Quality
Enhancing Product Quality and Customer Satisfaction
Goals and Achievements of Major Initiatives
Secure product quality.
| Fiscal year | Goals | Achievements | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Ensure that understanding of roles of pertinent departments in the new organization permeates the entire Group. | Organizational changes were implemented in January 2024. The functions and roles of corporate headquarters’ departments responsible for quality control and site quality assurance groups were clarified and organizational changes were implemented that facilitated the smooth rollout. | ★★ |
|
Quality audits confirmed the status of process implementation at sites and corrective measures were implemented. | ★★ | |
| 2025 | Ensure that understanding of the functions and roles of departments responsible for quality permeates the entire Group. | ― | ― |
| Deploy preventative actions based on the identification of latent risks. | ― | ― |
- Evaluations are based on self-evaluations of current progress.
Key: ★★★ = Excellent; ★★ = Satisfactory; ★ = Still needs work
Basic Approach
In line with The DIC Way and its basic sustainability policy, the DIC Group positions its Environment, Safety and Health Policy and its Quality Policy as two inseparable aspects of its operations. Accordingly, the Group works continuously to provide products and services that respond to the needs of customers and society at large.
DIC’s Quality Policy
Contribute to the prosperity of customers and society by consistently providing reliable products (Updated in May 2015)
Framework for Promotion
DIC’s Quality Assurance Department is part of the Production Management Unit.
Having previously created the position of deputy general manager in charge of quality control in each of the management units, in fiscal year 2024 DIC revamped its quality management system (QMS).
- Quality assurance groups at individual sites report directly to the general manager of that site and focus on initiatives that emphasize the protection of product quality.
- The corporate headquarters’ Quality Assurance Department and Quality Control Department focus on identifying issues facing sites and product divisions and devising the most effective measures in response and reinforcing governance.
The Quality Assurance Department and Quality Control Department participate in product division quality meetings and conferences shown below and respond swiftly and appropriately to issues as required, as well as in the promotion of improvement initiatives aimed at bolstering the quality of products and operations across the DIC Group in Japan and at ensuring the appropriate use of related systems.
- The Quality Committee (led by the president and CEO), which convenes on a quarterly basis, thus maintaining direct involvement in quality management for the DIC Group in Japan, formulates Group quality policies and deliberates important quality measures. At committee meetings, product division general managers and unit heads report on the implementation status of these measures and summarize related activities. Meeting results are reported to the Board of Directors, which provides appropriate supervision.
- DIC Group quality conferences, which are conducted by the management unit deputy general manager in charge of quality control, concentrate on transforming key policies and measures for the Group in Japan into specific strategies, as well as on communicating these strategies and monitoring their implementation. The conferences also receive monthly quality reports from sites and product divisions.
- Product division quality conferences are led by product division general managers and focus on raising customer satisfaction. As well as proposing solutions that deliver value to customers, the product division quality conferences are in charge of business continuity management (BCM) initiatives and the management of changes, both matters of importance to customers.
- Site quality conferences, which are conducted by site general managers, are tasked with ensuring the appropriate functioning of the DIC Group’s QMS and promoting improvements. In response to issues of nonconformance, site quality conferences investigate causes, formulate plans for corrective actions, recurrence prevention and preemptive measures, and monitor implementation.
Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement Initiatives
01Quality Assurance Department Initiatives
- Plan and implement quality policies and important quality measures.
- Promote overall initiatives aimed at improving quality and customer satisfaction.
- Reinforce construction, support and operation of QMS-related systems.
- Provide advice and guidance on how to handle serious quality issues (complaints, criticisms, and issues of misconduct or inappropriate conduct).
- Issues of misconduct or inappropriate conduct refer to instances of intentional misrepresentation, concealment of information or provision of false information to pertinent stakeholders (misconduct), or when a shipped product does not comply with laws, regulations and/or DIC’s agreement with the customer (inappropriate conduct).
02Quality Control Department Initiatives
- Provide support for the planning and implementation of quality-related education.
- Plan and implement policies and measures related to quality control and quality audits.
- Streamline and improve quality control and quality inspection processes.
To provide high-quality products that customers feel secure using, the DIC Group promotes a variety of quality improvement initiatives during product planning, design and development, the procurement of raw materials, production, product storage and sales. In addition to regular quality audits and internal audits, the DIC Group in Japan monitors and inspects sites as appropriate to ensure operations conform with the QMS and makes improvements to systems and procedures to further earn the trust of customers. The Group is also promoting the evolution of quality control and quality inspection processes by enhancing the efficiency and nature of procedures, as well as by preventing human error.
03Compliance-Focused Initiatives
Recognizing compliance as a key priority, the DIC Group believes that a corporate culture in which each employee works to ensure quality is essential to its ability to provide products that satisfy its customers, as well as to contribute to society. Through initiatives such as Top Management Training and the All About Quality e-learning program, the Group provides training that, rather than being conceptual in nature, employs case studies and emphasizes the importance of each individual thinking and acting as if quality is their responsibility even if they are not directly involved in production. Going forward, the Group will continue to expand training designed to give employees a greater sense of ownership over their own work.
04Collaboration with DIC Group Companies in Other Countries and Territories
In fiscal year 2025, the DIC Group in Japan will consider a new framework that strengthens cooperation with the DIC Group in the PRC and the Asia–Pacific region, and will gather information with a view to collaboration with Sun Chemical Corporation in the future.
Sun Chemical Initiatives
Sun Chemical has established a QMS-focused organization that has the following roles:
- lead the global Sun Chemical effort to achieve and maintain International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), food safety and other industry certifications, as well as maintain relationships with third-party registrars and manage the internal audit program to ensure the excellence of Sun Chemical on-site audits;
- work with the business unit commercial teams, technology and quality control groups, and leadership to address quality topics such as corrective actions, preventative actions, complaint investigations and customer inquiries;
- support the commercial side by providing documentation and details based on Sun Chemical’s quality program to address customer quality information requests, including customer audits; and
- work closely with regulatory and environment, health and safety (EHS) groups to ensure that the quality program is appropriate, and that information is clear and consistent, to support customers.
In fiscal year 2024, key initiatives implemented by Sun Chemical included
- deploying software solutions for global QMS operations, including document management, audit tracking, management of change, training and quality dashboards; and
- for the Sun Chemical Group as a whole,
- transitioning from individual (business unit and country) to regional ISO certification;
- establishing an internal audit program; and
- leading a Net Promoter Score (NPS) project to expand deployment of this mechanism from North America to other countries.
Initiatives planned for fiscal year 2025 include
- transitioning from regional ISO to single ISO certification for Sun Chemical; and
- supporting Sun Chemical’s businesses by preparing and conducting internal audits for third-party ISO certification audits, including by
- updating quality documentation for customers (e.g., GMP policy, change management policy and quality self-assessment documents);
- benchmarking Sun Chemical’s global QMS system against industry standards to ensure continuous improvement;
- investigating reported quality issues and providing needed support; and
- providing periodic quality investigation, continuous improvement (i.e., problem solving methodologies and food safety) and NPS improvement, to business units.
