Toray unit managers indifferent to quality assurance: report

December 27, 2017

Tokyo- Managers of a Toray Industries Inc. subsidiary involved in data falsification were indifferent to product quality assurance, an investigation report by an external panel concluded Wednesday.

The panel of lawyers investigated data manipulation over tire materials and other products by the wholly owned subsidiary, Toray Hybrid Cord Inc., based in the central Japan city of Nishio, Aichi Prefecture.

The report concluded that the Toray group could have notified tire makers and other clients of the misconduct earlier and called on the group to devise preventive measures.

Following the report, the parent company decided to establish a new department that supervises quality assurance systems across the group and to appoint a chief quality officer for the new organization.

Toray is expected to punish officials involved in the misconduct. Toray Hybrid Cord's president was sacked by the parent company on Dec. 1.

"Taking the recommendations seriously, we'll implement thorough preventive measures," Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku said in a statement, without holding a press conference.

The report said that the management of the subsidiary "had little interest in quality assurance and failed to notice that inadequate officials headed the quality assurance office."

The management neglected the duty to set up a system to prevent misconduct, while quality guarantee inspections became less precise, the report also said.

The report pointed to the possibility that Toray Hybrid Cord officials believed "minor deviations from standards would cause no problems."

The subsidiary falsified the data because two then chiefs of the quality assurance office thought they would miss delivery deadlines amid labor shortages if they redid measurements and other procedures, the report said.

The two altered the quality data, deciding that their acts would cause no safety problems, according to the report.

The report concluded that the two were the only officials involved in the data falsification and that the misconduct was not carried out systematically.

Toray made public the data manipulation in November, more than a year after it recognized the irregularities in July 2016.

Toray took time to investigate because of flaws in stored measurement data, but the company could have informed clients earlier, by explaining the provisional results of the probe to them, the report said.

Toray Hybrid Cord supplied 13 client companies with products for which strength and other data had been falsified, from April 2008 until the parent company became aware of the manipulation.

Toray said the safety has been confirmed for products delivered to 12 of the clients. It is still investigating the quality of the affected products provided to the remaining company.

Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, who also serves as Toray adviser, said in a statement that he wants Toray to "establish a new quality management system at an early stage." Jiji Press