Materiality 4
Establishing a Sound Management Foundation

Basic Ideas and Visions

Establishing a sound management foundation is essential for the sustainable growth of a company. In order to increase corporate value over the long-term, Hitachi High-Tech Group will strive to improve the effectiveness of corporate governance and aim to be a company that is trusted and needed by society.

Action Targets

1. Realize sound governance

We will strive to improve the effectiveness of corporate governance by bolstering the effectiveness of the Board of Directors and strengthening and enhancing internal controls. In addition, we will endeavor to achieve sustainable growth and increase society’s trust in us by implementing initiatives such as compliance risk prevention measures and conducting education, and fostering a corporate culture that is open and compliant with laws.

Specific Actions

Improve corporate governance by increasing the effectiveness of Group companies' Board of Directors and reviewing the Group's overall system of rules

2. Ensure product safety

Providing customers with safety and peace of mind is a corporate social responsibility. By providing products that comply with laws and regulations and by working to eliminate product accidents, the Group aims to provide highly-safe products and thereby enhance competitiveness and increase the level of trust from society.

Specific Actions

Firmly instill a safety-first mentality through activities to further enhance product safety

1. Implement S>>Q>D>C^*1
2. Pick out and remove product safety accident risks and product-related legal violation risks

• ^*1 S: Safety, Q: Quality, D: Delivery, C: Cost

3. Realize a CSR-based supply chain

By encouraging business operations with a strong awareness of corporate social responsibility, not only for the Group, but also for our partners and the entire supply chain, we aim to reduce environmental and human rights risks in the supply chain.

Specific Actions

1. Hold briefings for business partners (2 times/year)
2. Self-evaluations of new business partner using checklists

Action Plan

FY2019 Initiative Results

1 Realize sound governance

Strengthen governance and compliance for the Group as a whole

• We have been monitoring the convening circumstances of the Boards of Directors at Group companies, including checking the status of attendance by outside board members. In addition to strengthening Group governance by such means, we have made progress in improving the framework of regulations at Group companies.
• We have implemented continuous compliance education at all levels, from newly hired employees to management personnel. In addition to furthering their understanding of the Hitachi High-Tech Group's conceptual approach to compliance, its compliance structure, its internal reporting system, and so on, we have taken steps to foster their awareness of compliance.
• Hitachi High-Tech Group has taken steps to enhance the company's self-purification function by establishing internal reporting (whistleblowing) hotlines with the aim of detecting statutory and ethical violations at the earliest stage and addressing them. The hotlines can be used by regular employees, temporary agency workers, casual workers, and fixed-term employees in Japan and overseas.

• Hitachi High-Tech was delisted in May 2020, when it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. We will promote our initiatives to strengthen corporate governance in accordance now with the conceptual approach to governance and compliance in the Hitachi Group.

2 Ensure product safety

Visualize the risks in each part of the product life cycle

• In FY2019, we sought to enhance product quality and reduce product safety risks by conducting checks of the design, development, and quality assurance divisions during new product development based on the checklist for increasing the comprehensiveness of our risk assessments. In this way, we took steps to increase the visualization of risks in each part of the product life cycle.
• There were zero serious product safety accidents in FY2019.

Lectures on product safety held

• We are continually taking steps to raise the skill level of engineers in our design, product safety, and other product technology divisions. In FY2019, we held lecture sessions on product safety with outside instructors. (Participants at other sites used video conferencing systems to attend remotely.)

Scene of lecture session

3 Realize a CSR-based supply chain

Reduce environmental and human right risks in entire supply chain by collaborating with our partners (suppliers)

• We regularly communicate with our partners(suppliers) to encourage understanding of efforts for CSR and to reduce environmental and human right risks. In FY 2019, we held three briefings as a total for the partners, covering the management of chemical substances which contained in products in addition to overall CSR.
• We promote to prevent CSR-related accidents from occurring among our partners, and to ensure that parts and materials procured from our partners comply with environmental regulations such as revised RoHS Directive and REACH Regulation*2. In FY 2019, There were no CSR-related accidents.
• Overseas, in coordination with Hitachi Group’s Procurement Department, we have been visiting our partners’ production bases in China and other Asian countries to conduct inspections of their CSR activities. In FY2019, we have evaluated, inspecting one partner in China and recognizing no major violations.

• ^*2 REACH Regulation:　The system in European Union (EU) for comprehensive registration, evaluation, permission, and restriction of chemical substances.

Scene of supplier briefing

Link

• Corporate Governance
• Compliance
• Product Responsibility
• Collaboration with Our Partners (Suppliers)

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