PROVIDING PEACE OF MIND AND SAFETY TO CUSTOMERS

Customers Providing Peace of Mind and Safety to Customers

Basic policy

KOKUYO always develops new products and services from the perspectives of customers, and, without being satisfied with the present conditions, we continue to improve the safety and quality of our entire product line and services.

KOKUYO Quality Pledge

We shall continually aim to delight and win the trust of customers by providing products and services that help people work, play, and learn better.

• We shall endeavor to develop products that exceed customer expectations in every way
• We shall endeavor to ensure product safety and to raise the bar on product quality
• We shall comply with legal requirements and fulfill our corporate social responsibility
• We shall listen to customers and incorporate their feedback into the development cycle
• We shall update our management system in response to changes in the business landscape

KOKUYO Group’s Code of Conduct, respect for human rights

Quality Management System (QMS)

Managing the quality assurance process

In accordance with our QMS, we manage and continually improve quality at each process: planning, design, manufacturing, and distribution.

SR-DR: safety review and design review

QA activities

• In accordance with our QMS, a third-party audit and internal audit are conducted once a year.
• We provide organized and sustained QA education (team leader training and programs for training, or improving the skills of, QA auditors).
• We inform employees about the QMS, improve its effectiveness, and improve motivation to engage in it (using our newsletter Online, webcasts, an award program, and issuing QMS straps).

Systems

Attainment of ISO 9001 (Quality Management System) Certification by All Companies

As of June 2019, all companies in our corporate group have attained ISO 9001:2015 (which specifies requirements for a quality management system) and we have standardized the manufacturing (“craftsmanship process”) for our three main kinds of business: office furniture, stationery, and Kaunet’s office supplies. Our quality management systems, as well as complying with the requirements specified in ISO 9001:2015, are continually improved. In other words, we continually look for ways to make our workforce more quality consciousness and to improve customer satisfaction, believing that quality goes hand in hand with sustained business growth.

Quality Assurance for Stationery

In order to deliver quality that our customers can trust, we have taken steps to systematically build, operate and improve our systems for quality assurance, covering planning, design, manufacturing, and distribution.

• Continually improving quality assurance

  To ensure that customers can use our products safely and securely, we continually improve our system for quality assurance by updating the key processes (design review, safety review, production observation, chemical safety management, legal compliance). We also perform risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential risks.

• Inspection and testing based on international standards

  When testing and inspecting products, we apply international standards. We evaluate testing and inspection processes with a view to improving the country-specific standards. Additionally, we endeavor to do more to catch defects before the product is sold to customers.

• Responding to customer complaints quicker and more accurately

  It is not enough for a product to be objectively safe; the customer must feel reassured that it is so. This is especially true in today’s world, where people have a plethora of information at their fingertips. Accordingly, we need to respond all the quicker and all the more accurately to customer complaints. To that end, we have established clear and standardized protocols, tools, and criteria for responding to such incidents. Such standardization streamlines the response process and minimizes inconsistencies in responses.

• Testing for quality, testing for value

  We have always performed thorough quality evaluations when updating products or releasing new ones, and we recently introduced robotics to enhance the reproducibility and accuracy of the testing. For a product to satisfy customers, it must not only be reasonably priced and reliable; it must also have a wow-factor. We have started quantifying the extent to which a product has this.

  

  Robotics technology for quality testing

Quality Assurance for Furniture

Our workplace businesses attained ISO 9001 certification in 1997. Since then, we have standardized the marketing, planning, design, production, and installation processes for furniture. We use a PDCA cycle to ensure that we always provide products and services that are tailored to the changing ways in which people work, study, and live. We continually strive to improve our manufacturing, delivery, and installation. We listen to feedback from customers and use this feedback to inform and guide our continual-improvement activities.

• Setting high standards for craftsmanship

  When developing a product, we assess safety and functionality using a variety of metrics. As well as measuring the product against the Japanese Industrial Standards and other industry standards, we measure it against our own standards, which are even higher and which we update annually.

• Dealing with defects
  When a customer finds a defect in one of our products, we inform the relevant personnel without delay. As well as investigating the cause for the defect, we make the necessary improvements in the product or manufacturing process to prevent a similar defect. If there is a serious safety issue, the Risk Compliance Committee will determine the response. To limit the damage, we will notify the relevant authorities and issue notices on our website and in newspapers and other media to alert consumers.

  

  KOKUYO corporate site

  Public notices on our website
• Public notices concerning safety or quality issues

  We use our website to alert consumers about safety or quality issues with our products.

Quality Assurance for Kaunet’s Products

Kaunet has a huge lineup that includes stationery, office supplies, food and drink, home appliances, gifts, medical equipment, shop equipment, order-made business cards and seals/stamps, and office furniture. The business has around 8,000 suppliers. It also has its own premium brand, Kaukore, which emphasizing workplace productivity. At least 5,300 products are sold under this brand. Kaunet always strives to develop useful products based on ideas from the user’s perspective. To ensure that its products are safe and command confidence, Kaunet works together in the value chain to improve not only the quality of its goods but also the customer service at call centers and delivery.

• Kaukore, Kaunet’s premium series

  When developing a product, we assess safety and functionality using a variety of metrics. As well as measuring the product against the Japanese Industrial Standards and other industry standards, we measure it against our own standards, which are even higher and which we update annually.

  
• Hearing it straight from the customers: Monitor Kaunet

  Kaunet operates Monitor Kaunet, a web community through which it interacts with customers directly. Monitor Kaunet helps Kaunet understand the concerns and problems customers experience on a daily basis, providing inspiration for product ideas.

  Click here for the Monitor Kaunet community site

  
• A call center for hearing customer feedback on a daily basis

  As well as Monitor Kaunet, Kaunet operates a call center. The feedback obtained over the phone leads to improvements to existing products and services as well as to new products. Kaunet shares the feedback throughout the entire company so that it can improve its products and services.

• Trustworthy delivery service

  Customers can order Kaunet products on the company’s website or from its printed catalog. Goods are delivered on the same day or on the following day at the latest. An assembly service is also available for bulky furniture and items that are tricky to assemble. For this service, delivery staff trained in furniture assembly will assemble and install the item in the customer’s office or home and take all the packaging away with them.

Initiatives in 2023

QMS talent development

Annual Training to Improve the Skills of the Members of the QMS Internal Audit Team

We conduct internal audits every year in our quality management system (QMS) activities. The purpose of those audits is to evaluate whether the QMS is producing results as intended. The members of the internal audit team appointed by the organization evaluate whether products, services and the processes that produce those comply with the requirements in internal audits. If there is a problem, the identified organization promptly strives to correct it. KOKUYO considers these internal audits to be a very important measures to enhance customer satisfaction. Accordingly, we provide skills-upgrading training every year so that members of the internal audit team improve their skills to be able to conduct effective internal audits.

Regular team leader training

Team leaders are process owners (they are accountable for the process in question). To train up process owners, we organize an annual training program focusing on how to apply the QMS in organizational management. In group discussions, attendees deepen their knowledge about the need for the QMS, the role of a team leader, effective strategies, and how they should support members.