiencies in the work process in accordance with these requirements. The Corporate Quality Management Department participates in DR*2 to confirm/support the risk evaluations from each department. This system is designed to deliberate on the status of implementation of risk assessment for products and services newly developed by the Quality Assurance Review Meeting.
- 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, Corporate Quality Management Department or Corporate Planning Office takes the lead in corporate action based on our Basic Rules of Crisis Management.
- Each business division conducts risk analysis, implements preventive measures, and formulates emergency response plans in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001/IATF 16949.
- We conduct customer satisfaction surveys based on the requirements of ISO 9001/IATF 16949 to ascertain the usage and deterioration of shipped products. Meanwhile, as part of our QRE-P activities, depending on the products characteristics, we monitor products in the market or periodically sample products from the market and consider what corrective measures must be taken 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 Design review
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 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, our Guidelines for Environmental Action, 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 FY2023, we began education focused on the safety of products and services. Starting in FY2024, we will expand such education and further promote widespread understanding of these concepts.
Please refer to our FY2024 Company-Wide Education Scheme for more information on company-wide training.