[Priority issue 3] Enhance Value Chain Management from the Viewpoint of CSR "Outline of Activities in FY2015 : Enhancement of CSR Procurement Activities"

In response to social expectations for reinforced CSR activities across the entire value chain, the Fujifilm Group has been examining the actual status of CSR in the major suppliers at each of our operating companies, as well as making efforts to improve things by constructing a cooperative system based on mutual trust with our partners.

Customer expectations on activities for human rights and the environment to be improved right across the value chain are increasing day by day. To respond to these expectations, Fujifilm’s affiliated companies (97 companies within and outside Japan) are using a group-wide checklist^*1 to check the risks on their own company’s business activities, including CSR, once per year. If there are items that do not meet the standards, they actively establish the plans for improvements or carry out their own risk assessment. In FY2015, the number of questions in the checklist was narrowed down to improve business efficiency, but we also included more questions on human rights and environmental conservation.

Meanwhile, we provided training to the persons responsible for procurement (buyers) at Fujifilm and the group companies within Japan and China on the importance of keeping a CSR perspective in procurement, based on our Procurement Policy that was revised in March 2015. We produced CSR Procurement Guidelines to encourage them to promote CSR activities, and clarified the self-check items for suppliers. These Guidelines were sent out to all ongoing suppliers of chemicals and major parts and equipment for our products, OEM manufacturers, and business partners of Group companies in China, and we held briefing sessions for these suppliers and business partners, seeking to increase their understanding.

In order to monitor CSR efforts by our business partners, we extracted the major items common to the global supply chain CSR initiative such as the UN Global Compact and EICC^*2, and also included expert opinions from both within and outside the Group. We established a Fujifilm Supplier CSR Checklist that includes 58 selected questions. From FY2015 to FY2016, this checklist was deployed in one after another, to ensure that it was used by the business partners responsible for over 80% of the total procurement amount for each business division in the Fujifilm, and the Group companies within Japan and China.

These efforts were implemented by the persons responsible for CSR, including a staff member who has passed auditor training under ISO SA8000 relating to human rights and labor, to incorporate the expectations of the global society and requests from our customers.

Labor strikes and other problems are occurring with higher frequency at factories in southern China, where Fuji Xerox has its major production sites. To assess the state of operation at suppliers and to make improvements, Fuji Xerox has engaged in ethical procurement, placing priority on the southern China region. In FY2015, Fuji Xerox of Shenzhen accomplished “zero production line stops caused by CSR risks at suppliers.”

Meanwhile, similar disputes related to the environment, human rights and labor broke out with greater frequency in eastern China and in Southeast Asia as well. For this reason, ethical procurement has grown in importance in these regions. Customers are also seeking greater improvement in CSR action at Fuji Xerox production sites.

For this reason, it was decided that the knowhow accumulated in CSR at our own production sites and ethical procurement at Fuji Xerox of Shenzhen will be applied in eastern China and Vietnam. To kick off the measure, person in charge of CSR promotion from headquarters and production and procurement assembled at the Shenzhen office for a CSR session. At the session, participants engaged in hands-on learning on how to identify and confirm problems, using the production lines at Fuji Xerox of Shenzhen as a workshop. Additionally, the participants confirmed that they would strengthen coordination between related persons at the production sites.