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Our Quality Assurance Policies and Actions

Under our customer-focused philosophy, our policy is to carry out quality assurance activities globally together with all of our employees to deliver safe, eco-friendly products of reliable quality.
We promote our quality assurance activities in accordance with FOSTER TQM, which is based primarily on the maintenance and improvement of the quality management system (QMS) and process through daily improvements, the development of a system and operational procedures using diverse methods, and human resource development in quality management targeting all employees. We believe that we can satisfy our customers, society and our employees by focusing on these three primary initiatives while responding to changes in our business environment. We will strive to achieve long-term growth through these initiatives.

1.Maintenance and Improvement of the QMS

2.Development of a System and Operational Procedures

For quality assurance throughout processes from product planning to shipment, we have built a quality assurance activity system based on Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and operate this system globally. We ensure that we take the quality actions needed in each Phase. At each one of the five Gates, we review the activities in each Phase, and approve the transition to the next Phase. Through this process, we ensure comprehensive and uninterrupted quality assurance.
With these activities, we pay meticulous attention to quality in the early development phase to prevent complaints, ensure uniform quality globally, shorten the development period by front-loading, and further, drive cost reduction.
We will continue to evolve this APQP system to enhance our quality assurance activities.

3.Enhancing Quality Awareness and Developing Human Resources in Quality Management

We have designated every November as Quality Month and hold a variety of events by involving overseas sites to raise quality awareness among all employees.

● Quality improvement case exhibition

We hold this exhibition online by collecting cases of quality-related improvement and know-how we should share from headquarters and all overseas sites, and summarizing them in videos. Leveraging the advantages of an online exhibition, we ensure the cases are viewed by many employees and encourage them to horizontally deploy the improvement activities across departments.

● Quality lecture presentation

In response to growing demand for advanced quality management amid current quality trends, we hold quality lectures by inviting speakers from other companies. They introduce the latest information and examples of advanced initiatives and compare them with our quality issues. In doing so, we identify new ways to address quality issues based on specialized knowledge and objective third-party perspectives, which we in turn apply to our quality improvement activities.

● QC Circle Company-wide Convention

Holding the Global Quality Meeting (GQM)

We hold the Global Quality Meeting (GQM) at the end of each fiscal year for a general review of our quality improvement activities in each year. At GQM, senior management from headquarters and overseas factories and sales companies come together to share the progress of priority measures and issues in our quality improvement activities and express their commitment to improving quality in the coming year.
Through GQM, we align the direction and awareness of quality globally and further reinforce the quality assurance system of the overall Foster Group, thereby providing value that fulfills customer expectations and improving customer satisfaction.

Stable Product Supply

The supply of our products to customers may affect their production lines, so it is essential to build a system that enables us to handle unforeseeable circumstances in the supply chain. We therefore take daily measures to ensure a stable supply. In 2024, while transit time from Asia to the U.S. and Japan was stable, shipments to Europe were rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope to bypass the Suez Canal due to the deteriorating Middle East situation. This caused delays and longer transit times, leading to major fluctuations in inventories in Europe and disruptions in the first quarter. However, as in the previous fiscal year, we meticulously analyzed and managed customer demand, and planned inventories in response to the prolonged transit time, aiming to synchronize factory production and inventory levels in sales areas with the quantity demanded by customers.
As a result, our annual inventory turnover was 3.4 times in Japan, falling short of the target of 4. Meanwhile, the target was achieved in the U.S., with 6.3 times against 4.8, and in Europe, with 3.8 times against 3.6.
By ensuring moderately stable product supply, we are striving to achieve both greater customer satisfaction and bolster our financial structure.

Corporate Customers (Foster Group Sales Department)

Policies

We manufacture and sell products with a focus on acoustic transducers for the mobility-related business, consumer-related business. While many of our products are used as components for playing back music, people around the world come into contact with our products in many ways that are not limited to uses involving playing back music. Our products serve people in various settings in their lives as micro acoustic components for warning sounds, actuators for haptics and other products. The purposes of use of sounds and vibrations that we offer are expanding daily. Working together with customers around the world, our Sales Department acts every day to widely deliver the value of our products to realize our mission, “To make contributions for future society through acoustics.”

Structure

We engage in sales activities through five regional sales offices in Japan, the U.S., Europe, China and Thailand. The value that is required is different in different markets around the world with different business customs, cultures and social situations. We have established a structure for satisfying customers around the world by sharing the value and ideas that only we can provide between regions while responding flexibly to local values. By proactively using and developing new communication tools that we introduced in the period when business travel was restricted significantly, we have established a system to enable inter-regional exchange to be more lively than ever before, transcending distance and time differences.

Activities

We emphasize making proposals for the future, and of course making sure that we deliver the products that are in demand every day. The things that are required of products change according to ever-changing social and economic situations, widespread environmental awareness, and many other factors impacting the business environment. By proactively proposing the functions that are appropriate for the sustainability of society in the future in addition to performance and prices, we will be a strategic partner that can be involved in development and design from a position that is closer to customers, achieving high-level customer satisfaction.

Individual Customers (FOSTEX)

Policies

We provide high quality products at appropriate prices to deliver an enriched and comfortable life to customers who purchase those products. The company seeks to develop products that lead to impressive experiences and that provide peace of mind and satisfaction for the customers who select and own the FOSTEX brand. In its after-sales services, the company also pursues customer satisfaction by always promptly providing services from the customers' perspective.

Structure

We always listen to our customers' comments and seek the products that they need today and they will need in the near future. As such, we have established a project promotion structure across our sales and technical units. In addition to the domestic market, we also understand global needs to develop products specific to each region.

Activities

We share information with the dealers who are constantly in contact with our customers and also make efforts to listen to as many customers' voices as possible at exhibitions and trial listening events. As part of our educational activities for audio equipment, we offer speaker craft classes and lectures on working principles of speakers at universities, vocational schools, local junior high schools and in other places.

Response to Sustainability Requests from Customers

We understand that sustainability considerations, including labor and human rights, health and safety, the environment, and ethics, are essential requirements in business. Based on this understanding, we comply with sustainability requests from customers and disclose the status of our initiatives while pursuing our own initiatives. During FY2024, we responded to a total of approx. 50 sustainability related surveys from 27 corporate customers. In addition, at the Bac Ninh Factory (Vietnam), we underwent an onsite audit by the Responsible Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) at the request of a customer. We will continue to enhance our sustainability initiatives by organizing and addressing issues identified through customer surveys and audits, while ensuring the transparency of our value chain.
We will continue to drive sustainability-based manufacturing and strive to respond with integrity and responsibility through risk assessment, risk mitigation, and monitoring across the entire value chain.

Policies

Our human resource development is based on “continuous performance by linking various personnel systems with individual development goals determined by mid/long term business strategy and individual personality (strength/ weakness)”. We have formulated the Personnel Grand Design by viewing recruitment, development, utilization, assessment, and treatment organically and in an integrated manner from a long-term perspective, built a Personnel Framework that enables every employee to demonstrate their capabilities with pride and job satisfaction, and promote the development of human resources to solidify our human resource foundation for Foster Electric in the next generation.

Ideal for human resource development

• Personnel who embody our vision through their duties and who have a “strong will” and “initiative” to work toward their realization.
• Personnel who do not remain complacent about the current situation but utilize every opportunity to improve their own abilities and grow with ingenious attempts and efforts.
• Professional personnel who use their expertise to play a key part in strategy formulation and implementation and who can create value continuously.
• Self-directing personnel who are conscious about their expected and assigned roles and missions and who can take responsibility for their own actions and results.

Basic policy

Initiatives for independent career development

Employees’ voluntary initiatives shaping their careers are essential. Employees’ thinking about how they want to develop personally and the skills they need to acquire and acting accordingly will form the foundation of our human resource development and be a source of increased added value. We have established a career course system, which permits employees to choose options flexibly in accordance with the career plan and life stage of each, thus encouraging and helping employees to develop themselves independently under the system.

Initiatives for developing next-generation managerial human resources

As part of our continuing strategies for developing managerial personnel, we implement the Global Leadership Development Program (GLDP) to globally foster human resources for the next and future generations.
The GLDP was developed based on a program for fostering managerial human resources that we began to fully implement in 2010. This program was rebuilt and newly systematized into the GLDP in 2019. Intended for personnel who are candidates for key posts, this program is implemented to individually develop the capabilities appropriate for each post.
In addition, in fiscal 2023, we introduced the Start Up Program, a development program that solicits participants from among young employees to develop future managerial human resource candidates.

Initiatives for developing globally competitive human resources

We operate systematic programs for developing globally competitive human resources, aiming for well-planned, ongoing development of human resources who understand diverse cultures and values and can demonstrate their capabilities at sites around the world.
The program for practical training at overseas factories, in which all new employees participate, forms the foundation of our development of globally competitive human resources. Through practical experience at overseas manufacturing sites, employees learn manufacturing processes, quality control, and initiatives for production innovation. They also have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. Acquiring this overseas experience at an early stage contributes greatly to fostering a global mindset, as well as a deep understanding of the essence of our manufacturing.
We also promote various forms of international employee reassignment, including the “Global-eye Program”, an overseas training program for junior employees, and the Overseas Trainee Program intended for mid-career employees. In doing so, we provide opportunities to accumulate more practical experience in overseas operations, as part of our efforts to develop the qualities of trainees as future global leaders. The focus of the training for newly promoted employees and manager training includes promoting understanding and practice of DE & I. We are instilling the understanding of the importance of building an organization which turns diversity into a strength, across the entire company.
With this multi-layered approach, we are striving to develop globally competitive human resources, who can demonstrate their capabilities at our sites worldwide, and increase our international competitiveness.

Initiatives for retaining young employees and developing young employees’ work-related skills as early as possible

We have established a comprehensive support system to assist the personal development of young employees multilaterally. In the Mentorship Program, senior colleagues serve as their close advisers and help them adapt to daily operations and the workplace environment. In the Mentorship Program by Officers, members of management directly interview young employees on a regular basis and give advice on career formation and long-term personal development. Further, in the Escort Runner Program, dedicated HR staff support young employees in the process of their development and provide them with comprehensive support throughout the process from workplace relationship-building to career planning. By having these programs work together, we have established a system for catering to the diverse needs of young employees and providing detailed assistance in their personal development.
Further, the Roundtable Meetings between Officers and Young Employees serve as valuable opportunities for direct dialogue between management and young employees. In these meetings, young employees can share with management the issues they encounter in daily operations and propose improvements, and engage in Q&A sessions about business strategies and the company’s vision for the future.

Initiatives for passing down skills and developing engineers

We have introduced the A La Carte Training as a program for the development of engineers. This permits participants to choose necessary courses from among approx. 45 courses, with a total length of more than 200 hours, in accordance with their needs. We have also built an environment which allows them to watch videos of classes that have been taught in the past.
The greatest features of this program are that the content of the program is optimized for the practical operations at Foster because all the lectures are given by internal staff and the internal lecturers are being developed continuously as the training is being provided to participants.
This initiative is improving our technological capabilities, facilitating the passing down of skills, and serving as the foundation for Foster’s reliable technological capabilities.
Having been introduced in 2011, more than 4,600 people have participated in this training program.

Initiatives for reforming the organizational climate

Based on the results of stress checks and the employee satisfaction/engagement survey which we conduct every year, we perform an organizational analysis to identify issues. In addition, in fiscal 2022, we introduced the 360° Feedback System which encourages managerial employees to self-reflect and change their behaviors, thus enhancing initiatives to build a better workplace environment.
In addition to the above, we have continued to identify issues based on various requests and recommendations received through labor-management consultations via the “Shinjukai,” an employee organization that is an alternative to a labor union, the results of exit interviews with people leaving the company, the results of employee questionnaire surveys conducted after interviews for providing feedback on personnel evaluations, and other channels, and we ensure personnel measures reflect these issues.

Initiatives for instilling the philosophy and improving engagement

We implement the Foster Rhythm Project globally to instill our corporate philosophy. In this project, we have redefined “the ideal company” for the Foster Electric and verbalized our principles and values, with employees themselves thinking on their own and generating ideas. We summarized these into a guidebook and a card and distribute them to our employees around the world. In addition, we continue to hold workshops and implement many training programs in our efforts to develop human resources who can embody our corporate philosophy and to create a lively organizational environment.
Further, the employee challenge support program (the Foster Incubation Program)* includes the production of short videos, FOSTER STORIES, as an initiative to tell the public about our strengths and appeal. These and other activities for improving engagement continue to spread and evolve.

*Foster Incubation Program (FIP) : An internal initiative launched in 2020.
In this program, employees themselves launch projects to do something exciting or take on challenges leveraging their ideas and skills, and support for these projects is provided to them.

Policies

The co-creation of value with our diverse human resources through global cooperation is essential for our manufacturing.
We are driving the creation of an organizational culture that respects the diversity of various personal qualities, such as age, gender, sexual orientation, physical trait, values, educational background, career, hometown, race, ethnicity, and nationality, and which at the same time permits employees to work vigorously with a peace of mind by catering to diverse needs, including individual circumstances and life events such as childcare and nursing care. We aim to build a Win-Win relationship between the company and its employees and create synergies with the realization of enjoyable personal lives for each employee, the creation of new value, and improvement in the company’s creativity and competitiveness.

Activity Promotion Structure

We have established the Diversity Management Section, a dedicated organization for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DE & I), within the Human Resources Department.

Main Measures and Activities (Headquarters)

Policies

We believe it is important to create a worker-friendly environment where emphasis is placed on permitting each employee to achieve personal development through work and to demonstrate their capabilities while finding their job rewarding. We also seek to create an environment where employees with various backgrounds support each other spontaneously through daily communications and give ideas to each other. Under labor-management trust and mutual cooperation, we seek to create an organizational culture and develop various institutions, aiming to create an environment where employees with various lifestyles and aspirations can work in the style that suits their situation.

Activity Promotion Structure

In addition to the activities led by the Diversity Management Section, we have established the innovative working style project with cooperation between labor and management.

Main Measures and Activities (Headquarters)

4.Safety and Health

Main Activities

Every year, we implement health and safety education, which is the basis of occupational activities. Further we tackle group-wide issues based around the Risk and Crisis Management Committee at headquarters. As part of the activities based on the Health and Safety Management Regulations, the health and safety management organization, which consists of representative workers and management, discusses issues specific to bases, conducts legal inspections, and confirms the implementation of risk assessments at each base to prevent accidents and eliminate risks for not only employees but all stakeholders including contractors and contract employees.
With regard to the group-wide issues, we take initiatives to resolve occupational health and safety issues and also address global health problems such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, by following the “Occupational Health and Safety Management Program Procedure Manual”, which is based on the “Foster Group Corporate Action Guidelines” and the “Foster Group Code of Conduct for Staff”. At headquarters, we have set a target of achieving zero occupational injuries by developing infrastructure and systems to reduce risks of occupational injuries, in line with the policy of the Health and Safety Committee, and have created a health and safety action plan. Based on this, we took steps to address the risks of occupational injuries and worked to achieve zero occupational injuries. As a result, none of the 21 occupational injuries that occurred within the Group as a whole were high-consequence work-related injuries.

Initiatives and achievements in Japan

• Implementation of a BCP drill and a fire evacuation equipment training session given by the local fire department following the completion of the new office in Osaka
• Provision of e-learning program on maintaining good health with a healthy diet to employees who are interested
• Remote traffic safety exercises by police officers from the local police department
• Activities by the chemical management promotion team and distribution of safety equipment to applicable employees, which were implemented in response to the legal revision

Promotion of chemical management

In Japan, we established a chemical management promotion team in response to the need to strengthen chemical management following the revision of the Industrial Safety and Health Act. We have strengthened our confirmation of labeling and creation of safety data sheets (SDSs) under the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and operations including the use of safety equipment. Based on risk assessments at each base, we took countermeasures centered around autonomous management. We have also established a system under which these activities are audited by the Health and Safety Committee.

Activities of the chemical management promotion team

• ・Promotion and implementation of chemical substance risk assessments
• ・Actions taken and promoted for the management of chemicals under the Industrial Safety and Health Act (including special rules)
• ・Actions taken and promoted for the use of personal protective equipment
• ・Appropriate management of SDSs and implementation of countermeasures based on assessment results

Bicycle safety

In recognition of our employees’ safe use of bicycles and our traffic accident prevention activities, we were certified by the Japan Traffic Management Technology Association as a Model Company for National Bicycle Safety in February 2017, with our activities being seen as making us a role model. The certification was again renewed fiscal 2024 in recognition of our continuing activities. We made it mandatory to wear a helmet when using a company-owned bicycle for work. We also hold internal lectures by local police officers as part of our efforts to ensure the safety of employees.

Bicycle Safety Model Company certification

Initiatives in preparation for a Nankai Trough earthquake

Following the updated probability of a Nankai Trough earthquake, we reviewed our initial actions and systems at our sites in Japan, assuming the issuing of a warning. We implemented safety checks of our facilities, identified potential risks, and carried out improvement activities, considering not only an earthquake but also flooding and the eruption of Mt. Fuji. We are taking disaster control measures with an awareness of unexpected events.

Initiatives at overseas sites

We seek to improve areas related to health and safety at overseas plants and other overseas sites, either on our own or through externally certified management systems. We minimize the occurrence of work-related injuries and diseases with safe, hygienic work environments, in an effort to ensure high quality products and services and uniformity of manufacturing, retain workers, and increase their motivation to work. We also share information with employees and provide them with ongoing training, so as to identify and solve health and safety problems in workplaces.
Regarding the international standard ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety, the Bac Ninh Factory (Vietnam) and the Panyu and Heyuan Factories (China) received ISO 45001 certification in 2019, while the Ho Chi Minh Factory (Vietnam) became certified in 2022.
In addition, the ESTec Group, our subsidiary in South Korea, has also obtained this certification at its Ho Chi Minh Factory (Vietnam), Phu Tho Factory (Vietnam), Jiaxing Factory (China), and the headquarters factory (South Korea).
Among the 15 manufacturing sites of the Foster Group, the above eight sites have obtained the ISO 45001 certification and have continued to renew the certification every year.
At sites that have yet to obtain the ISO 45001 certification for occupational health and safety, we have stipulated that specific actions shall be taken by following “6.1.4 Planning Action” shown in the standard. We aim for appropriate operation based on the structure of each site.