SocialTotal Quality Assurance

Basic ApproachBack to Top

  • Quality assurance for products at the TOPPAN Group is a concern for every department, not only the departments directly responsible for production. Departments involved in marketing, R&D, planning, design, sales, and shipment all contribute to quality. This is why we describe quality assurance as a total activity (“total quality assurance”) and strive to improve product quality and manage product safety throughout the Group.

    For the maintenance and improvement of product quality, we have established a Basic Stance on Product Safety Management and a set of Basic Guidelines on Product Safety Management to securely manage the safety of the products we produce.

  • Basic Stance on Product Safety Management

    We promote product safety management throughout the Group by securing safety and improving the quality of our products based on the Basic Principles of Conduct Guidelines and the principles of corporate social responsibility as a protector of user* safety and health.

    * User: Includes both customer companies and end-user consumers.

TOPPAN’s Total Quality Assurance in Business Activities
TOPPAN’s Total Quality Assurance in Business Activities

Promotion FrameworkBack to Top

Business divisions across the Group have established ISO-9001-compliant quality management systems (QMS) to sustain product safety management. They strive to constantly improve their QMS to assure the quality of their products.

The Quality Assurance Center in the Manufacturing Management Division holds annual seminars on ISO 9001 for business division personnel and annual training sessions to develop internal auditors, to improve the effectiveness of QMS operated throughout the Group.

The quality assurance department in each business division handles customer complaints and claims regarding our products. When a serious product-related incident occurs, we set up an emergency taskforce in line with our rules on risk management to rapidly and properly handle the issue, giving the top priority to user safety. We have also formulated rules on corrective actions for claims from customers in accordance with ISO 9001. Based on these rules, the quality assurance departments determine fundamental causes, take optimal countermeasures, and prevent recurrence through the standardization of corrective actions.

The Quality Assurance Center compiles monthly data on customer claims and cases of product quality loss from business divisions across the Group and monitors the progress of improvement activities. For serious product-related incidents, the center checks the validity of recurrence-prevention measures and the status of efforts to sustain those measures. We have also adopted a production approval system to accredit TOPPAN sites and partner companies as entities qualified to engage in the manufacture of food containers/packages and healthcare products according to the exacting quality-assurance levels required for safety and sanitation.

Activity ResultsBack to Top

Enhancing Quality Management Systems

We have established the Basic Stance on Product Safety Management and the Basic Guidelines on Product Safety Management to assure safety management for the products we manufacture.

All Group sites work to continuously improve the effectiveness of the quality management systems (QMS) they have formulated under ISO 9001 to sustain product safety management. Training seminars to develop QMS internal auditors are held at every business division across the Group.

In fiscal 2022, a total of 265 seminar participants learned how to effectively use internal audits to detect potential defects in a QMS. The Quality Assurance Center assesses the effectiveness of the QMS at each Group site and provides guidance to shore up the weaknesses identified in their QMS processes.

Quality management assessments were held at 43 sites within the Group in fiscal 2022.

Accreditation System for Food Packaging and Healthcare Products

Food packaging requires exacting quality assurance for safety and sanitation. We have adopted a production approval system to ensure that the production sites of TOPPAN and business partners can manufacture containers and packages only after undergoing audits with checklists in conformance with the Quality Assurance Guidelines for Food Packaging. Accreditation audits for packaging operations were carried out at 13 sites inside and outside of the Group in fiscal 2022. The accreditation system for approving production via audits has also been applied to the healthcare business. Accreditation audits were conducted at nine sites inside and outside of the Group in fiscal 2022.

Audits for Food Filling / Packing and Healthcare Businesses
Audit Points
  • Agreements with client companies
  • Quality assurance systems
  • Design of products and services
  • Management of equipment and inspection devices
  • Management of safety and sanitation
  • Steps to prevent the admixture of different products
  • Steps to safeguard against insect infestations
  • Steps to prevent the admixture of foreign substances
  • Steps to prevent the outflow of defective products
  • Steps to prevent contamination
  • Traceability
  • Food defense
  • Education and training
  • Maintenance of systems and frameworks for product safety and quality
Operational Sites Audited

Tier 1 food filling/packing businesses

5 sites run by manufacturing subsidiaries

8 sites run by production business partners

Healthcare businesses
5 sites run by manufacturing subsidiaries
4 sites run by production business partners

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