Kobe Steel to invest 10 billion yen to prevent data falsification

November 17, 2017

Tokyo- Kobe Steel Ltd. will invest 10 billion yen from fiscal 2018 mainly to improve its product inspection system to prevent product data falsification, informed sources have said.

The inspection system includes a process in which handwritten data are used. This makes it easy to tamper with inspection data.

Kobe Steel will introduce equipment that entirely records the inspection data automatically to make the manual process unnecessary, the sources said.

The planned outlay will also be used to improve production lines so that the company can reduce product quality fluctuations, according to the sources.

The new data-recording equipment will be introduced to Kobe Steel plants in Tochigi, Mie and Yamaguchi prefectures, as well as subsidiary Kobelco Materials Copper Tube Co.'s plant in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Kobe Steel will make inspection data double-checked by plant workers and inspection specialists at facilities that cannot shift to full automation, the sources said. Jiji Press