Panasonic voluntarily set corporate-wide internal limits exceeding RoHS legislation. This system not only requires declarations from suppliers but also analytical proof on a regular basis. Based on these results, Panasonic can assign risk levels to suppliers and products purchased, ensuring all products conform to the RoHS Directive and internal standards.
The RoHS directives are aimed at 10 categories of electrical and electronic equipment:
i. large household appliances
ii. small household appliances
iii. IT and telecommunications equipment
iv. consumer equipment
v. lighting equipment
vi. electrical and electronic tools
vii. toys, leisure and sports equipment
viii. medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products)
ix. monitoring and control instruments
x. automatic dispensers
The RoHS directive is applied uniformly in Europe and bans lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) as hazardous substances from July 1, 2006 onwards.
Within the scope of this directive, categories viii and ix of the 10 categories listed above are excluded for the time being. This means, components are used in medical or industrial devices are not covered by the RoHS directive. When used in the other categories, e.g. household appliances, then compliance is required. As a result of this environmental policy, all Panasonic relays are now ROHS compliant.
Relays with contacts that contain cadmium are still exempt from the RoHS directive. However, due to its general corporate policy, Panasonic no longer offers any relays whose contacts contain cadmium. So besides Cadmium-free relays, Panasonic will keep relays with AgCdO contacts available upon the customer's request.
Major Obligations and Commencement Time
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Requirement | Prohibit the use of 6 specified hazardous substances in products. |
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Target Substances (*) | 1) Lead content <0.1% by weight |
| 2) Mercury content <0.1% by weight |
| 3) Cadmium content <0.01% by weight |
| 4) Hexavalent chromium content <0.1% by weight |
| 5) PBB content <0.1% by weight |
(*) draft, not-final | 6) PBDE content <0.1% by weight |
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Target Equipment | Almost all kinds of electric/electronic equip. |
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Applicable Time | 1-Jul-06 |
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Why Hazardous Substances Are Prohibited?
Name | Application | Adverse Effects |
Lead (Pb) | Solder, contact/fuses, Component plating, cord insulation stabilizer… | Limb paralysis, anemia, Anorexia, headaches, Colic seizures, etc… |
Mercury (Hg) | Fluorescent lamp, LCD backlighting, paint pigments, etc… | Skin and eye irritation, Lung edema, kidney disorders, Ataxia, etc… |
Cadmium (Cd) | Electrical contacts in switches And relays, temperature fuses, Paint pigments, etc… | Eye irritations, weakness, dry retching, Kidney disorder, anorexia, etc… |
Hexavalent Chromium | Screws, sheet metal plating, etc… | Skin-mucosa ulcer, bronchial Infection, kidney disorder, lung cancer, etc… |
Polybromobiphenyl (PBB) | Packaging, Filters | Thyroxin disturbance, anomaly, etc. |
Polybromodiphenyl Ether (PBDE) | Thyroxin disturbance, dioxin-like Toxicity, etc. |
3.1 HOW PANASONIC HANDLES LOT TRACEABILITYAND PRODUCT RECALL IN CASE OF NON-CONFORMANCE
3.11 Documentation control
Quality documentation is a must in the modern world. This is a necessity due to several reasons. Most importantly, it allows errors to be isolated and successes to be replicated. Documentation also helps company to guard against the risk of potential litigation.
Panasonic Bhd. always has clear precise documentation of every important transaction, process, and action that takes place. This will allow company and workers to have a clear reference point whenever anything is in question. Additionally, the chances of processes and actions deviating from their expected results are very low when there is a comprehensive and systematic database of documentation concerning the appropriate requirements and procedures that need to be implemented.
If have non-conformance happened, the Documentation process and control is very important to handles lot traceability and product recall in case of non-conformance. For this purpose, Panasonic Bhd. have created standard documents (regulations and standard forms) that clarify the handling, storage location and period, and responsibility for all documents such as company regulations, specification documents, contracts, laws and regulations, industry-group related documents, safety documents, technical data, documents related to negotiations with administrative organizations, and others.
At Panasonic, regulation document types are classified and managed as described below:
A. Regulation documents are classified into the following 7 types:
(i) Regulations
(ii) Standards
(iii) Technical standards
(iv) Specifications documents
(v) Procedure documents
(vi) Instructions
(vii) Manuals
B. Documentation for Maintenance, improvement, publication
For each regulation document, drafting (creation of a proposal and submission to an inspection committee), maintenance, improvement, publication, and implementation are carried out under the responsibility of 18 work functions, including development, materials, production engineering, quality and others to handles the traceability and product recall in case of non-conformance.
C. Documentation about Establishment, revision, verification, discontinuation system
The procedures for establishment, revision, verification, and discontinuation of regulation documents are shown in below:
Figure: Procedures for Establishment, Revision, Verification, and Discontinuation of Regulation Documents.
Therefore, from this documentation process, they strive to satisfy all customers throughout the world regarding not only product functions and reliability but also price, delivery, service characteristics, safety, environmental conservation, resource utilization and others.
3.12 Information to Stakeholder
Panasonic’s Stakeholders
Stakeholders means that a person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives, and policies. Key stakeholders in Panasonic company include creditors, customers, directors, employees, government, shareholders (owners), suppliers, unions, community.
Panasonic places great value on interacting with customers, business partners and employees, their most important stakeholders. For this purpose, they conduct surveys of customers and employees, hold Excellent Partners Meetings and perform many other activities. All these measures are consistent with their commitment to the principles of customer first, co-existence and mutual prosperity. Further supporting this interaction are the Global Advisory Committee and other committees that bring together individuals from Panasonic and outside our group.
Organizational units and employees are also key components of their engagement with the stakeholders involved in diverse business operations. Interaction with stakeholders is part of everyday activities, allowing us to work constantly on establishing processes that can make CSR and responses to social issues part of our business operations
If have non-conformance happened, Panasonic Malaysia Bhd will try to handles lot traceability and product recall in case of non-conformance. For example, when discover get damages in products to consumer, the quality section will work together with design section, manufacturing section to clarify the cause of the malfunction, feedback the information to design or manufacturing process, and will strive their best for quality maintenance and improvement and to prevent recurrence. Besides that, Panasonic will disclose and state that the compliance in RoHS to all the stakeholders to inform them about compliance RoHS helps reduce damage to people and the environment in countries.
They will make sure the components or material that have been used has provided immediate health benefits to electronics industry workers especially in prototype and manufacturing operations and inform to the community that Panasonic’s product are compliance to the RoSH and its very safe to used it. Panasonic as well as in Malaysia Bhd strive to satisfy all customers throughout the world regarding not only product functions and reliability but also service characteristics, safety, environmental conservation and resource utilization.
In May 2010, Panasonic Corporation announced its new midterm management plan. Through this plan, they hope to take the lead in driving innovation inspired by everyday life, with the aim of achieving a sustainable society. Information about Panasonic’s business activities is provided in three reports, including 'eco ideas' Report, which provides details on our environmental activities, and our Annual Report, which provides financial information to shareholders and investors and Sustainability Report which describe the innovations Panasonic is working on in hopes of contributing to sustainable growth.
For the ‘Eco idea report’, Panasonic has been globally manufacturing products in consideration of the environment from the following three viewpoints: prevention of global warming; effective use of resources; and management of chemical substances. Besides that, Panasonic has been utilizing an environmental assessment system for its products, under which they assess an environment impact of our products right from their planning and design stages. Based on the assessment results, they accredit products and services with higher environmental performance as Green Products (GPs).
For the Sustainable report, as a global citizen, employees of the Panasonic Group around the world are committed to implementing specific environmental activities in workplaces, households, and local communities and passing on our efforts to the next generation. With an Eco Relay Committee set up in each region, we are promoting environmental activities as "One Panasonic" under the name "Panasonic ECO RELAY for Sustainable Earth" by integrating activities that are independently promoted. Each and every member of the Panasonic Group around the world including in Malaysia is committed to implementing specific environmental activities as a global citizen. Aiming to help build a sustainable global environment and society, Panasonic will connect people, regions, and activities on a global basis and pass on our efforts to the next generation to bring greater benefits to the world.
For the Annual report is a very important report for all stakeholders. The users of financial statements are people and institutions that use financial statements for a large variety of business purposes and their ability to understand and analyze financial statements helps them to success in the business world. The various users of financial statements are classified and detailed as follows:
Internal Users
The internal users of financial statements are the individuals who have direct bearing with the organization. For the smooth operation of the organization, the managers and owners need the financial reports essential to make business decisions. So as to provide a more comprehensive view of the financial position of an organization, financial analysis is performed with the information supplied in the financial statement. Besides that, the financial reports or the financial statements are of immense use to the employees of the company for making collective bargaining agreements. Such statements are used for discussing matters of promotion, rankings and salary hike.
External Users
The external users of financial statements are basically the investors who use the financial statements to assess the financial strength of a company. This would help them to make logical investment decisions. The users of financial statements are also the different financial institutions like banks and other lending institutions who decide whether to help the company with working capital or to issue debt security to them. The financial statements of different companies are also used by the government to analyze whether the tax paid by them is accurate and is in line with their financial strength. The vendors who extend credit to a business require financial statements to assess the creditworthiness of the business. General Mass and Media The common people as well as media are also the users of financial statements.
Lot Traceability Handling in Panasonic
All products display the manufacturing year and month, and a control number (precise number) that can be used for verifying the manufacturing history is applied. The manufacturing history includes the manufacturing equipment and worker as well as information on the parts and materials lot numbers. An example of the application of the number is shown below.
For the manufacturing year and month, the following two methods are mainly used.
1) Method 1
§ Eight characters of alphanumeric characters are used, with the first four indicating the last digit of the year (1 character), the week (2 characters), and the manufacturing factory (1 character) in that order, and the remaining 4 (or fewer) characters indicating the individual date code for each BU.
§ Definition of week 1
§ The beginning of the week is Monday, and the week of that year that includes January 4 is set as the first week.
§ The definition and code for the manufacturing factory is set according to each product group.
§ For products that cannot be labeled in this way due to the shape being small, a separate method is used.
2) Method 2
§ Three characters of alphanumeric characters or symbols are used, indicating the last digit of the year (1 character), the month (1 character), and the last digit of the date (1 character) in that order.
§ For the month, the months up to and including September are indicated with numerals. For the months of October and later, the first letter of the month (“O” for October, “N” for November, and“D” for December) is used.
§ The period within the manufacturing month is indicated by the presence/absence of a bar (-, -) and the position of the bar if present. A bar above the month character indicates the first period, no bar above or below the month character indicates the middle period, and a bar below the month character indicates the last period.
§ Please note that different labeling may be used depending on the product type.
Non-Conformance Handling Flow Chart in Panasonic
3.13 Countermeasures for improvement
To improve the product’s quality, if non-compliance is found prior to the product being placed on the market, immediate action should be taken to rectify the problem. Again, awareness from both producers and suppliers is vital so that any non-compliant component can be identified and modified before the product is made available on the community market. Besides, Regular checks of compliance systems and of new parts contribute to reducing this risk.
Countermeasures is an action that taken in response to an event or occurrence in order to negate the preliminary action. Countermeasures for improvement are very important for those companies that have a poor method in processing their product. Thus, countermeasures for improvement that apply by Panasonic is make product green, strive to achieve zero emission, strive to develop environment conscious production methods and system, expend product categories for cycling, make commitment to conserve energy and resources, make endeavors to develop sustainable energy, establish organizational structure to facilitate speedy and autonomous decision-making procedures, establish indicators and evaluation systems for environmental management, cultivate environment awareness in employees.
The company believe that establish those method are reasonable and appropriate in order to protect the legitimate interests of all Panasonic shareholders. Panasonic recognizes that if not comply with RoHS may cause damage or loss, economic or otherwise. Thus Panasonic hereby advising in advance against commend to improve RoHS control.
Inspection Process of the product
To improve the manufacturing’s product quality in Panasonic, inspection shall confirmed that all individual raw material is under RoHS compliant. During manufacturing there are numerous inspection processes, and the data from those processes are not used only as data for ensuring product quality, but are also used as data indicating the levels of various types of quality in each process and are fed back to the design and development stages, equipment control. In the final process of manufacturing section, inspection of all products is performed. By inspecting all products, an initial quality of 100% good products can be obtained. Further, to ensure various types of quality and reliability, sampling for shipment inspection and periodic testing are performed for verification, and whether or not the products satisfy the various demands of customers is verified. From the inspection process, it is require to confirm the ICP data availability by referring to ICP data master list provide by RoHS team member, to confirm the ICP data availability by referring to ICP data master list provide by RoHS team member, to highlight to RoHS team member if found that the ICP data already expired, to stamp RoHS indication on each bag for resin or labels for others and IQC inspectors must be well educate.
Corrective Actions and Preventive Measures of the Product
When a problem occurs with a product or manufacturing process in Panasonic, countermeasure management of that product or process is performed promptly. Cause investigation and analysis are performed, and the details of measures to prevent recurrence from the root cause are determined. When the details of measures include changes of procedures, materials, processes, or systems, problems due to the change details are sufficiently verified and evaluated, and corrective actions and preventive measures are performed. Depending on the details of the corrective actions or preventive measures, prior approval is obtained from the customer.
After performing corrective actions and preventive measures, the results are investigated, and it is verified that the expected effects were obtained. The details from abnormality occurrence to countermeasures are promptly provided to related sections, and are recorded in quality records. In addition, for recurrence prevention and horizontal development, a quality report is created, which plays a role in preventing recurrence. This quality report is added to the overall Panasonic Group database, and is utilized in design, development, and checking during process change review to prevent recurrence.
After product shipment, if a problem occurs with a product, the product may be returned by customer request or a request from Panasonic. In such case, the sales section will investigate the usage equipment, usage conditions, usage period, and malfunction occurrence status, and together with the quality section, will strive to rapidly solve the problem at the customer side. The quality section will work together with design section, manufacturing section, etc. to clarify the cause of the malfunction, feedback the information to design or manufacturing process, and will strive their best for quality maintenance and improvement and to prevent recurrence. In addition, in order to ensure high quality and high reliability, even for minor problems, information on problem details, status, etc. will be requested the customer to be offered. The handling status of such problems at the customer side is reported to the customer by sales section upon demand.
Figure: System diagram for countermeasure treatment of problems
Problem Action report chain
Internal Audit
RoHS team shall conduct audit at least once per year for monitoring purpose of system implementation and to ensure their product is free from contamination at least once per year. A standard checklist shall be use to ensure the content of important customer needs is fulfill. Checklist shall be using same as internal audit if materials is consigned. An internal audit actually consists of a process control method and corrective measures for precious problems.
Below items are the examples of internal audit check point,
Internal audit check items for Panasonic prohibited substances management:
- High-accuracy analysis data is periodically collected from raw material manufacturers.
- A mark is indicated on raw material packages showing that the material is free from hazardous substances.
- The receiving inspection by the company is performed as specified.
- A particular production lot can be identified when a problem occurs (Traceability has been established).
- The fact that hazardous substances are not present in production consumables such as chemicals and solvents used in the manufacturing process can be verified by using the analysis report or high-accuracy analysis data.
- When switching over the parts/materials in the manufacturing equipment, measures for preventing contamination by hazardous substances are implemented.
- Corrective measures for problems previously discovered in the company or at customers are continuously implemented. The revised standards and procedure for preventing problems are maintained.
- Education/training on hazardous substances (primarily related to the substances prohibited by Panasonic) is provided.
