To supply high-quality products that win the trust of all our customers, we will continuously improve the quality management system, to ensure rigorous quality management throughout the process cycle, from design, material selection, procurement, production and sales to servicing.
To supply high-quality products that satisfy our customers and win their trust, Murata has compiled a Quality Management Policy for integrated quality management in every product process from design, material selection, procurement, production, sales, and servicing.
To ensure that this policy is fully understood by all our employees, we provide continuous reminders of the importance of quality, putting up posters at workplaces and issuing cards that outline policy to employees. We are also preparing English-language versions of these posters and cards for distribution at our overseas units.
We remain committed to the continuous development of unique products and the cultivation of new areas of expertise. Our underlying approach is our belief that “better equipment is made from better parts and better design, and better parts are made from better materials and better processes.” With this belief, we consistently manage every stage, including design, material selection, procurement, production, sales, and servicing in cooperation with all members who comprise the Murata Group - from top management to individual employees by employing the Deming Cycle. In this way, we can economically produce quality products that meet market needs with full consideration for the natural environment.
Murata continuously improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system. Based on a customer-oriented viewpoint, we have constantly strived to improve the quality of our products and services throughout the product realization process, including project planning, manufacturing, sales, surveys and servicing. We have consistently reflected customer requirements in our processes, and supplied them with satisfactory products.
Deming Cycle
For a company with global business operations, it is important to meet a single global standard of product quality. All Murata Group plants inside and outside Japan have received certification under the international quality management standard ISO9001. Of these plants, 11 supplying the automotive industry have also been certified as meeting the ISO/TS16949 quality management standard, a stricter international standard specific to the automotive industry.
Furthermore, our Yasu Plant, which researches and develops new materials, production technologies, semiconductors, and thin-film miniaturized processing technologies, has acquired international ISO/IEC17025 certification for operations known as calibration.
In these operations, accuracy checks and adjustments are conducted for various types of testing and measuring equipment used for quality inspection of products and components. The Yasu Plant has also acquired Japan Calibration Service System (JCSS) accreditation for its excellent gauge calibration competence.
Such qualifications bolster the level of our quality evaluation technologies. Through these measures, we aim for continuous improvement of quality management systems.
To ensure high quality in new product design, new manufacturing method design and development for other product applications, Murata performs design review (DR) from the early stage, from a variety of perspectives.
The three departments in charge of design development, design review and quality assurance participate in DR on products, manufacturing methods and applications subject to review during the three stages: concept design (design phase), detailed design (feasibility phase) and practical design (production phase). The director of the Quality Assurance Department holds ultimate decision-making authority regarding approval or rejection; only approved products, methods or applications are permitted to progress to the next development stage. Murata also reviews the DR process as needed, on the basis of changes in the market environment.
Status of Quality Management System Certification
To create products with new functionality, the necessary components must be developed. Murata uses “design-in” methods, which means that we get involved in the process of new product design and development by the electronics manufacturers who are our major customers from the initial stages, and conduct technological exchanges with them.
By means of this process, we are able to propose solutions to resolve each of our customers’ problems and provide the optimum electronic components for their needs.
Murata rigorously protects and manages customers' confidential information that it is privy to during the course of “Design-in” activities.
Global strategy meeting: Sales managers of Murata Group overseas units gather to share customer information.
Product exhibitions are also an important forum for understanding customer needs.
The Company takes customer complaints about products very seriously. Not only does Murata respond swiftly to complaints as soon as they arise, but it has also created a system for preventing similar problems from happening again. All complaints from customers are stored in a database.
After receiving a complaint, the person in charge in the related department enters the information in a database so it can be simultaneously accessed by all Murata offices and plants worldwide.
This enables us to check the possibility of the same problem happening again. The Quality Assurance Department is responsible for finding the cause of problems and for analyzing complaints and implementing countermeasures.
It reports to top management, while at the same time distributing related documents to the relevant departments. As further measures to prevent the reoccurrence of problems, the development and design departments receive a complaint checklist outlining areas where Murata recognizes that it has fallen short.
Response to Quality Problems
Keiko Omura
Quality Planning Strategy Sec.,
Quality Assurance Dept.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Efforts to Improve the Quality Management System
Against the background of dizzying changes in the market environment, we have to improve the quality of the people and the systems that will help us to achieve sustainable growth.
To enable us to do this, we are moving ahead with activities designed to improve our quality management system, evaluating and analyzing the status of quality management throughout the company.
Through continuous improvement of our quality management system, we are striving to present our customers with a level of quality in which they can have complete confidence.