[Special Topic] Initiatives from the Aspect of “Customer Needs”

Making Improvement Proposals That Help Customers Solve Problems

In the aspect of “customer needs,” based on the Action Guideline, we share the problems of our customers as problems of our own and propose and provide improvement plans in response to their needs, thereby contributing to the improvement of the environment at their factories and other sites.
Under our new medium-term plan for environmental improvement activities, we propose and provide products, technologies, and services that support customers to improve productivity, reduce their environmental impact, and create new energy. We thus help customers improve the environment through our business activities.

Identifying the Results for “Customer Needs”

The Kurita Group calculates environmental impact reduction as achieved through adopting the Group’s improvement proposals as “environmental benefits to customers.” We use them as an indicator for achievements we have made in the aspect of “customer needs.” We evaluate the results of our initiatives to respond to the “customer needs” based on this unique indicator and incorporate the evaluation results in our activities for the following fiscal year.
The environmental benefits to customers are calculated not based on the actual results: but as estimates (deemed effect). Specifically, based on the environmental impact reductions that we have estimated in our specifications and proposals submitted to customers, we calculate the annual difference in the amount of environmental impact before and after having adopted our proposals.
The actual results are reported monthly by employees in charge of sales and design, and are tabulated for each business sector. The Environmental Improvement Promotion Committee then confirms the results of the entire Kurita Group.

Service Business for the Achievement of Environmental Improvement

The Kurita Group provides customers with services that help them reduce their environmental impact, in addition to selling products that contribute to environmental improvement (e.g. water treatment chemicals and facilities) to customers.
In the “Water Supply Business,” the Kurita Group provides comprehensive services, including the installation, operational management, and maintenance of ultrapure water production systems and wastewater treatment and recovery equipment. In these onsite services, the Group ensures the optimal operational management of water treatment facilities as an expert in water treatment, which will in turn minimize the environmental impact from the facilities.
In the “Tool Cleaning Services,” we clean tools that customers have used in the manufacture of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) at our factories, so that these tools can be reused by them. Through this service, we can help customers improve their productivity and reduce their environmental impact.

We support customers in solving problems toward the achievement of their environmental improvement targets.

Regarding Kurita’s initiatives in the aspect of “customer needs,” we interviewed an employee in charge of the water supply business at the Company.

What measures are you implementing to ensure both the stable supply of ultrapure water and environmental impact reduction?

Matsutani: We are committed to preventing problems by understanding the present situation and predicting future issues based on data obtained through daily operational management. We decide on the maximum durable hours of consumables based on data accumulated in the past, determine operational management methods and maintenance plans in consideration of the durable hours thus decided, and endeavor to reduce the generation of waste by decreasing both the use of water treatment chemicals and the frequency of replacing consumables.
I am now in charge of the Kameyama Plant of Sharp Corporation, which is a “Super Green Factory” where the customer is drastically pursuing environmental impact reduction. At this factory, about 70% of waste is generated at the water treatment facilities managed by Kurita, and we are sharing the goal of reducing the environmental impact from the facilities with the customer. We will continue to share relevant information with the customer and jointly implement improvement measures.

Please introduce the major environmental impact reduction measures you implemented in fiscal 2009.

Matsutani: In fiscal 2009, we newly installed equipment to recover phosphorous acid contained in wastewater as a valuable resource at existing wastewater treatment facilities, with a view to reducing generation of waste. Moreover, we compared multiple operational methods for the dehydration equipment under various conditions and adopted a method optimal for reducing sludge by 16% to 20%.

Please tell us about your future plans.

Matsutani: We at the Kameyama Sub-branch have been implementing measures for environmental improvement in cooperation with customers. As their business partner, we will continue to propose and implement solutions that help customers achieve their environmental improvement targets.