[Priority issue 3] Enhance Value Chain Management from the Viewpoint of CSR

In recent years, a responsible supply chain management has been regarded as an important part of CSR activities. Particularly in the electronics industry, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Code of Conduct* is becoming an international standard of supply chain management.

FUJIFILM Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. (FFEM) operates businesses related to semiconductor manufacturing processes across the world. The company has manufacturing and sales networks in Japan and other Asian countries as well as in the U.S. and Europe. This means that over the last several years the company has received an increasing number of audit requests, particularly from customers outside Japan. Such audit requests are mainly document-based and sets of self assessment questionnaires are used as tools. Some tools are not compatible with the EICC auditing tool, and there have been cases consisting of nearly 700 questions. We struggled to respond to these audits, especially in the early stage, as we could not understand the purpose of some of the questions due to the different employment practices and labor systems inherent in a Japanese corporation, which do not necessarily match with global standards. Now, however, we have gained a better understanding of such audit questionnaires after experiencing numerous audits, and this has helped us to improve the audit response procedure and reduce the burden of such auditing. In FY2014, we managed seven onsite audits (six overseas and one domestic) and 66 document audits concerning product/service quality and CSR .

FFEM is a supplier, and at the same time, the company is in a position of its supply chain management, which is an important EICC audit item. FFEM has over 120 domestic material suppliers that are subject to auditing. In FY2014, FFEM standardized its supplier auditing tool from varied tools among different manufacturing sites, and 15 onsite audits were undertaken using the tool. The standardized auditing tool reduces the audit response burden on suppliers, and enables more efficient auditing. For example, the onsite audit of an overseas supplier can now be managed by our overseas group companies.

We plan to share the know-how and information acquired by FFEM across the Fujifilm Group in order to achieve CSR procurement activities from the view point of CSR that take account of both suppliers and customers.

*EICC (Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition) Code of Conduct: A set of standards to ensure that the labor environment in the global electronics supply chain is safe; workers in the chain are treated with respect and dignity; and that businesses within the chain operate with proper environmental responsibility and corporate ethics.