Monozukuri and Services from the Customer's Perspective

Improving Product Safety

The Hitachi Group is dedicated to providing safe products and services by combining wide-ranging expertise with technologies covering planning, research, design, manufacturing, quality assurance and maintenance.
When developing products, our top design and verification priority is the safety of life, health and property. For example, we design consumer electronics with safety mechanisms to prevent, if a component fails, serious injury due to fire or electric shock.. We also do forced ignition testing to confirm product safety in the unlikely event that a product catches on fire, and take other steps to ensure thorough safety precautions.
Risk assessments are done based on broad-based cooperation among Hitachi divisions and research laboratories.

Response in Case of Product Accidents

If any of our products malfunction, we work to minimize adverse effects for consumers, mobilizing all divisions affected to mount a rapid response. In serious cases, where consumer safety is involved, we assess the scope of damage and thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident. We then submit a status report to top management within 24 hours of the incident.
Therefore, we strive to implement a quick, appropriate response, while simultaneously sending timely reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and publishing information about the incident on our Web site.
If necessary, we recall a product over concern about possible malfunctions or accident, then we make a public announcement through newspaper advertisements and/or Web site announcements to inform consumers about repairs or exchanges.

Response Flow in the Event of Product Malfunction

Response to Product Defects: Free Repair of Electric Heating Coils

Some of the 177,073 single and multiple electric heating coils that Hitachi manufactured from 1984 through 2004 unintentionally caused fires. The fires were caused because the ON switch protruded from the coil body, and therefore was prone to inadvertent contact with objects and people. The coils turned on accidentally, and in some cases, ignited material placed on top of them.
In response, Hitachi Appliances and Hitachi Housetech, both manufacturers and sellers of the coils, set up an electric heating coil countermeasures headquarters, and, through TV and newspaper ads, gathered information from consumers and are now making improvements in the switch design.
In addition, 13 companies in the electric heating coil industry (including the two Hitachi companies) established the Council on Electric Heating Coils for Small Kitchen Units in June 2007, which jointly published newspaper ads, and investigated and implemented measures to prevent a reoccurrence. As of January 2008, 61.2 percent of the Hitachi-manufactured units had been repaired or recalled. To prevent further accidents and strengthen product safety, these efforts will continue.

Building Customer Feedback into Our Products

We made our Customer Satisfaction (CS) Management Guidelines one of the pillars of business management, and we continue to improve CS, with the goal of “creating innovation through collaboration with customers.” We use customer satisfaction surveys tailored to each business operation, then analyze the opinions submitted, and incorporate this information into product development and business activities.
Using the concept of uVALUE,^*1 the Information and Telecommunications Systems Group is working to bring about a more prosperous society by “collaborating to create the best value for our customers.” Beginning with the customer's perspective, we take annual surveys to evaluate our products and services. Within the company, employees make evaluations to better understand customer needs and issues, as well as the quality and speed of our response to requests. We also survey employee opinions on the workplace environment, which includes internal communications and decision-making speed. The results are combined with the customer surveys and analyzed from many perspectives to assess how Hitachi's activities are reflected in customer satisfaction, with the goal of making improvements.
The customer surveys for fiscal 2007 were reorganized to help customers respond more easily to the Information & Telecommunications Systems Group, and we have begun to send to customers any findings that they might find interesting or useful.
Through these efforts, we are raising employee awareness, promoting communication within the Hitachi Group, and incorporating the customer's viewpoint into our operations.
For the fiscal 2007 customer survey, we obtained customer understanding and cooperation for giving, in an amount equivalent to the compensation that would have gone to survey respondents, a donation to the non-profit organization Good Earth Japan.

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uVALUE
uVALUE is an operational concept that combines the Hitachi Group's diverse business activities with IT. This approach—working toward the realization of a richer society— is intended to create value in a society characterized by ubiquitous IT.

• Collaboration with NPOs: Hitachi Construction Machinery Supports Good Earth Japan

Universal Design

Universal Design (UD) is the concept that all products and services should be useable by anyone, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or disability.
The UD perspective is essential because Hitachi is deeply involved in society and in people's daily lives in wide-ranging ways: consumer electronics, information services and public systems. In order to offer better products and services, we continually make improvements through a three-step process of basic research, product development, and information/educational programs.

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