Concepts on Quality Management and the Development of Products, Technologies and Services

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Quality Policy

Quality Policy

Create a Future of Joy & Well-Being for All
Uniting our diverse strengths, growing together, driving and thriving on change with action and quality that always puts the customer first.

We hereby enact and shall henceforth put into practice the following Quality Policies based on our Corporate Philosophy, which espouses the ideals of contributing broadly to society by providing products and services that fulfill the needs of markets and customers while abiding by all applicable laws and regulations.

1) Provide products and services that earn the continued trust of customers while responding to the changing times through consistent practice of the “5-Gen* Principle.”

* 5-Gen:Genchi (Actual Site), Genbutsu (Actual Objects), Genjitsu (Facts), Genri (Principles), Gensoku (Rules)

2) Create appealing products through innovation to pioneer the future backed by strong connections throughout our group.

3) With full participation, engage in proactive activities to preempt and prevent problems through continuous education, as well as thoroughgoing standardization and compliance.

All employees of the Sumitomo Rubber Group shall understand and practice these Quality Policies while striving to ensure the full implementation and operation of our Quality Management System.

Enacted: September 10, 1999、
Revised: March 28, 2022

Quality Management System

The Sumitomo Rubber Group has established its quality management system based on the ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standard and the IATF 16949 Automotive Quality Management System Standard.

Status of Quality Management System Certification

Business base Country Production item ISO 9001 IATF 16949
Kobe Head Office Japan Tires ✓ ✓
Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Marine fenders ✓
Rubber parts for medical applications
(medical rubber)		 ✓
Tokyo Head Office Tires ✓ ✓
Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Tire Technical Center Tires ✓ ✓
Tire Deflation Warning Systems ✓
Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Tire Proving Grounds: Okayama, Asahikawa, Nayoro Tires ✓ ✓
Nagoya Factory Tires ✓ ✓
Shirakawa Factory Tires ✓ ✓
Miyazaki Factory Tires ✓ ✓
Izumiotsu Factory Tires ✓ ✓
Rubber parts for medical applications
(medical rubber)		 ✓
Kakogawa Factory Marine fenders ✓
Rubber parts for medical applications
(medical rubber)		 ✓
Utsunomiya Office Tires ✓ ✓
Osaka Office Marine fenders ✓
Nagoya Office (within Nagoya Factory) Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Hiroshima Office Tires ✓ ✓
Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
SRI Engineering, Ltd. Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber North America Inc. U.S.A. Tires ✓
Sumitomo Rubber do Brasil Ltda. Brazil Tires ✓ ✓
Falken Tire Europe GmbH Germany Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber Europe GmbH Tires ✓ ✓
Dunlop Tech GmbH Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Sumitomo Rubber AKO Lastik San. Tic.A.Ş. Turkey Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber South Africa(PTY)Ltd. South Africa Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber (Changshu) Co.,Ltd. China Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber (HuNan) Co., Ltd. Tires ✓ ✓
Zhongshan Sumirubber Precision Rubber Ltd. Tire Puncture Emergency Repair Kits ✓
Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand) Co.,Ltd. Thailand Tires ✓ ✓
Dunlop Srixon Sports Manufacturing（Thailand）Co., Ltd. Tennis balls ✓
PT Sumi Rubber Indonesia Indonesia Tires ✓ ✓
Sumitomo Rubber Singapore Pte. Ltd. Singapore Tires ✓ ✓
Sumirubber Malaysia Sdn.Bhd. Malaysia Rubber gloves ✓

※Standards: ISO 9001: 2015, IATF 16949: 2016

Initiatives to Improve Product Quality and Operational Quality

The Sumitomo Rubber Group implements policies determined by the Central Quality Control (QC) Committee and then enforced by QC committees at each division, so that our products and services are always of good quality, with all business units, ranging from manufacturing, development and administration to sales divisions, maintaining a high quality of operations.
In addition to promoting annual activities aimed at making improvements, we have designated November as “Quality Month” to raise quality awareness among employees. During this month, we hold “QC Presentation Meetings” at Group business bases at home and abroad while soliciting QC slogans and commending excellent submissions. Moreover, the “Quality Meeting” is held at our Kobe Head Office, to share and award best practices of product quality and operational quality improvements in each department and each office. These activities enhance awareness of quality among employees, allow information on customer and market needs to be shared, and ensure that quality is continually improved from the customer’s point of view. As a result, they ultimately help to increase customer satisfaction.

Central QC Committee Organization

Central QC Committee Organization
Central QC Committee Organization

Management Reviews

Monthly reporting sessions with the President

Central QC Committee

As the highest decision-making body in terms of product and operational quality within the Sumitomo Rubber Group, this body determines annual policies, priority issues, and targets. It also spearheads implementation and keeps track of performance.
(Meetings held three times a year)

QC Committees for Each Business

As subordinate bodies of the Central QC Committee, each QC committee develops policies in line with the Central Committee's directives, presents these quality policies to each department, and promotes improvements in both product and operational quality.
In addition, to enhance the efficiency of activities, the committees also establish and closely observe the activities of subcommittees and specialist committees.
(Reporting sessions held three times a year)

Quality Audits of Contracted Manufacturing Service Vendors and Externally Procured Products

As part of efforts to deliver a future of joy and well-being to customers, the Sumitomo Rubber Group endeavors to maintain and improve the quality of raw materials and externally procured products used in the manufacture of Tire, Hybrid and Sports business products through engagement in systematic quality audits of raw materials suppliers and external manufacturing service vendors, activities to correct quality issues and establishment of partnerships.
In addition, given recent global events and a changing external environment, we have become increasingly concerned about maintaining raw material quality. So having conducted careful evaluations and assessments from the perspective of BCP, we have started diversifying the regions from which we source raw materials and externally procured products, selecting new suppliers, and developing sustainable raw materials. We are also making even more of an effort to improve the quality of raw materials and externally procured products, while endeavoring to improve our internal environment by enhancing quality monitoring through interdepartmental and inter-site cooperation.

Our Response to the Occurrence of Issues Associated with Product Safety

As a manufacturer, the Sumitomo Rubber Group maintains an acute awareness of its responsibility to secure product safety. Committed to fulfilling this responsibility, we implement thoroughgoing measures to this end in the course of day-to-day operations. For example, we conduct preliminary product assessments assuming extremely harsh usage conditions. Prior to initiating the mass-production of new items, be it tire, sports, industrial or any other products, we ensure that quality assessment results are rigorously examined by quality assurance departments in charge of each product. We have thus established a framework in which no product can be released without the approval of these departments. Even after the commencement of mass-production, we undertake thoroughgoing quality control measures to ensure that we always deliver high-quality, safe products. In the unlikely event that a product is found to be defective or potentially defective, we immediately launch an investigation to determine the cause and, if necessary, convene the Safety Countermeasure Meeting. In these ways, we have established a framework that allows us to swiftly implement necessary measures.