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Quality and Reliability
Fundamental Approach to the Pursuit of Quality Management
The fundamental principle of Monozukuri lies in Komatsu's commitment to Quality and Reliability in order to provide products-both hardware and software-that customers are happy to own (see The Basic Stance of Management).
For Komatsu, putting the customer first constitutes one of its Basic Managerial Principles, and all divisions are responsible for putting this principle into practice, whether development, manufacturing, sales, after-sales service, or management. Komatsu considers a continuous process of reform and improvement to be fundamental. The scope of Komatsu's quality management is as indicated below. The company uses indices to promote such management.
Scope of Komatsu Quality Management
Principles Governing Quality Assurance
Komatsu has established the following principles regarding quality, which all subsidiaries and employees are responsible for putting into practice.
Principles that Increase Quality and Reliability
Provide environment-friendly, safe and innovative products/services and systems from the viewpoint of the customer
Definition of Quality Assurance
The company has a responsibility to take actions that will ensure that it can provide products and services that the customer is able to purchase and use with peace of mind and satisfaction and be able to use for many years to come.
Principles Governing Quality Assurance
- Being receptive to the views of the customer, considering issues from the perspective of the customer, and responding appropriately to the customer, thereby earning the customer's satisfaction, are fundamental to the job of every employee and constitute the responsibility of every employee. (Philosophy of putting customers first).
- Complying with international standards and the legal frameworks particular to individual countries as a matter of course, and providing products and services that, looking at issues from the perspective of the customer, have incorporated proper regard for safety and peace of mind and that do not easily malfunction, are fundamental to the job of every employee and constitute the responsibility of every employee.
- Providing products and services that incorporate proper regard for global environmental conservation is fundamental to the job of every employee and constitute the responsibility of every employee.
- Providing products and services that are creative and provide benefits to the customer is fundamental to the job of every employee and constitute the responsibility of every employee.
- Giving the customer a sense of safety, peace of mind, and satisfaction and the ability to use the product for many years to come is a source of happiness for every employee.
Mechanisms for Quality Assurance
At Komatsu, all employees in each division, from product planning to development, production, sales, and after-sales service, share a sense of working as a single unit to manufacture continuously products that are safe, innovative, and of high quality. In addition, through a strengthening of Komatsu's unique Spirit of Manufacturers system, the company is able to introduce to the market competitive DANTOTSU products and provide services and systems with substantial features.
Moreover, at each step of the development and production system, meetings are held to evaluate the product, and activities undertaken until the product is deemed to be suitable and specific objectives have been achieved. In this way, the company conducts quality assurance activities that firmly ensure Quality and Reliability.
Through such activities the company is able to provide products and services that take the global environment into account and comply with both international specifications and the regulatory frameworks of individual countries even as it works towards improved safety assurance and satisfaction for its customers.
Komatsu's Mechanisms for Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance Activities at the Global Level
Komatsu's quality assurance activities at the global level enable it to provide products of uniform quality at all of its locations throughout the world. For that reason, the company aims for universally applied and uniform technical drawings, production systems, inspection methods, information collection, and quality management.
Concrete efforts include labeling certain of the global manufacturing locations with product development capabilities as "mother plants." These plants serve at the center of global development and manufacturing activities, with the leading-edge technologies and techniques developed there transferred to other manufacturing locations around the world. This results in an improvement of technology and enhancement of product quality across the entire company.
The Komatsu Information System for Product Safety
For further information, please refer to the following PDF file.
Fundamental Approach to the Pursuit of Quality Management / Mechanisms for Quality Assurance / Promotion of Product Safety to Ensure Customer Safety and Assurance