• Company Mission
• Key CSR Concept
• Development/Supply of Socially/Environmentally Beneficial Products
• FY2007 Topics

Company President
Yoshinobu Morishita

IAB's mission is to support manufacturers worldwide in their increasingly globalized operations. This support covers a wide range of areas including quality, safety and environmental conservation, as well as conventional productivity and efficiency enhancements.

By drawing on OMRON's core sensing and control technology, IAB will continue meeting the increasingly diversified requirements of the manufacturing industry, including quality stabilization, maintenance of worksite safety, and reduction of environmental impact.

Solidifying the foundation of CSR practices at overseas sites in response to rapid business globalization

To effectively respond to growing concern for safety on the factory floor, IAB welcomed Scientific Technologies, Inc. (STI), North America's number one safety device manufacturer, to its Group in 2006. Along with increasingly globalized operations, overseas business has now exceeded 50% of IAB's total business.

In light of this situation, IAB introduced measures to enhance employee understanding of CSR and promoted its implementation mainly at Chinese bases that have seen rapid increases in their workforces. Particular emphasis has been placed on solidifying foundations for ensuring fairness and integrity in business operations through CSR/compliance education based on the OMRON Principles, and regular compliance monitoring.

Moreover, IAB has been committed to boosting the quality of its products and services in order to contribute to customers' efforts to minimize defective products, increase machine operation rates, and save resources and energy.

In fiscal 2007, IAB worked to establish new rules for quality assurance, promoting production innovation programs intended to realize globally competitive manufacturing, while strengthening support functions to enhance customer satisfaction.

Comprehensive solutions that bring both safety and productivity to factory floors

Offering systems capable of avoiding accidents at work without causing a drop in productivity

Industrial accidents often occur at places where people come into contact with machines. IAB's safety business provides various components and devices designed to improve these "points of contact" at clients' manufacturing facilities. IAB's safety devices draw on OMRON's proprietary sensing and control technology to build systems that can automatically detect hazardous situations. This type of system could detect when a mechanical guard is fully latched, or when a person enters a hazardous area, for example. Once a danger is detected, an alarm is issued or the machine is stopped.

With such safety systems, it is important that machine operation is terminated only within the hazardous area. If machines in unrelated areas are also stopped, it will interrupt the production flow and cause problems for customers waiting for completed products.

This is why IAB seeks to create a production system that supports both safety and productivity. By making full use of its range of safety components, consulting services and global support teams, IAB is ready to provide complete solutions for the production sites of client companies.

Consistent service quality everywhere in the world to enhance customer satisfaction

Process of standardizing texts used for seminars targeting customers and website content is underway

With the growing trend among client companies toward expanding operations globally, the demand for standardized, consistent quality in customer support is on the rise. In response, IAB established a Global Service Center in fiscal 2006 to ensure that customers receive first-rate service whenever they need it, no matter where they are based.

In fiscal 2007, IAB began standardizing texts used in seminars targeting customers and repair manuals, aiming to provide a consistent level of support service at all sites throughout the world. IAB also launched a new global website to provide global clients with standardized information. By centralizing product information that had previously been prepared, owned and offered separately by each site, IAB aims to provide a higher level of customer support in a speedier manner.

In fiscal 2007, IAB conducted a customer satisfaction survey at each site in the world to measure the level of customer satisfaction regarding its products and services, and to extract issues. IAB will relay the results of the survey to marketing and product development/ planning departments at each site to encourage their efforts to enhance customer satisfaction.