Relationships with Customers

As a part of the production reform promotion activities, we are taking initiatives to create factories where people, goods and information flow “NAMERAKA^*”. In particular, we aim to streamline our entire SCM through shortened lead time from order to shipment by synchronizing things including suppliers and shortening/connecting production processes, as well as through effective inventory management. We aim to reduce “inventories (material inventory, in-process inventory, and finished good inventory) = invested capital” by creating the framework for overall optimization and promoting streamlined production. By improving return on invested capital (ROIC), we will strengthen the profitability and management performance of the entire NTN.

＊ “NAMERAKA” means “smooth” in Japanese.

Pursuing right quality to meet functions and specifications requested by our customers.

We are proactively acquiring ISO 9001 certification (international standard for quality management systems) at domestic and overseas production sites, as well as IATF 16949 certification (additional standard for the automobile industry). In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, three new sites have been certified. This means that, if we do not consider production sites which are still in development, all our domestic and overseas consolidated subsidiaries have now received the proper certification for their Quality Management System.
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 by relevant sites.

To earn the confidence of customers in the NTN brand, it is essential to eliminate quality problems, so we are working on activities to reduce customer complaints on a Group-wide basis.
For new products and newly launched products, we aim to deliver stable quality from the very start of production, by enhancing risk analysis through pre-production preparation activities and design reviews. To eliminate recurring complaints, in addition to promoting local audits intended to follow up on measures taken, we globally distribute check sheets summarizing the causes of past customer complaints as well as the measures taken, coupled with key points for preventing recurrence. Moreover, we obtain findings from the inspections to examine the risks of recurrence as well as the effectiveness of the measures.
By using our quality information management system (G-QUICK), which centrally manages information of customer complaints on a global basis, we can promptly deploy the information to relevant departments and solve problems in the early stages.

Although our materials, equipment, and production environment differ from one country to another and from one region to another, the NTN brand is one and the same. We think it is important to deliver uniform worldwide quality and to establish a global quality assurance system while working to build a global production system.
For launching a new plant, we have enhanced the rules for production transfers and process changes to make an arrangement for the smooth and reliable transfer of mother plant production systems. Moreover, in addition to revising the quality standards and processes at production plants, we have been conducting project activities aimed at creating production processes involving higher quality assurance levels.
Given that it will become increasingly more important to distinguish ourselves through high quality and more advanced functions, and deliver quality adapting to low-price market segments, we at the NTN Group will work as one team to pursue quality improvement activities with the aim of developing the NTN brand into a globally-trusted name.

To push forward with production in the customer regions under our global production system, it is essential to procure steel material locally and enhance the quality of that steel material. As a step toward doing so, we have created a specialized department within the Quality Assurance Headquarters of the head office to strictly control the inspection method and acceptance criteria of steel materials used worldwide, etc. and to centrally manage quality control. We detect the variations of quality and change points of the steel manufacturer at an early stage to prevent market defects caused by materials. We also actively continue to audit materials manufacturers and give them technical assistance on a periodic basis.

As a recent trend, among major quality defects which largely affect the market, many of their initial causes lie hidden in the pre-mass production stage. Since the establishment of the Quality Assurance Headquarters in 2018, we also have been focusing on measures against quality defects arising from the working stage of engineering. We continue our Monozukuri openly and squarely by identifying quality risks and improving them, such as rules difficult to comply with from the perspective of actual manufacturing.
We promote local productions according to demands of global market, which we divide into four regions throughout the world. While localizing steel materials procurement and special processes, we strengthen rules to achieve globally standardized quality and build a global system to centrally manage quality information. To be chosen by customers with trust, the entire NTN Group will work as one to further strengthen its quality assurance system.