Together with Suppliers

Basic Policy for Purchasing Activities

We have stipulated items, such as legal compliance and environmental preservation activities, which are our basic policy for purchasing activities, as the Kyocera Document Solutions Basic Purchasing Policy. When we select suppliers, we require them to understand our basic policy and comply with it.

Our Company's Basic Policy

Conduct of Fair Transaction

A Good Partner to Suppliers

We regard suppliers as necessary and indispensable partners, with specialized knowledge and technology.
In addition, we aim to be a good partner for our suppliers. We pursue co-existence and mutual prosperity with our suppliers, based on fairness and the spirit of the "benefit to improve oneself for the benefit of others" derived from the Kyocera Philosophy.
When selecting suppliers, we request them to comply with the following principles, on the premise that they can understand our basic policy.

Compliance with Laws and Regulations

In Japan, we provide education — for persons in charge of purchasing, outsourcing, and other related management positions at each business site — on the Act against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, Etc., to Subcontractors and other commercial transactions. In this way, we ensure company-wide compliance with laws and regulations. Furthermore, for the purpose of constantly acquiring new information about law revisions, we consistently take part in workshops organized by the Fair Trade Commission and National Association of Trade Promotion for Small and Medium Enterprises. We have a double-checking system for the status of compliance, in which our in-house Auditing Department conducts an internal audit of the operations of each department, once a year. Additionally, each department conducts a self-check of whether there are any legal violations in its daily operation. At our business sites located outside of Japan, we are working on legitimate business transactions, as well as understanding the laws and regulations of each country and building relationships of trust with local suppliers.

Collaboration with Suppliers

Grasping the status of CSR Procurement and Consolidating the Structure for it

In Japan, we continually assess improvements regarding surveys of the status of CSR procurement promotions at our suppliers, based on Kyocera Group CSR Guidelines, established in Kyocera Group (These surveys began in FY2009). The activities are carried out once a year for suppliers whose efforts are evaluated as inadequate, and we will continue these efforts in the future. When starting a new business relationship, we provide the new supplier with the Kyocera Document Solutions Supply-Chain CSR Promotion Guidebook and the Kyocera Document Solutions Supply-Chain CSR Promotion Check List. We request that new suppliers understand the concepts concerning CSR of Kyocera Document Solutions and check the status of their own CSR promotion. And, if there are any inadequate items, we request suppliers to improve the items in question. At the Shilong Plant (China) and Vietnam Plant the same efforts are made, and the suppliers are requested to evaluate their own CSR promotion situation and improve inadequate items. In addition, we revised our Guidebook and Check List to clarify our new stance on such as biodiversity conservation, dealing with conflict minerals and business continuity plan to our suppliers. We have asked suppliers to add these efforts to their self-check points about the progress and improvement items.

Response to Conflict Mineral Regulations

Based on Kyocera's policy of not purchasing materials or products that use conflict minerals or any metals derived from them, we have been responding to the conflict mineral regulations since 2013. Since this issue is common to the entire industry, we started surveys in 2013, using the framework of the industry's common conflict-free refinery program, spearheaded by the Electronic Industry CSR Alliance (EICC)/Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) to efficiently gather information from suppliers.
In this response, we recognize the importance of continuing the survey by using the conflict-free refinery program and identifying and scrutinizing refineries. Therefore, we will continue to build a strong supply chain, such as concluding a written pledge with suppliers which includes requesting them to immediately notify us when they find any conflicts. In FY2018, too, we conducted the survey for suppliers, not only in Japan, but also in China and Vietnam where we have plants. Furthermore, we conducted due diligence on suppliers who answered that they purchase conflict minerals from DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) or its neighboring countries. However, at present, no high-risk information about minerals, which originated from DRC or its neighboring countries and relate to armed forces has been found.

BCP Survey for Supply Chain

We aim to keep providing the market with consumables, such as toner. Until now and mainly targeting our suppliers which have delivered toner materials, we have carried out the survey regarding their efforts for the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and asked for its promotion. And, in FY2018, we developed activities, such as conducting the survey, additionally, for all major suppliers in Japan. In the future, we will expand the scope of the survey to the suppliers which do business with our plants outside Japan.