FY2022 Priority Item Results and FY2025 Targets［Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.］

Promotion of Human Resources Development

To raise the collective strength of Toyoda Gosei globally, we are striving to develop human resources and create workplace environments where everyone can display their full abilities.

Enhanced Training Programs, Invigorated Personnel Development

To improve the skills and abilities needed in working at Toyoda Gosei, we are encouraging human resources development in three key areas: problem-solving, which is fundamental to work; the ability to work in teams based on communication; and basic skills for strong on-site abilities.

We have also launched a new training program to develop project leaders who can bring about reforms in order to respond to changes in the business environment, and digital talent to promote DX. We are also actively introducing online training, e-learning and other new training methods.

■Level-Specific Education System

New Employee OJT System

For early employee education, we have introduced a “New employee OJT system” for independence of young employees within three years of joining the company. We provide both on-the-job training and classroom training in the workplace so that they can perform their work according to the PDCA cycle.

Interviews in the pivotal second, fourth and sixth years in the company help them display their abilities, understand their individual growth, discover educational problems early, and take measures to counter them.

Special Skills Dojos, Maintenance Skills Dojos, and Mold Skills Dojos Raise the Level of Skill on the Manufacturing Floor

Improving the skills of each worker is an indispensable part of enhancing manufacturing capabilities at production sites. We therefore started up three dojos in FY2019 with the basic policy of “cultivating a culture that values skills.”

The Special Skills Dojo is designed to help managers and supervisors acquire specialized skills in addition to their supervisory duties. We have started a training program where they learn the mechanisms that lead to defects so that they are better able to take corrective actions.

In the Maintenance Skills Dojo launched to train maintenance personnel, we have added application-level training to respond to the shift to robotics and IT. To promote autonomation through the use of collaborative robots on manufacturing floors, general shop floor workers are also being trained in robot teaching skills. In FY2022, we have also begun to create a curriculum to train people who will bring autonomation to existing processes through the use of collaborative robots.

The Mold Skills Dojo provides basic skills training and trainer training for mold maintenance personnel at domestic and overseas locations. So far a total of 100 people have been through this dojo.

We have been entering the Skills Olympics since 2017. By helping young employees to acquire the high-level skills and knowledge related to their essential work, we are striving to develop employees who can play active roles on the production floor in the future. With these ongoing initiatives, we hope to achieve strong manufacturing floors that support the company.

Training of Global Executive Candidates

For the systematic training of people who will manage the company in the future, we have introduced a program to help people learn how to look at and think about things at the management level and cultivate the qualities that will help them bear higher levels of work responsibility, with aims such as broadening their outlook and improving their judgment. Outside Japan, we are training executive candidates globally with the introduction of a certification system for solving problems by clarifying issues and setting goals.

With the continuous education of management personnel, we will ensure that we have the personnel who can support the management foundation of the company.

Project Leader Training in the Age of VUCA

In addition to training based on problem solving, we believe people need to develop the expertise, capabilities, and skills required to respond to changes in the business environment and implement management strategies. We have started a training program where people learn new ideas, approaches, and other skills to create new value and take the lead in innovating business operations. Three types of project leaders are trained: 1) Business leaders who create new businesses and products, 2) Business innovation leaders who innovate business processes, and 3) DX leaders who lead digital human resources and promote DX. This training has been fully implemented since September 2022.

Digital Personnel Development for People Who Can Carry Out DX

In response to the rapidly changing business environment, we are overhauling production processes and products using data and digital technology. While transforming our business model, we are also transforming the work itself and the organization, processes, corporate culture and atmosphere. We will continue this DX to gain a competitive advantage. Training people who can do this is an urgent task, and in January 2022 we introduced a new educational program to train core digital personnel.

With this we will ensure business innovations and our competitiveness in the market, so that we can grow as an organization that can respond flexibly and rapidly to market changes (81 people received standard level certification in FY2021).

Support for a Full Second Life

Creating a Pleasant Corporate Culture

We believe that it is very important to have both systems and environments in place for our employees to work with energy and enthusiasm. In addition to measures to improve job satisfaction, we are actively working to improve office environments, cafeterias, restrooms, and other facilities to provide safe and comfortable work environments and create a foundation on which each employee can demonstrate their abilities.

Workplace Culture Reforms, Higher Employee Engagement

Toyoda Gosei is undertaking various activities to create a comfortable working atmosphere.

In 2015, we launched the “Five Articles for Officers” with the aim of fostering workplaces where people can speak their minds freely and a culture that encourages bottom-up proposals and initiative, as well as a company ekiden relay race to improve vitality and solidarity. These activities produced changes in the atmosphere within the company, but to further raise employees’ sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in their work, in April 2019 we started the Management Declaration Activity. The heads of all divisions clarify the vision and mission for their division and declare how they will develop human resources and create a positive culture.

Although progress was made in reforming the corporate culture through these ongoing measures, in 2021 we started an engagement survey and have been monitoring internal conditions to make further improvements by quantitatively measuring employee job satisfaction and other parameters. We will continue our efforts to improve employee engagement by addressing issues that are identified in the surveys.

■Trends in Initiatives to Improve Employee Engagement

Safety and Health

Basic Philosophy

Basic Policy for Safety and Health

The Toyoda Gosei Group considers employee safety and mental and physical health to be one of the most important management issues, and we do our best to ensure secure and pleasant workplace environments for all business activities.

Safety and Health Initiatives

In the Toyoda Gosei Group, safety and health declarations are made and company activities are spread based on the above basic philosophy.

Promotion System

A Central Safety and Health Committee (meets 4 times/year) is organized with the executive in charge of safety as the chairperson. Meetings are attended by the company president, labor union chairperson, plant managers of all locations in Japan, and the presidents of domestic and international subsidiaries. Various measures related to safety and health are reported and discussed, and the results are reported to the Board of Directors.

In addition to the deliberation results of the Central Safety and Health Committee, safety information is sent out repeatedly in the President’s New Year message and company newsletters. The entire Toyoda Gosei Group carries out these activities. For suppliers, efforts are made to regularly share all relevant information through procurement liaison meetings and other means.

Targets/Achievements

We believe it is the company's responsibility to ensure that everyone who works on our premises returns home in the same good health as when they arrived at work. We have implemented various measures to achieve our goal of zero grave,^*5 serious^*6 and STOP 7^*7 accidents on a global basis.

We are working to eliminate accidents so that our employees can focus on manufacturing with safety and security even when faced with sudden production volume fluctuations due to COVID-19 or other factors. This includes preventing recurrence, conducting risk assessments and various safety audits for advance prevention, providing safety and health education by job level to raise safety awareness, and conducting ongoing KYT (hazard prediction training) activities.

• *5 Grave: death
• *6 Serious: Victim loses part of body (or function)
• *7 STOP 7: Seven things with which there is a possibility of serious injury: (1) being pinched or caught in a machine, (2) heavy objects, (3) falling objects or people, (4) electric shock, (5) vehicles, (6) hot material, explosives, gas, (7) severance

■Occurrence of Grave and Serious STOP 7 Accidents［Global］(Including various contractors)

Safety and Health Management System

Risk Assessments

Risk assessments of equipment are conducted at the time of new installation, modification, and relocation by equipment planning departments, with the purpose of eliminating risk factors in the equipment design and fabrication stages. A safety check is done at the stage before the equipment is used to evaluate compatibility with our own equipment safety criteria to confirm safety.

In manufacturing departments, surveys of workplace risks and hazards are performed and work risk assessments are done to counter them. Reliable implementation of risk reduction measures leads to the prevention of risk.

Safety and Health Education

Educational curricula are set and various educational programs are provided in line with position in the company and timing of needed training. Because of the coronavirus pandemic and other factors, Web-based education is carried out in addition to conventional in-person education.

Safety Dojos have also been set up and are being operated at all Toyoda Goseibusiness locations in Japan to prevent past accidents from fading and to teach employees to sense risks. These dojos are being spread globally.

Domestic and International Subsidiary Audits

Work Accident Occurrence

With the aim of having zero grave or serious STOP 7 accidents, we have implemented safety measures for high-risk equipment since FY2017. However, in FY2021 two serious STOP 7 accidents corresponding to getting caught in a machine occurred at overseas subsidiaries.

In FY2022, to prevent accidents in which workers are caught in a machine, “separation” measures have been taken so that workers cannot come in contact with sources of danger. “Shifting to essential safety measures,” in which the source of danger is eliminated or its energy reduced, has also been raised as a priority measure in our activities.

Health Management

Basic Philosophy

We conduct health management activities so that all people working in the Toyoda Gosei Group can continue working in both mental and physical health.

Promotion System

Health Management Activities and Certifications/Awards

The ability of each employee to work with energy and health into the future is essential as a foundation to fulfill our corporate social responsibility as stated in Toyoda Gosei’s management philosophy. In recognition of this, we are promoting health management to maintain and promote the health of our employees.

A strategy map based on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Guidelines for Administrative Accounting of Investment in Health and Productivity Management was created for the purpose of quantitatively showing health management initiatives and results, and implementing the PDCA cycle for activities. We will promote health management in a continuous and effective manner by quantitatively evaluating investments, effectiveness, and resources.

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■Strategy map

*Click to enlarge

We have also formulated Challenge 8 as a health KPI to promote health management. The eight items of weight, breakfast, alcohol consumption, snacking, smoking cessation, exercise, sleep, and stress are numerically assessed, and targets have been set for each fiscal year through FY2025.

In recognition of our past health management activities, we were recognized for the first time by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Health and Productivity Brand in 2022.

Raising Health Awareness and Changing Behaviors

Enhancement of Specific Health Guidance and Medical Checkups

In 2019 we adopted specific health guidance (active support) for groups in collaboration with the health insurance association. This led to a significant increase in the specific health guidance implementation rate, from 42.6% in 2018 to 81.0% in 2020.

In regular health checkups, we began checking all employees using even tests that occupational physicians say could be omitted, for the early detection of anomalies and to establish healthy lifestyles. Health guidance by occupational physicians and others is givento people in whom any potential problem was found in health checkups.

Dietary Improvements

In FY2021 we remodeled our company cafeteria with the concept “Eat delicious food and be healthy.” Healthy meals with lots ofvegetables and protein were incorporated in the menu, which was adapted to be both healthy and satisfying in terms of qualityand volume. A system was also introduced that allowed people to check on their smart phones the nutrition and calories in the meal they ate that day for self-management. In 2022, a women’s consultation office staffed by female medical professionals (doctors, nurses) was also opened. This office also provides health consultations.

Initiatives to Maintain and Improve Women’s Health

We place great importance on activities that support the health of working women. Our first Women's Health Week event was held in March 2022 with the aim of improving women's health literacy. A special meal (Pink Ribbon Lunch) was served in the cafeteria, information was provided via panels, flyers, and digital signage, and self-check goods were distributed to raise awareness of breast and uterine cancer screenings. In collaboration with the health insurance union, leaflets to improve the cancer screening rate were distributed to people in their 20s, in whom the screening rate is particularly low. This resulted in a 5% increase in the cancer screening application rate in FY2022.

We are also trying to support women who are returning to work after parental leave by providing information on consultation services and self-care information to help them balance childcare and work from a health perspective. In 2022, a women’s consultation office staffed by female medical professionals (doctors, nurses) was also opened. This office also provides health consultations.

“Pink ribbon lunch” provided during Women’s Health Week and information being provided at event

Anti-smoking Measures

With the aim of preventing health damage in smokers and passive smoking in non-smokers, we first banned the sales of cigarettes in the company (including vending machines). At the same time, we provided support by public health nurses to help smokers quit smoking. Since 2016 we have held “Smoking cessation talks” with invited outside instructors and held experience-based exhibitions that include measurements of lung age as motivation to quit smoking.

In anticipation of the Revised Health Promotion Act in Japan, which went into full effect in April 2020, we extended a smoking ban on all company property in the country starting in January 2020. At that time, the ban on employee smoking was not limited to company property but was extended to at least 100m from the property boundaries to prevent passive smoking by neighborhood residents. In cases when a nursery school or medical institution was in that zone, we expanded the ban zone to include the area around them.

To protect all people working in the company from passive smoking, we set a company policy with the aim of preventing harmful passive smoking. In addition to steady efforts beforehand to gain employees’ understanding, we made repeated requests to staffing agencies and contractors for their cooperation. Today, one year after the smoking ban on company property, its continuation has had no effect on productivity or employee retention.

The company-wide smoking rate has decreased from 42.5% in 2010 to 26.1% in 2021.

■Smoking Rate at Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Responding to and Preventing Mental Health Problems

Prevention of Infections Among Employees

Subsidies for antibody tests for diseases such as measles and rubella were added to the company benefit system in 2020. Partial subsidies are also given for influenza vaccinations, including for family members.

In response to the novel coronavirus we have prepared infection prevention guidelines, update them as needed, and are spreading them globally to prevent infections. At the request of the government, we have also conducted workplace vaccinations four times in our headquarters district and the Morimachidistrict. To counter diseases such as AIDS (including HIV infection), tuberculosis, and malaria that are subject to notification based on the Infectious Diseases Act, our Crisis Management Guide details prevention and initial response methods and we are familiarizing employees with them.

Many Types of Health Education

Responding to and Preventing Mental Health Problems

In 2018, we established TG Group Mental Health Activity Meetings and have promoted mental health activities at all subsidiaries. As a result, we have been able to carry out efforts including mental health education, contracts with psychiatrists, and the introduction of EAPs in each company.

From 2021, the name has been changed to Health Promotion Meetings and we have transitioned to activities that cover overall health, including physical health. Specific areas include (1) Planning targets for smoking bans on company grounds and support to achieve those targets, (2) information sharing and promotion of health creation activities, and (3) information sharing and promotion of mental health activities.

In addition, since 2022 smoking has been banned on the grounds of all 13 of the company’s domestic subsidiaries to further raise health awareness.

As a result of these efforts, two domestic subsidiaries received certification as a “2022 Health and Productivity Management Organization” (small and medium-sized business category).