Customers
Regarding quality as one of its material issues, Toyota Industries practices monozukuri (manufacturing) that quickly responds to the diverse, ever-changing needs of customers.
Basic Perspective
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Quality Vision Each and every member of the Toyota Industries Group complies with laws and regulations while thinking and acting from the perspective of customers at their workplaces and positions to supply appealing products/services that exceed the expectations of customers around the world, with safe and reliable quality. |
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Carrying on the spirit of founder Sakichi Toyoda that “A product should never be sold unless it has been carefully manufactured and fully tested in the commercial trial, with completely satisfactory results,” Toyota Industries strongly believes that quality is the lifeblood of a company. Quality must also be built on compliance with laws and regulations, standards, guidelines and specifications that have been agreed upon with customers. Under this belief, we have formulated our Quality Vision as our philosophy in ensuring quality that forms the basis of our operations.
Toyota Industries strives to maintain and improve the total quality of our corporate activities, which encompasses not only “product quality” but also “marketing quality” and “management quality.” “Product quality” is embodied in the safety, eco-friendliness, durability, ease of use and workmanship of our products, while “marketing quality” entails excellent sales and service in addition to these attributes and “management quality” further enhances our overall corporate image and brand strength in terms of all of these attributes.
Type of Quality Sought by Toyota Industries
Quality Guidelines and Quality Assurance Structure
To achieve the goal of the Quality Vision, we issue the Quality Guidelines, which identify priority quality-related issues to be implemented in each fiscal year, to all production bases in and outside Japan and engage in quality assurance activities accordingly. The implementation status of these guidelines is reviewed by top management at the Quality Functional Meeting chaired by an executive in charge of quality*1 for identifying additional issues and devising countermeasures. Issues raised are followed up at meetings of the Company-wide Council of Heads of Quality Assurance Departments chaired by the head of the Quality Control Department*1.
*1: As of March 31, 2023
Toyota Industries undertakes product development that meets customer expectations by capturing market needs and understanding how our products are actually used by customers.
At Toyota Industries, the development of a new product entails defining specific goals to incorporate quality in every stage from product planning and design to production preparation, production, sales and after-sales services. We perform a design review (DR), which allows a product to proceed to the next stage only when the head of a responsible business division examines and approves whether the product has reached the target quality level.
Additionally, we are proactive in obtaining ISO 9001 certification, an international standard for quality management systems, and IATF 16949, an international standard for automotive quality management systems, throughout the Group.
■ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certification: Acquired by 33 out of the 38 production subsidiaries (as of July 2022)
Risk Assessment for Product Safety
In order to provide products that are safe for customers to use, each business division conducts risk assessment during a DR to identify all risks.
We are also providing Company-wide specialized risk assessment education to promote the development of human resources who can assess two factors integral to risk assessment, namely, the likelihood of an occurrence of a hazard and the severity of damage caused by it.
■Rate of performing risk assessment on applicable products (non-consolidated): 100%
Preventing Occurrence and Recurrence of Defects
If a defect is found in a product after its launch, the Quality Assurance Department of the responsible business division takes the lead in making a swift response to eliminate the concerns of customers quickly and implementing measures to ensure the non-recurrence of the same defect. In particular, a defect causing considerable inconvenience to customers is recorded as a critical quality issue and reported to the president. At the same time, we have in place a system to follow through on customer response as well as measures to prevent recurrence. Accordingly, we examine and identify the cause by going back to its development process. We implement countermeasures both from the process and technological aspects and revise our new product development process as necessary. Through these measures, we strive to thoroughly avoid the recurrence of the defect in subsequent models. Additionally, we make efforts to prevent the occurrence of defects in all products we develop and manufacture in the future by taking measures throughout Toyota Industries. Regarding the regulatory violation related to certification for engines we manufacture for lift trucks for the Japanese market, we are making concerted efforts to not only implement the above measures but also establish a stronger check system.
■Number of recalls( non-consolidated) : 1 (fiscal 2023)
Providing Support to Suppliers
Since improving the quality of our products requires concerted efforts with our suppliers in and outside Japan, we are strengthening joint quality assurance activities with major suppliers.
Quality Audit
In each annual quality audit, we conduct genchi genbutsu (go and see for yourself) inspections to confirm each business partner’s quality control status, provide support and quality education for items that should be reinforced and cultivate a deeper understanding of kaizen (improvement). In fiscal 2023, we continued to undertake audit activities under the COVID-19 pandemic while attaching greater emphasis on genchi genbutsu inspections and using mobile cameras as necessary.
Nurturing and Certifying Internal Auditors at Suppliers
To foster voluntary quality improvement efforts of suppliers, we are maintaining and promoting activities for suppliers satisfying our criteria to nurture and certify their own internal auditors and autonomously improve their quality assurance systems. These activities enable our suppliers to attain the level of quality assurance required and establish a culture to foster quality assurance on their own.
Promoting Human Resources and Workplace Development
Toyota Industries provides systematic quality education to all employees to help them acquire quality assurance skills needed in actual operations. We have been developing human resources who think, learn and act on their own.
QC Circle Activities
(Sweden)
Our production bases outside Japan are also proactive inpromoting QC circle activities. We assist them in undertaking independent activities by nurturing and certifying global QC circle trainers at each base. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic affected QC circle activities of all bases outside Japan since fiscal 2021, these trainers have devised creative solutions to promote and maintain their initiatives. As for the Global QC Circle Convention held in Japan as a venue for presenting activity results, we have been holding a video session since fiscal 2021. Among the Regional QC Circle Conventions hosted in respective regions, the one in Europe was held for the first time in three years in fiscal 2023 to share the accomplishments made by respective bases.
All employees are striving for kaizen in their day-to-day operations through creative ideas. With regard to such ideas, we received three awards in fiscal 2023 in the Creativity category in the Commendation for Science and Technology by Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. These awards are given to those who have used ingenuity in an excellent way and contributed to technology improvement.
Nurturing Human Resources Who Can Take a Scientific Approach
As part of our basic education on quality management, we teach the basics of statistical quality control (SQC) and machine learning. In order to increase the practical application of machine learning, we have been nurturing core human resources through problem solving in the workplace.
We have held the TICO SQC Convention for 39 years to share best practices of each business division and hone collective skills. In fiscal 2023 as well, this session was held online in response to COVID-19.
