Working with Supply Chain Partners
Social: Working with Supply Chain Partners
Basic Concepts
The KOKUYO Group creates new value with our business partners to pursue customer satisfaction. In FY2013, we formulated the KOKUYO Group Procurement Policy to guide our efforts to build trusting relationships with supply chain partners and achieve growth together. In FY2022, we renamed the policy the Sustainable Procurement Policy. We communicate our belief in co-creation with empathy to our supply chain partners so that we can continue together to fulfill our collective social responsibility to support development of society.
System
The KOKUYO Group creates new value with our business partners to pursue customer satisfaction. We formulated the KOKUYO Group Procurement Policy in FY2013. Our aim with the policy is to build relationships of trust with our trading partners to mutually develop with them. In FY2022, we renamed the policy the Sustainable Procurement Policy. Advocating co-creation with empathy, we have further clarified the relationship we have with our suppliers through that.
The KOKUYO Group shares our entrepreneurial spirit to “enrich the world through our products & services” with all our suppliers. We strive to build mutual understanding and relationships of trust with them. We fulfill our social responsibility together with them. In that way, we are continuing to contribute to the development of society.
Initiatives in 2021
Online Livestreaming of a New Awards Ceremony with Participation by Store Members
We livestreamed Breakthrough LIVE! on November 9, 2011. This award ceremony
recognized the initiatives of our ACW* members comprised of our stores across
Japan. It follows on from the previous year as a new form of the ACW Awards we
hold every year. We connected bases where our award-winning members are active
online to convey their voices of joy. We also introduced examples of the daily
ACW activities of award-winning members with varied contents (turned into a drama,
discussion format and interviews, etc.) on the theme of programs that allow you to
have fun learning to the more than 1,000 watching members. The watching members
sent many congratulatory messages to the award-winning members. That turned it into
a fun award ceremony with two-way communication. We will continue to deepen
collaboration with stores in a way that is distinct to KOKUYO with various initiatives
through the ACW activities in the future.
Action to Change Workstyle (ACW) Proposal Committee
Activities to promote workstyle reform proposals from the frontline together with our
stores across Japan that have endorsed the ACW concept
Furniture Businesses: Partner Plant Meeting Held In-person for the First Time in Two Years
Our furniture businesses hold the Partner Plant Meeting twice a year by inviting executive management from our major partner plants. Unfortunately, we had to hold the meeting in May online due to the COVID-19 pandemic the same as we did in 2020. Nevertheless, we reviewed the first half of the year and described predictions for future sales trends. Furthermore, we were able to recognize plants that have made a particular contribution as POWER Partner Plants.
We were able to hold the meeting in-person for the first time in two years in December under thorough COVID-19 measures in accordance with the vaccine and test package. We were able to communicate face-to-face with our partner plants for the first time in a long time. We described our Third Medium-Term Plan in addition to looking back at the year and explaining our measures for the coming period of demand. We gave participants an experience of spatial proposals that support diversifying workstyles through a tour of The Campus in our Shinagawa Office in the second half of the meeting. We are working to improve proposal value so that we can meet the needs of our customers together with our partner plants through such activities.
Stationery Businesses: Audits of Partner Plants
We are conducting audits of partner plants in our stationery businesses. The aim of the audits is to ensure greater reliability of environmental labels in product catalogues than ever before. We conducted on-site audits in accordance with the operational rules we reviewed in 2019 from the perspective of preventing the spread of COVID-19 in FY2021. We check the following according to the audit procedures established by the company for conformity to the environmental-friendly standards stipulated by the Act on Promoting Green Procurement: Is the blending ratio of used paper and reprocessed resin compatible with the standards? Are materials of the specified standards put into the manufacturing process? Are there any problems with the legality of materials? We also consider together with partner plants issues to appropriately secure compliance with environmentally-friendly standards when conducting audits. We then exchange information on examples of improvement to boost reliability in terms of manufacturing management. Through such efforts, we will continue to ensure the reliability of environmental labels in the future. We periodically share strategies and policies with both manufacturing and distribution suppliers. We aim for mutual development based on long-term relationships of trust with them. The goal of that is to increase the value provided to our customers.
