Partnership with Customers
Mutual Development with Suppliers
Cooperation with suppliers is an essential element in meeting customer needs in aspects such as quality assurance, timely delivery, price, environmental conservation, and corporate social responsibility. Based on our own Purchasing Approach and Purchasing Policies, we work at strengthening partnerships with our suppliers and fulfilling our responsibilities in the supply chain.
Promotion of Green Procurement
Global deployment of our Green Procurement Standard in Japanese, English and Chinese
We use Green Procurement to provide our customers with safer and environmentally friendly products. Suppliers with proven management systems supply Alps Electric with materials and parts that contain no hazardous substances. We deploy our Green Procurement Standard to suppliers to follow, and conduct the following two evaluations: an “Environmental Corporate Evaluation” - our evaluation of the supplier’s efforts towards environmental conservation - and a “Materials Evaluation” - for assuring that substances specifically prohibited by Alps Electric are not present in raw material and parts.
We have also created the Alps Green Procurement System which allows worldwide access to our “Environmental Corporate Evaluation” and “Materials Evaluation” through the Internet.
Communication with Suppliers
We host peer-to-peer gatherings for our suppliers to exchange information with each other
To achieve a high standard of excellence, we must first form good working relationships with our suppliers. Our objective is to form a mutual understanding on the level of quality we have to achieve, and also on delivery dependability, fair pricing, and what constitutes expert technology and environmental awareness. Our suppliers are professionals in their respective fields, and we want to benefit from their knowledge by facilitating easy information sharing. We host conferences to share each other’s strengths and ideas for creating a “win-win” relationship.
Every April, each division presents their business policies to our main suppliers. When needed we also host symposiums to exchange information on new products and technologies. Activities are not restricted to Japan only, as we host Business Partner Meetings for the Asia/ASEAN and European regions to reinforce the relationships we have with our suppliers there too.
Reducing Total Inventory
In collaboration with suppliers who have a long-term partnership with us, we operate an Internet-based order management system dubbed “ODDESY,” – On-Demand Delivery System. ODDESY allows both parties to share timely market demand information thus enabling a reduction in total inventory as we are in a position to react quicker to movements in the market. Currently, ODDESY serves not only divisions in Japan, but bases in Korea, Tianjin, Dalian, Shenzhen and Malaysia also.
Purchasing Department,
Mechatronic Devices Division
Tetsuya Maki
Procuring the required item, at the right time, in the appropriate quantity and at the best price, thus supplying our production lines effectively is the declared mission of our Purchasing Department. To accomplish our mission, a mutual trust must develop between us and our suppliers. I always keep in mind the wisdom of exchanging information that may not always constitute business at the time, for example information on potential new products and technologies we may have. The prudence of this philosophy is that one never knows when I might receive valuable recommendations from suppliers about their products or new materials. Our purpose is to maintain a high level of integrity and sincerity in any business that we do to foster mutual development with our business partners.
