To establish and further improve a system of consistently supplying better-quality products and services, the Quality & Environment Center of the Monozukuri Innovation Headquarters regularly conducts quality audits for various business divisions.

Enhancing quality education

In fiscal 2006, audits were performed for five divisions in Japan and two companies abroad. The key points of auditing policy are to check the quality management system for production processes subject to major change and its implementation, and to verify the quality assurance of processes from planning to response to market feedback.

Based on the results of auditing, OMRON aims to narrow down targets of auditing, formulate evaluation levels and uplift the skill and expertise of auditors in fiscal 2007 and beyond, to boost the effectiveness of quality audits.

OMRON provides training courses for each rank in order to help employees acquire the knowledge necessary for quality control and assurance, and to allow them to correctly implement these processes.

In fiscal 2006, seminars for manager-class people and training courses for leaders were organized along with FMEA* and 5S (Sort, Straighten, Scrub, Sustain and Self-discipline) training programs. Each business company also conducts its own quality education at various divisions. A plan is in place to create a full-fledged quality education program while continually providing learning opportunities for employees during fiscal 2007.

* FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is a risk assessment technique for systematically identifying potential failures in a system or process. In FMEA, failures are prioritized according to the seriousness of their consequences, frequency of occurrence and ease of detection so that effective measures can be drafted in the design stage to avoid future failures.