Our Quality management

The Quality Assurance Department of Kirin Holdings has established the Kirin Group's Global Quality Management Principle (KGQMP) to promote the Kirin Group’s Quality Policy and the Commitments to Action and a high level of quality management by Kirin Group companies.

This principle is the essence of quality management that the Kirin Group’s entire value chain, from raw material procurement, development, manufacturing, and distribution to the delivery of products and services to consumers and patients. The principle is reflected in the quality management systems of each Group company, leading to products and services of solid quality.

Each Group company implements autonomous quality assurance activities based on the Kirin Group’s Quality Policy and the Commitments to Action and the Kirin Group Global Quality Management Principle.

In order to promote autonomous quality assurance activities at each Group company, the Quality Assurance Department of Kirin Holdings holds individual dialogues with each of the major Group companies every year.

The dialogues with each Group company are reported to the Board meeting every year after discussion by the Group Executive committee as necessary.

In order to understand the quality assurance status across various businesses and areas, Kirin Holdings has established common indicators and individual indicators for each Group company, creating a system that enables the Quality Assurance Department to understand not only the status of the Kirin Group as a whole but also the status specific to each Group company.

Many of the plants operated by Group companies are certified with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)* recognised international standards for food safety management systems, or ISO 22000. To ensure the safety of all food and beverage products we manufacture and market, all Kirin Group plants will be certified.

As part of the maintenance of quality management and food safety management system, we ensure the effectiveness of our system through annual renewal or maintenance audit by external certification institutions.

Additionally, as one of the cross-departmental functions of the Kirin Holdings Quality Assurance Department, we regularly conduct internal audits of quality at Group operating companies.

When a quality-related incident is reported to us, we take immediate action in accordance with the Group Crisis Management Manual, putting consumers and patients’ health and safety ahead of anything else.

As a first step, the Group company that marketed the product in question establishes an internal crisis management taskforce, through which information is shared among the president, officers, and other relevant parties within the company, and relevant information is provided to the public and regulatory authorities to prevent a health problem from affecting a larger population.

The taskforce works with the Group Risk and Compliance Committee and other relevant departments to keep track of the incident, analyze the situation, and develop an action plan based on a worst-case scenario. After taking initial responsive action, the taskforce coordinates with other departments in implementing preventive measures against the recurrence of similar incidents.

The Quality Assurance Department of Kirin Holdings leads regular annual training programs related to quality.

Kirin Group has a Technical Talent Development Center that specializes in education and training, mainly for domestic Group employees in technical roles. This center holds various courses, aimed at helping employees acquire various types of skills, communicate past serious quality incidents, etc.