CSR activities in FY2017
Relationships with Customers
Ensuring Global Quality
Basic Approach
NTN’s Basic Quality Policy specifies all the basic principles that shape our manufacturing approach. We use it to work on maintaining and improving product quality throughout the world, aiming for high quality that satisfies all our customers.
Basic Quality Policy
Pursuing right quality to meet functions and specifications requested by our customers.
- Applicable quality
Our quality should immediately respond to the change of our customer’s requirements. - Competitive quality
We have to win quality competition. - Quality for economy
Quality should benefit our company.
Quality Slogan
-Quality paves the way for our future.-
Main Activities
Strengthening our global quality assurance system
To meet global market demand, we promote local production and have created a global production network. The smooth and reliable transfer of mother plant production systems is a key requirement for ensuring uniform worldwide quality and providing a quality assurance system. Creating more robust rules for production transfers and process changes is one area of focus. By comparing the quality standards from different production plants, we defined higher-level requirements to ensure stable quality from the very start of production, and we are working to ensure compliance with these rules.
To strengthen the quality of steel material worldwide, we created a Material Management Group, within the Quality Assurance Division, to strictly control the inspection method and acceptance criteria of steel materials used worldwide and centralize management. We are grasping variations of quality and change points of the steel manufacturer at an early stage to prevent market defects caused by materials.
Quality information acquired using G-QUICK
By using G-QUICK ,which centrally manages quality survey requests from customers around the world and quality information such as product investigation and complaints, we can promptly deploy the information to relevant departments and solve problems in early stages.
While rebuilding our IT system, we are also working to upgrade G-Quick.
IATF 16949 certification
We are proactively acquiring ISO 9001 certification (international standard for quality management systems) at domestic and overseas production bases, as well as IATF 16949 certification (additional standard for the automobile industry). The main certification acguisition in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 is as shown on the right.
In addition, JIS Q9100 and Nadcap which are standards for the aerospace industry, and certification for the railway industry standards IRIS (Europe) and CRCC (China) are also obtained.
Major certification achievements
(Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018)
■ISO 9001: 39 production bases certified
| Country | Base | Year of Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | ELECTRIC MODULE PRODUCTS DIVISION | Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Germany | NTN Mettman (Deutschland) G.m.b.H. | Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Japan | GREEN ENERGY PRODUCTS DIVISION | Fiscal year ending March 31, 2019(achieved) |
■IATF 16949: 36 production bases certified
| Country | Base | Year of Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | NTN ENGINEERING PLASTICS CORP. (Currently ENGINEERING PLASTICS WORKS) |
Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Japan | NTN ADVANCED MATERIALS CORP. (Kanie Plant) |
Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Japan | NTN ADVANCED MATERIALS CORP. (Kameyama Plant) |
Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Japan | ERECTIC MODULE PRODUCTS DIVISION | Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| Mexico | NTN MANUFACTURING DE MEXICO.S.A.DE.C.V. | Fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 |
| U.S.A | NTN DRIVERSHAFT ANDERSON, INC. | Fiscal year ending March 31, 2019 (anticipated) |
* Includes bases for which switch from ISO/TS 16949 is under review.
* Applies to domestic and overseas consolidated manufacturing subsidiaries (excluding bases that have not started mass production)
Personnel training to improve Quality skills
To improve employee quality awareness and knowledge, we provided a specialized quality education program to 112 employees during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, including topics such as “QC Basic Course”, “QC Management Course” and “QC Advanced Course”. Quality education courses were also incorporated into training for assistants and leaders of QC Circle activities for the first time.
By reviewing recent quality issues and understanding the importance of quality, we are improving quality at each plant through QC Circle activities to increase quality level.
Group work at QC Basic Course
Global QC Circle Convention
Our Global QC Circle Convention has been held annually since 2011 as a way to let representatives from domestic and overseas QC Circles share and present their activity results and improvement examples. The event was designed to help improve worldwide safety, quality and productivity. Features such as a space for international interaction set up during the event gave the employees in attendance the chance to interact with each other while learning and appreciating the variety of different approaches and mindsets they possess.
A presentation being given at the Global QC Circle Convention
Quality Month Initiatives
Quality Initiatives are held throughout the company in November each year during Quality Month, as a way to improve the quality of our products.
A variety of programs help raise group-wide quality awareness. Original themes and posters are created. Employees determine and commit to their own “Quality First declarations” that outline the issues and commitments they need to work on to ensure quality, and also attend quality presentations.
Improving customer satisfaction
Basic Approach
To help increase customer satisfaction, our domestic and overseas sales bases have a representative for each customer and sales distributor. The use of dedicated representatives lets us suggest the best solutions in the minimum response time when customer issues arise.
Main Activities
Customer Satisfaction Survey
To improve customer satisfaction, we hold a periodic survey covering all our products and services. The responses are used as feedback for suggesting and implementing any needed changes.We are also required to monitor customer’s feedback information in conformance with the client requirements in Paragraph 9.1.2 (Customer satisfaction) of IATF 16949.
The survey conducted in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 received 101 responses from domestic and overseas customers, Results are summarized below.
The results of overall evaluation in Customer Satisfaction Survey
Excellent
29%
Good
69%
Needs some improvement
2%
Needs a lot of improvement
0%
Sales TQM activities
We are working on improving customer satisfaction through on-the-job training and a number of other education and training programs at domestic sales bases.
One program held during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 was a customer strategy training program designed to investigate whether customer-oriented strategic approaches have been implemented by using Cross-SWOT analysis*to identify each customer's strategies and tactics.
We also have a Sales TQM (Total Quality Management) program consisting of meetings and educational seminars held to review weekly activities. The program is a platform for business education, and is designed to foster the ability to think and act from the customer's perspective. Our group training is designed to produce sales reps who can think and act with initiative. The Change Leader Training program was created to produce leaders in improving negotiation skills and reforming attitudes and actions. The Basic Training for Creating Better Strategy Pitches is a program for young employees.
We will continue to focus on training programs designed to accommodate changing customer needs.
Group work at the Change Leader Traning Program
* Cross-SWOT analysis:A methodology that classifies elements of business activities across the four categories of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and evaluates and analyzes each category. Its aim is to derive strategies and tactics by crossing these categories with each other.
Technical Service Units
NTN’s technical service units are completely custom-made multifunctional vans being operated throughout the world. They contain teaching and presentation materials showcasing our products, and are used to hold bearing technology workshops for customers. Since bearings are delicate products, the workshops cover the techniques and procedures needed when customers perform mounting or replacing work themselves.
Interacting with customers around the world in person gives us direct insights into their individual problems and needs.
■Technical service units used around the world
Japan
North America
France
Production
Basic Approach
In addition to producing worldwide, we provide our products to customers with the same outstanding quality, cost and delivery time regardless of their place of origin. We have the top share of the hub bearing market and second-highest share of the driveshaft market worldwide.
"On local sites with local material by local personnel" is a cornerstone of our production approach. We have used this approach to establish and maintain a global production system composed of local production bases managed by local employees and using local materials and equipment.
Main Activities
Global production network
Our production bases in Japan, the Americas, Europe and Asia proactively locate their production activities in the customer regions or the optimal region as required to meet customer needs. Demand is expected to continue increasing overseas, and we will continue expanding our local production activities overseas to meet them.
Our bases also take active steps to ensure that supplies are procured locally or from the optimal location.
■ Production shares by region
* As of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.
■Growth of overseas production rate
New driveshaft plant in U.S.A.(2018)
In-house manufacturing pre-processes and rolling element production
We are actively working on having the manufacturing pre-processes of forging, turning and heat treatment done in-house. Since they usually require large capital investments, manufacturing pre-processes are often outsourced to suppliers. But by handling key manufacturing pre-processes in-house, our domestic and overseas bases will be able to generate benefits unmatched by competitors.
In our forging processes, we are working on improving "Near net shape" which is a shaping technique that produces initial shapes closely resembling the finished product.The technique increases post-processing efficiency and environmental benefits by reducing the amount of material discarded and processing time during the subsequent turning process. Heat treatment process greatly affects product performance and life, and it is done in-house. We are accumulating a portfolio of in-house material composition research and production technologies, working to develop cutting-edge heat treatment technologies such as induction hardening. These efforts will help improve bearing performance and make us more competitive. The rolling elements (balls and rollers) used in bearings are also being produced in-house.
Cutting-edge technology in use at NTN NOTO CORP.'s heat treatment plant
■Main manufacturing processes of bearings
Developing manufacturing technology/equipment
Our manufacturing equipment has been produced (designed/manufactured) in-house since our founding. Our in-house Production Engineering R&D Center researches and develops manufacturing technologies, and designs and manufactures manufacturing equipment. It is now also working on developing next-generation equipment incorporating IoT and AI functions. Examples include our Grow Up series of line equipment* enabling labor-saving adapted to the economic growth of emerging nations, and electron-beam welding (EBW) equipment helping driveshaft component standardization. We are also augmenting our overseas facility maintenance departments, creating a system for local equipment overhauls and renovations.
■Grow Up line equipment
* Grow Up line equipment:A series of semiautomatic equipment supporting later addition of robots and conveyor units to adapt to the labor cost structure of emerging nations.