The Corporate Health and Safety Steering Committee, which comprises representatives from all the divisions and affiliates of the Company, sets policies and targets for improving occupational safety and health activities throughout the Group and reducing occupational accidents and injuries. After deliberation, the committee develops proposals on safety and health measures and activities. The Management Conference of the Company, headed by the President, approves these proposals. These proposals are also reported to the Board of Directors.

Fostering a safety culture

Based on the Safety Philosophy and the Principles of Safety Activities, Sumitomo Electric and Group companies both in Japan and overseas are mainly conducting the following activities to foster a safety culture:
1) Once every six months, the President himself issues a Message from the President and COO to all employees, temporary workers, etc., via internal broadcasts, global newsletters, and other media to advocate clear safety policies. In addition, we hold a Corporate Safety Conference twice a year to share information about safety achievements, activities of each division, and priority initiatives and spread good practices among them, in order to ensure thorough awareness that safety is our top priority, an item of our Safety Philosophy throughout the Group. To promote our efforts to foster a safety culture, we created safety awareness cards (available in 12 languages, including Japanese, English, and Chinese) and distributed them to all Group employees to ensure the permeation of the S-T-O-P Accident Campaign* and other initiatives.
2) Executives such as division general managers and the presidents of affiliates declare action targets as “safety actions of top management” and demonstrate how to perform those actions to drive the safety mindset of employees. At the end of each fiscal year, this initiative is reviewed with feedback sought from employees, and the review results are incorporated in the next fiscal year’s activities.
3) We have increased opportunities for dialogue between patrollers and workers during regular safety patrols. The patrollers directly express their gratitude to the workers for complying with safety rules and share their findings and insights regarding risks at the workplaces, thereby ensuring full awareness of safety on both sides. This kind of dialogue sometimes reminds workers of recent problems, no matter how minor they are, and allows them to share with the patrollers information about risks that cannot be confirmed immediately, leading to improvement measures being adopted. Additionally, to raise the quality of dialogue, we train safety experts in each division, who play a key role in our efforts to improve the dialogue skills of managers at each workplace.
4) We conduct a periodical safety awareness survey to quantify each division’s tendency. Making the most of good practices in the Group, we promote improvement activities attuned to each division.
5) Furthermore, as an overseas initiative to promote safety activities in line with the laws, regulations, and characteristics of each region, we have established an EHS Committee* in the Americas and Safety Working Groups in Greater China and Southeast Asia. These organizations hold regular meetings as opportunities for exchange of information about laws and regulations, the status of each company’s initiatives, etc. between the Group companies.

*S-T-O-P Accident Campaign: This slogan represents basic rules to be followed while walking. S: Do not take a short cut and watch your step; T: Do not text or talk on the phone while walking; O: Hold on to the handrails when using stairs; and P: Do not put your hands in your pocket while walking

*EHS Committee: A committee that tackles issues related to the environment, occupational health, and safety, and promotes activities aimed at creating a safer working environment

Developing human capital with high safety awareness
– “Protect your life by yourself”　

An analysis of accidents at our sites shows that the number of accidents caused by facility-related factors is decreasing, but the number of accidents due to human error or management systems remains unchanged. To eliminate accidents, it is necessary to improve employees’ attitude toward safety, thereby suppressing unsafe actions. In fiscal 2017, we added a course titled “Developing Human Capital with High Safety Awareness” to our company-wide training program and continue to provide safety education with the following focus. We also implement a wide variety of safety awareness-raising measures, including providing position-based safety training for new and other employees.

Group Global Safety Assessment

Under the Industrial Safety and Health Law, we must manage appropriate working environments for dangerous or harmful operations, provide legally required education, take equipment safety measures. To check that domestic affiliates appropriately fulfill these requirements, and to check the progress of their voluntary management activities, we are rolling out Group Global Safety  Diagnosis in manufacturing sectors and affiliates in Japan and overseas.
In the Group Global Safety  Diagnosis, in addition to checking various management activities, the auditors tour the plants and give instructions in order to ensure that segments with potential risks are identified and appropriate measures are taken. In particular, the safety measures on equipment are also evaluated in the facilities which involve especially high risks.
We also carry out a point-based evaluation of the system in place when procuring equipment using a checklist, and we identify the strengths and weaknesses of each department and affiliated company that has been inspected, and we provide traceability and support to ensure that appropriate measures are implemented.
We have established and are operating “SAFETY MANAGEMENT GLOBAL STANDARD” and “FORKLIFT SAFETY MANAGEMENT GLOBAL STANDARD,” which are standards to be observed by each section and affiliate of our group to promote unified safety and health management.