Product Quality & Safety

Quality

Basic Policy

Alps Alpine will deliver outstanding products and services that satisfy its customers. The Fundamental Quality Control Policy states, “We must perfect our craftsmanship and earn even more trust from our customers.” In order to realize this goal, we must make Companywide efforts to improve not only production quality but also design and component quality assurance, which are essential to product creation.

The Fundamental Quality Control Policy

“We must perfect our craftsmanship and earn even more trust from our customers.”

High-Quality Products and Services

Alps Alpine has included a statement on quality in the Alps Alpine Group Code of Ethics, saying we will endeavor to enhance the quality of products and services to maximize customer satisfaction. Both in Japan and overseas, quality problems have the potential to develop into major business risks. We will swiftly respond to incidents involving a product or service to limit the damage caused and we will investigate any incident to determine the facts, identify the causes and prevent a recurrence.

Alps Alpine Group Code of Ethics (excerpt)

1. Strive for Value We will go all out to create new value
We will keep putting forward highly appealing and richly unique products and services of benefit to humans, society and the planet; and we will act in good faith, placing top priority on quality and safety.
1-1. New Value Creation Possessing flexibility of mind without fear of failure, we will continually endeavor to break new ground with technologies and services and become better at our jobs.
1-2. Safety Assurance and Customer Protection We will comply with safety-related laws, regulations, standards and in-house procedures in all processes, including product and service development, manufacturing, transportation, sales and maintenance; and we will endeavor to develop technology for improving safety, quality and usability, and engage in the supply of products and services that function safely and users feel safe to use.
1-3. High-Quality Products and Services We will endeavor to enhance the quality of products and services to maximize customer satisfaction.
1-4. Accurate and Relevant Information on Products and Services We will provide customers accurate information they require to happily and safely use our products and services.
1-5. Good Faith in Inquiries and After-Sales Service We will respond to customer requests and inquiries in good faith; and we will provide suitable mechanisms, such as returns, repairs and maintenance, to assist customers in the event of a problem with a product or service sold.
1-6. Fast and Appropriate Response to Incidents We will swiftly respond to incidents involving a product or service to limit the damage caused; and we will investigate any incident to determine the facts, identify the causes and prevent a recurrence, and disclose or report information internally and externally as required.
1-7. Compliance with International Standards We will put in place quality management systems and achieve compliance with relevant international standards (ISO 9001/IATF 16949).

Quality Management System (QMS)

International standards for quality management systems are essential for business as they demonstrate that all departments are contributing to higher levels of customer satisfaction through quality assurance.
Production plants of Alps Alpine, including plants outside Japan, have acquired ISO 9001 certification. Plants producing products for the automotive industry have also acquired and maintain IATF 16949 certification.

Promotion of Prevention of Incidents by Taking the Proper Steps from the Start of Processes

To deliver products that satisfy our customers, we aim to take the proper steps from the start of processes. Through this, we are developing quality assurance (front-loading) activities from the planning stage of new products, including development, design, and production processes. Specifically, we have established an organization and system for front-loading activities in the Quality Assurance Department to review each process from a quality perspective, flatten down the issues, and promote countermeasures to prevent incidents from occurring.

Improve Degree of Completion of Product and Process Designs

To improve product design and process design perfection, all quality requirements are presented at the beginning of new product development to clarify and systematically verify how to guarantee no gaps or inconsistencies in the design stage. Issues detected through customer evaluations and verification in each process are considered essential for improvement and are fed back to front-loading activities.
Our suppliers, who supply us with the parts necessary for our products, also cooperate with our efforts to improve quality.

Global Quality Information Management System

Alps Alpine’s Global Quality Information Management System is a means of containing (preventing) defects and involves global sharing of quality information to allow swift improvements across the organization. The system allows us to use quality information from customers and the market on a global scale to quickly diagnose problems and implement solutions. Measures taken and improvements made are also adopted as standard practice, thereby preventing recurrence and spotlighting areas of focus in the development of future product models.

Global Quality Information Management System

Evaluation Expertise Underpinned by Advanced Technology

Our EMC Evaluation Center is used to assess the ability of our products to function in an electromagnetic environment and to assess whether electromagnetic radiation emitted from our products falls within the required levels.
Utilizing state-of-the-art facilities and the expertise and human resources we have built up in the field of RF product evaluation over many years, Alps Alpine has acquired ISO/IEC 17025 testing laboratory accreditation (A2LA) and customer certification, and has developed methods for evaluating products that incorporate new technology, while also contributing to greater dependability of products by quickly feeding the results of evaluations back into development departments. We realize an elevated level of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) evaluation that is trusted both internally and externally.

EMC

Customer Evaluation

Alps Alpine receive a Supplier of the Year award from General Motors (US). The award recognizes global suppliers of innovative technology and top-quality products to the automotive industry, and this is the 11th consecutive time (21st in total) that we have been honored with this award.
We have also received several quality awards from other partners.

Customer Evaluation

Functional Safety

Functional Safety of Automotive Products

Safety requirements for products incorporated into vehicles are mounting due to the spread of technologies like driver assistance systems and automated driving systems. To ensure delivery to customers of safe, dependable products, Alps Alpine established commercialization processes and systems conforming to functional safety standard ISO 26262 (2nd edition, effective December 2018) and has already developed products compliant with the functional safety standard for automakers at home and abroad.
We pursue activities aiming to establish and foster a culture of safety so that employees involved with the development and production of automotive products put safety first in their decision-making and actions. Related activities are pursued in accordance with our functional safety guide.
Alps Alpine makes continual improvements to activities relating to the functional safety of products incorporated into vehicles. These improvements are achieved by regularly conducting comprehensive and reflective management reviews within the Board of Directors and by formulating and implementing annual action policies and priority measures.

Product Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity engagements for automotive products

As the transformation to so called CASE, which represents Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric, is progressing in the automobile industry, customers have more interest in security.
To deliver secure products to its customers, Alps Alpine is compliant with ISO/SAE 21434 (in effect August 2021), a cybersecurity standard. We have also organized and operate the Alps Alpine-PSIRT* to address any vulnerability issues detected in our products.
All our employees engaging in the lifecycle of automotive products understand their roles and responsibilities and are engaged in manufacturing while placing importance on automotive cybersecurity, based on the basic policy of cybersecurity.
In the activities related to the cybersecurity of automotive products, Alps Alpine conducts reviews as management reviews on a regular basis in board meetings to lead them to continuing improvement activities as with functional safety.
Also, in CSMS engagement, Alps Alpine acts in accordance with the basic policy of its information security.

* PSIRT: Product Security Incident Response Team

Education and Capability Management

To establish and improve product cybersecurity readiness in the organization, we started education and capability management in fiscal 2021, defining the education required for cybersecurity capability and conducting basic and specialized education for each activity process.
In fiscal 2022, all capability management subjects have taken the required training.

Organizational Audit of Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS)

CSMS organizational audits are conducted to verify the execution environment, operational status, and capabilities of cybersecurity activities throughout the organization. Organizational audits were initiated in fiscal 2022 to confirm that the targeted departments are conducting their activities per the CSMS organizational rules. In March 2023, an external organization conducted an organizational audit and certified that all relevant global bases comply with the ISO/SAE21434 management system standards.