JSR Group’s Management Policies state “Always strive to increase customer satisfaction” as its policy on quality. We believe that an important role of JSR is to supply innovative materials and excellent products that meet customer needs and contribute to a better society. Going forward, we will continuously implement initiatives to enhance quality from the standpoints of expanding business globally and into broader fields, diversifying the supply chain as a result, and addressing more sophisticated customer needs.

The Environment, Safety and Quality Committee, which is chaired by the officer in charge of safety, quality and environment, deliberates and formulates JSR Group’s activity policy and action plan on quality. The committee also supervises these activities and their results. For details about the Environment, Safety and Quality Committee, please see below.

• For details about Responsible Care management at JSR, see “2. RC Advancement Structure.”

JSR Group’s main plants and business sites have obtained ISO 9001 certification, the international standard for quality management systems.

In addition, we have established quality management systems (ISO 13485^*1, GMP^*2, etc.) for corresponding products that we handle at manufacturing bases for the Life Sciences Business, and conduct quality assurance accordingly.

• *1 ISO 13485: An international standard of quality management system for medical devices and in vitro diagnostic drugs
• *2 GMP: Abbreviation for Good Manufacturing Practice, a standard for manufacturing and quality management of pharmaceuticals.

• ESG Data

JSR shares its basic approach to quality management in terms of design and development, purchasing, production and sales with the entire Group and strives to ensure consistency in the application of this approach by all employees. Toward this end, we established and enforce the Quality Guidelines, which serve as a guideline for quality control at JSR Group.

• Design review for commercialization
• Design review for planning^*3
• Manufacturing and process management
• Response to quality issues

*3 Design review: A system for quality evaluation between multiple related departments during the design and development phases of new products to determine whether the quality meets customer requirements.

JSR Group conducts quality verification using quality management methods in each stage of design and development, manufacturing, and quality assurance. We eliminate quality risks in advance to mass produce products that meet the customers’ quality requirements.

• Quality control at the time of product manufacturing using QFD (Quality Function Deployment^*4)
• Identification of risks in advance at the time of starting new product manufacturing or process changes using FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis^*5)

*4 Quality Function Deployment (QFD): A design approach aimed at making quality assurance possible by bring the design quality of a supplied product to the manufacturing process.

*5 Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA): A Method for assigning priority to countermeasures after estimating risks in case an abnormality were to occur in design, process development and/or manufacturing.

JSR Group incorporates the “Six Sigma methods”^*6 that reduces product defect rates based on statistical data analyses, to its traditional quality control methods. This approach has yielded substantial results in quality improvement. Moreover, use of the Six Sigma methods also transforms employees’ approaches into data-driven thinking^*7.

*6 The Six Sigma methods: A quality improvement method that was developed by Motorola of the United States in the 1980s. It seeks to suppress quality deficiencies and improve quality by controlling variability with focus on the processes by which variability occurs.

*7 Data-driven thinking: An approach to thinking and taking action based on data

Quality management reviews are conducted annually by factory managers and the management personnel at JSR Group’s ISO-certified business sites. In addition, quality audits check quality control activities and the quality control mechanisms within the quality management system using the PDCA cycle^*8.

• Report on results of customer satisfaction survey
• Presentations and commendations on quality improvement activities

*8 PDCA cycle: A method of improving business operations by repeating the four steps of Plan, Do, Check and Act.

JSR Group provides stratified training on quality control and product liability prevention. In addition, an intranet site containing quality training materials and videos is set up for employees to always have access to these quality-related training materials. Through these training programs, we are working to increase the level of quality companywide and transform the way employees think about quality.

• Quality control training
• PLP training
• Six Sigma training