Quality Management System and Product Safety​

Policy/Basic Concept​

Customer satisfaction is at the core of everything we do, beginning with the acquisition of a deep understanding of what the customer needs. Beyond simply listening to their feedback, we strive to perceive feelings and expectations that customers may not be able to articulate. We then propose solutions based on the customer’s perspective. Our aim is to offer RICOH Quality that delights our customers. This commitment is embedded in the corporate values that all Ricoh Group employees are expected to uphold so that they act with the full awareness that ensuring quality and customer satisfaction is their most important mission.
The Ricoh Group undertakes activities in pursuit of customer satisfaction to ensure RICOH Quality, which aims to “consistently delight and inspire our customers” by strengthening basic quality factors—such as safety and reliability—based on continuous communication with customers. In addition to efforts aimed at fulfilling social responsibilities, we actively invite customer comments so that we can better understand their needs. The customer perspectives thus gained are applied to our products and services to provide customers with truly useful value.

In pursuit of product safety and reliability

In Ricoh Group, we established Basic Policy for Product Safety Activities and Action Policy for Product Safety Activities as fundamental principles for product safety activities, linking safety activities throughout the product lifecycle. In the development and design stages, it is crucial to incorporate safety measures to ensure that customers can use our products and services with peace of mind. Therefore, the Ricoh Group has established its own product safety standards in addition to safety standards based on regulations, promoting "enhanced basic quality" by strictly adhering to them. Furthermore, in the "Product Safety Risk Assessment" conducted for all products, we consider addressing potential risks of each product and ensuring the safety of all of customers, including children and the elderly.
Moreover, compliance with regulations in each country is essential for global product supply. Therefore, we have introduced a system for managing compliance from the planning stage of products through a "Product Compliance Management System," enhancing mechanisms to ensure compliance with product regulations and public standards at the global level. The database of the compliance management system always reflects the latest information.

Basic Policy for Product Safety Activities

Product safety is a basic requirement for customer satisfaction. For this reason, each Ricoh Group company respects life, body and property of people involved in products and the merchandize as a basic stance. Concerned departments of Ricoh Group companies proactively combine their knowledge, act together positively and provide superior products in safety.

Action Policy for Product Safety Activities

  • Compliance to ordinances
    Each Ricoh Group company must comply with obligations stipulated in ordinances in Japan and in foreign countries relating to product safety, including the consumer products safety law, etc.
  • Establishment of corporate culture of product safety
    Each Ricoh Group company must establish and maintain the corporate culture of “Customer satisfaction” and “Securing of product safety”, through ongoing improvement of product safety management system.
  • Establishment of management system to ensure product safety
    Each Ricoh Group company, in addition to safety standards provided by ordinances, must prepare its independent safety standards, and always carry out appropriate safety management in every life cycle of its products in an attempt to continuously improve safety.
  • Collection and disclosure of information regarding accidents caused by products
    With respect to accidents involving its products, each Ricoh Group company must aggressively collect relevant information from its customers, while at the same time provide its customers with appropriate information.
  • Response to accidents caused by products
    In case of occurrence of accidents caused by its products, each Ricoh Group company must quickly report to the supervising government ministry and agencies under the ordinances, while at the same time, with respect to unforeseen accidents, when it is deemed necessary, take preventive measures against occurrence or expansion of damages, such as products recall.
  • Prevention of accident by misuse
    In order to allow safe use of products by customers, each Ricoh Group company must include warnings and indications in operating instructions and the main bodies of the products, which will be useful for the prevention of accidents by misuse or carelessness.
  • Implementation of product safety training
    Each Ricoh Group company must implement training and research study aiming at safety improvement.

Quality Assurance System

Promotion System

The principal Ricoh Group company involved in product safety activities is Ricoh Corporation, which has established Product Safety responsible division. Furthermore, it has set up related company head management departments responsible for the management and operation of each group company, ensuring the safety system of products across the entire Ricoh Group. Additionally, each company within the Ricoh Group sets evaluation steps necessary for product safety activities and manages quality assurance activities through further improvements.

image:Product Safety Organization Chart

Quality management system

Ricoh Group sales companies around the world improve quality based on our quality management system and the ISO 9001 standard. Most of our production sites and sales companies have earned ISO 9001 certification in our drive to enhance the quality of everything we do, from manufacturing through sales to customer service. The ISO9001 certified facilities are as follows:

ISO 9001-certified sites
As of April 30, 2024
Ricoh (IMS Division, Energy Harvesting Division)
Yamanashi Electronics Co., Ltd.
Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd.
Ricoh Industry Company, Ltd.
Hasama Ricoh., Ltd.
Ricoh Elemex Corp.
RIicoh Industrial Solutions Inc.
RICOH Digital Painting Company, Ltd.
PFU Limited.
Ricoh Electronics, Inc.
Shanghai Ricoh Digital Equipment Co., Ltd.
Ricoh Thermal Media (Wuxi) Co., Ltd.
Ricoh Industrie France S.A.S.
Ricoh UK Products Ltd.
Ricoh Manufacturing (Thailand) Ltd.
Ricoh Manufacturing (China) Ltd.

Quality Assurance Activities

Quality Audits

Each company within Ricoh Group conducts product safety audits and product safety management system audits and they adhere to product regulations to ensure the safety of products for all customers. Product safety audits are conducted during the new product development process to assess compliance with product safety specifications set forth in planning specifications and product standards. Product safety management system audits are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the mechanisms and structures for promoting product safety activities. Through internal and external audits in product safety management system audits, the system's appropriateness is evaluated annually, and based on these evaluations, continuous improvements are implemented.

Product Safety Risk Assessment

New technologies and new businesses for which product safety standards have not been established require a system to explore risks that have not been experienced before. Ricoh is strengthening the development of product safety risk assessment, which identifies product safety hazards in production processes and service provision, as an effective method for ensuring safety, especially when new technologies or mechanisms are adopted in existing products or in new business products. And we will do our utmost to ensure activities to guarantee product safety in new businesses, together with our own safety standard system that has been established in the past for MFPs and other products.

image:In pursuit of product safety and reliability

Quality Training and Education

Ricoh Group companies clearly define the necessary skills for individuals involved in jobs that impact product safety and adhere to product regulations. Group companies analyze, understand, and recognize whether these individuals possess the required skills, and if necessary, provide regular training and education to ensure they meet the necessary qualifications. Specifically, they offer product safety courses (e-learning) as a fundamental training for all employees, which are rolled out across the entire domestic and international group. Additionally, we also offer specialized training programs covering topics such as Product Liability Laws (PL), safety, EMC, and communication standards. These courses are conducted several times a year to ensure ongoing competency. Furthermore, to improve service quality, we conduct training for service engineers both in Japan and overseas. In Japan, we also utilize various systems and mechanisms such as competitions and certification exams to facilitate skill enhancement, which is similarly implemented in various countries worldwide to foster skill development on a global scale.

Quality Crisis Management

Quality assurance data

The Ricoh Group employs three market information databases related to product quality. The Maintenance Service Information System contains historical information on machine failures confirmed by customer engineers, along with the maintenance services we provided. The Quality Problem Management System links data obtained in Japan on product quality issues to data from our other markets around the world. If a quality-related problem occurs, the Design and Manufacturing Department discusses what action to take based on information in this database and provides prompt feedback to those involved. Finally, the Device Monitoring System allows us to obtain statistics on how customers use our equipment daily through @Remote™, our global remote device management service. The Ricoh Group uses these systems in an integrated way to obtain market information from multiple aspects. Based on this data, we can immediately identify and address problems, and take action to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.

image:Quality assurance data

@Remote™ for Worry-Free Equipment Use

Ricoh’s @Remote™ technology is an Internet-based management system for monitoring customer device data. The @Remote™ service automatically collects and uploads meter readings daily from MFPs and printers, keeping track of their usage status, maintenance records and machine conditions. This enables us to provide essential services (like replenishing supplies and dispatching maintenance personnel) promptly, without the customer having to contact us. We offer @Remote™ globally so that customers can use their equipment with confidence at all times.

Advantages of @Remote™

  • Prevents equipment failure
  • Quick action cuts downtime
  • Useful equipment management tool
  • Information obtained can be used in consultations

Response to Serious Safety Issues Occurrence

When safety issues are reported by customers, they are registered in a safety issue database, establishing a system where relevant departments can promptly become aware of them. Particularly for significant safety issues, they are immediately communicated to the management level. In the event of a significant safety issue, the business leader takes charge and establishes a Response Project Group (PG), which includes not only design, production, sales, service, and safety management departments but also public relations, legal, and internal control departments, to implement necessary actions. In the Countermeasure PG, we simultaneously consider responses to issues from three perspectives: accident investigation, corrective measures, and reporting. Based on these, we prioritize customer-oriented responses and aim for early resolution:

  • Confirmation of market response
  • Investigation of the extent of the accident and decision-making on response
  • Investigation of the cause and consideration of countermeasures

The Ricoh Group aims to maintain the number of serious accidents involving products at zero annually. The trend of actual performance is as follows:

Boundary Unit FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Cases of serious accidents involving products Ricoh Group (Global) cases 0 0 0 0
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