Quality Assurance

Mission to create value

We supply products and services that are safe and provide peace of mind through our quality assurance activities based on relationships of trust with our various stakeholders including our customers and suppliers.

Policies

Our quality policy is to “provide global top-level quality that contributes to the sustainable development of society,” and through quality assurance activities, we offer safe and reliable products and services to our customers throughout the entire product cycle, from development and design to launch, manufacturing, sales, and post-marketing. By maximizing the value we provide through co-creation based on relationships of trust with various stakeholders, including customers and suppliers, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society. We have also established mechanisms for the early detection of various potential risks that could hinder these efforts and work to prevent them from materializing. If a risk does materialize, the relevant departments work together to minimize its impact.

Promotion System

Quality assurance activities at Resonac are led along the business axis by the quality assurance departments at each manufacturing site, the frontline of manufacturing, and are promoted daily through collaboration among all departments involved in manufacturing. In addition, the Quality Assurance Promotion Division, a head office organization under the Chief Operations, Manufacturing and Engineering Officer (CMEO)/Chief Quality Officer (CQO), serves as a cross-functional organization responsible for comprehensive quality assurance strategy and system planning (Plan & Action), system management (Do), and control functions such as risk assessment and audits (Check) for the Resonac Group. Through close information sharing, communication, and other forms of collaboration between the head office organization and each manufacturing site, we operate the Group-wide PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle and continuously improve our quality assurance system.
Quality assurance activities are reported to management through the Sustainability Promotion Council and other forums. We have also established a framework for sharing Group quality assurance policies and priority issues between the head office and business sites through the annual Quality Assurance Managers’ Meeting, which brings together the persons responsible for quality assurance at each manufacturing site.

Ensuring Quality Compliance

Resonac incorporates strict adherence to quality compliance into the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Regulations and sets out specific implementation requirements in detailed rules, thereby ensuring that related measures are thoroughly implemented at the head office and business sites.
The lessons learned and recurrence prevention measures from the inappropriate inspection cases identified at the former Hitachi Chemical in 2018 have been carried over to Resonac, where we continue to strengthen our systems and prevent recurrence.
The head office quality assurance department promotes employee awareness through quality compliance education, including e-learning. To eliminate risk factors for inappropriate inspections, it also develops inspection systems that leave no room for falsification or fabrication and conducts quality risk assessments and audits of business sites from a compliance perspective.
In 2025, following the 2023 survey, we conducted a quality compliance awareness survey at domestic business sites and Group companies. We analyzed the extent to which an organizational culture that values commitments to stakeholders had been fostered and whether there had been any changes over the preceding two years. We plan to continue this survey in Japan and overseas in alternate years.
Analysis of past cases also showed a higher tendency for inappropriate inspections to occur in tasks performed exclusively by a single inspector. We therefore continue to conduct inspection work risk surveys, identify inspection work assigned exclusively to individual inspectors, reduce such exclusive assignments through inspector rotation and multi-skilling, and strengthen the retention of inspection result records.

Strategy for Realizing the Long-Term Vision

Roadmap for 2030

KPI Targets and Results

Resonac positions sustainability at the core of its company-wide strategy and has identified material issues for sustainability. To achieve each material issue, we have established the following KPIs in the field of quality assurance and aim to realize our Long-Term Vision.

• ※ The definition is based on Resonac’s internal standards.

Product safety management

As a basic rule for activities to ensure product safety, in addition to compliance with laws and regulations, we have established "Quality Assurance and Quality Control Regulations" within the company. Within these, in order for customers to use our products safely and with peace of mind, we have established various audit operations and risk management tasks to ensure product safety at each stage of the product lifecycle. Additionally, for "sample shipments" and "product launches" where new products are provided to customers, we have established a review system that determines whether to proceed with shipment and launch based on a risk-based approach.
Furthermore, for certain certified products, external audits regarding product safety are conducted periodically. Certified products display a mark, and the effectiveness of quality maintenance is confirmed through periodic external audits of the certified products even after certification. As an example, the UL mark is displayed on products that meet the safety standards set by UL Solutions, an authorized company.

Implementation of quality risk/capability evaluation and audits

We have conducted quality risk assessments by the headquarters quality assurance department with the aim of strengthening governance across the entire group and clarifying and sharing the strengths and weaknesses of each Business Unit, office, and group company. Starting from 2025, we plan to take this initiative one step further by establishing a framework to evaluate the competence of business sites from both risk and capability perspectives, and to promote a cycle of improvement activities.This was named "QRiC," taking the initials from Quality Risk/Capability Assessment. In QRiC activities, evaluations are conducted from seven perspectives: [1]customers and society, [2]product safety, [3]compliance, [4]quality assurance, [5] quality control, [6]management systems, and [7]people and organizations, both at the headquarters and business sites. Through alignment, we carry out convincing evaluations that lead to improvements. If high-risk sites are identified during this process, we establish a system that enables prompt measures through audits and other methods.

Enhancement of on-site capabilities

To improve the level of quality assurance and quality control, we have set "strengthening on-site capabilities (the skills and awareness of workers on site)" as a priority, and are globally advancing the development of quality assurance personnel necessary for a globally top-class functional chemical manufacturer by constructing an education system tailored to different levels (providing education curricula suited to each level). Additionally, to promote improvement activities by sharing examples of activities beyond the boundaries of individual sites, a system was established to share and utilize best practices implemented at each site as "Good Practices" across the entire group. Furthermore, joint meetings and exchange events are held between sites to advance collaborative efforts.

Reducing Quality Complaints

Resonac works to reduce quality complaints in order to improve customer satisfaction. We classify complaints and aim to eliminate them thoroughly, including minor complaints. We target a 20% year-on-year reduction by implementing recurrence prevention measures based on analyses of complaint causes, applying lessons learned from past complaints across business boundaries, and advancing quality control through the accumulation and analysis of various quality-related data.

Quality Management System

At each manufacturing site, Resonac works to maintain and improve its quality management system (QMS) through certification to international standards such as ISO 9001 and IATF 16949. We regard customer audits as opportunities to objectively confirm whether product and service safety and appropriate quality control are assured, and we use the findings to continuously improve our QMS. For certain products, we also use periodic drills based on emergency response plans as input for enhancing the QMS.

Quality Education and Culture

Resonac promotes quality education through two pillars to enable employees to systematically acquire the knowledge required in quality assurance and quality control. One is an elective technical program, and the other is a compliance program centered on quality compliance e-learning for all employees. The technical program offers approximately 15 courses, including Quality Risk Management, Root Cause Analysis, Statistical Analysis, and Internal Auditor Training. Quality Risk Management covers product safety, product liability measures, and product risk assessment, and is offered as two courses, Quality Risk Management I and Quality Risk Management II. Employees who wish to participate can take these courses online once a year, and the materials are also available at any time as e-learning content. Participants learn from past product accidents, consider how to prevent recurrence, learn product risk evaluation methods, and study internal systems for reducing risk. In 2025, approximately 2,300 participants attended these technical courses. For quality compliance, in addition to e-learning, we have prepared video materials with subtitles in three languages to promote understanding and foster compliance awareness. We are also introducing quality compliance education for new employees and employees newly appointed to management positions.

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