Sustainability

Management with an Emphasis on Sustainability

Value Creation Activities

Sustainability

Brother's Value Creation Process

The source of the Brother Group's value creation comes from the spirit of "At your side."—the company spirit that places our customers first in every situation, every time. Under this spirit, the Brother Group companies all over the world provide a diverse range of products, services, and solutions for consumer and industrial applications by investing the six capitals and Brother's strengths, and by practicing Brother Value Chain Management (BVCM) which is Brother's unique customer-centric management system based on our medium-term business strategy. By addressing the five materialities, we support the productivity and creativity of our customers closely, contribute to society, and help protect the earth. Through this expansion of customer value, we will achieve sustainable growth as a company.

Brother's Value Creation Process 2023

Brother's Strengths

Brother contributes to customers' ability to improve their productivity and unlock their creativity by making the most of a variety of unique technologies cultivated over its history of business evolution, as well as its global networks.
To support all those who wish to keep progressing, we will apply our strengths as a global company with multiple businesses, and while utilizing knowledge gained externally, we will create value, in addition to manufacturing products. In this way, we will help customers to realize their goals.

A Variety of Unique Technologies That Generate New Value

Since its foundation, Brother has generated new businesses by utilizing commonalities between various customer segments and sales routes and technologies and capabilities in order to meet the changing needs of customers and markets. We have used this continuity as the warp and weft and broadened our business scope by weaving the threads. This breadth, along with a corporate culture enabling collaboration across business domains and new value creation through the combination of technologies, are the unique strengths of Brother.

Various Customer Segments and Sales Routes

Global Networks That Enable Us to Meet Needs and Provide Value Promptly

To date, Brother has expanded its facilities for development, production, sales, and services in more than 40 countries and regions. Utilizing these global networks, we have developed flexibility to meet customer needs, agility to provide products and services quickly, and cost competitiveness based on efficient networks. These are also part of our strengths. We will continue to leverage knowledge gained externally and collaboration with partners and provide outstanding value promptly through the collective efforts of the Brother Group companies in Japan and overseas.

Global Networks

Brother's Capitals

Intellectual Capital   [Open PDF File]Integrated Report 2023_40 page [PDF/1.1MB]
■Capital status

Research and development
expenditures: 45.4 billion yen
Number of patents owns:
worldwide: approx. 30,000
Number of design rights owns:
worldwide: approx. 3,000

  • FY2022 results
■Strengths

A variety of unique technologies

For the Brother Group, we consider true technical capabilities to refer to the utilization of Brother's variety of unique technologies to create products and services that customers demand. We give full attention to customers and devote ourselves to strengthening our intellectual capital for value creation by constantly thinking about what technologies can be made to satisfy customers and what kind of products will be helpful to customers. Also, by obtaining rights for the values created, we protect our unique technologies and contribute to improving profitability and maintaining our advantages. While effectively utilizing our proprietary technologies and intellectual property rights, we will enhance our brand value with our trusted technological capabilities that enable us to provide products, services, and solutions that are chosen by our customers.
Social and Relationship Capital   [Open PDF File]Integrated Report 2023_42-43 pages [PDF/1.1MB]
■Capital status

Number of consolidated subsidiaries:
106 companies*1
Number of countries and regions supplied with Brother products and services: More than 180*2,*3

  1. As of March 31, 2023
  2. As of June 2023
  3. Countries or regions with Brother sales facilities or authorized Brother agents
■Strengths

Global customers and business partners that we grow together with

As for strengthening social and relationship capital, the Brother Group will continue to provide excellent customer experiences and value through expansion of businesses that connect with customers and other efforts toward achieving "supporting people's value creation" as one of its materialities.
In pursuing another materiality, "pursuing a responsible value chain," the Group will ensure respect for human rights as well as safety and security for all people involved in the Group's business through co-creation of value with business partners.
Manufactured Capital   [Open PDF File]Integrated Report 2023_41 page [PDF/1.1MB]
■Capital status

Global manufacturing facilities:
27 facilities*1
Capital expenditures:
43.8 billion yen*2

  1. As of March 31, 2023
  2. FY2022 results
■Strengths

Highly cost-competitive and flexible global manufacturing system

The Brother Group has produced highly reliable products while developing a highly cost-competitive and flexible global manufacturing system involving multiple facilities. Going forward, we will further strengthen our systems to mitigate various risks and ensure a stable supply of products to our customers by building new factories, diversifying our manufacturing facilities, and expanding our inventory holding functions to realize the goals of "enhancing supply capability" and "enhancing the industrial inkjet technology foundation" that are part of "towards expansion in the industrial area," as well as "building resilient and sustainable supply chains" under "management foundation transformation for a sustainable future," as stated in our medium-term business strategy "CS B2024."
Human Capital   [Open PDF File]Integrated Report 2023_32-39 pages [PDF/1.1MB]
■Capital status

Number of Group employees:
More than 40,000*1
Percentage of overseas
employees: 77.3%*1
Number of core DX talent :
161 individuals*1,*2

  1. As of March 31, 2023
  2. BIL only
■Strengths

A global team of autonomous employees and an open organizational culture

The most important foundation for the Brother Group's sustainable growth is its talent. The Group has made "realizing a diverse and active society" its materiality, and has established the following targets for FY2024: "improving employee engagement*," "encouraging the assignment of local employees to top management positions of facilities outside Japan," and "strengthening the talent pipeline for gender balance and establishing an environment for achieving diverse ways of working." Toward the "management foundation transformation for a sustainable future" set forth in the medium-term business strategy "CS B2024," the Group will continue to enhance its own productivity and creativity, as well as take actions to further strengthen its human capital such as by creating a comfortable working environment for each and every employee.
  • Relationships in which employees and management are equal to each other and provide value to each other.
Natural Capital   [Open PDF File]Integrated Report 2023_44-47 pages [PDF/1.1MB]
■Capital status

Resource consumption (raw materials for products) 231,632t*
Total energy consumption (crude oil equivalent) 45,706kL*

  • FY2022 results
The Brother Group helps society achieve sustainable development by positively and continuously considering environmental impact in all aspects of our business operations.
Safety and environmental impact shall be prime considerations at all stages of the product lifecycle to build a society capable of sustainable development. With this as the cornerstone, we seek to deploy environmental activities in accordance with the basic philosophy of the Brother Group's Environmental Policy.

Brother Value Chain Management

The Brother Group considers customer demands and expectations top priority as our guide for all of our business operations including product planning, development, design, manufacturing, sales, and service, and we have established and practice our unique Brother Value Chain Management (BVCM) system in order to find and remove bottlenecks to our customers' success and deliver superior value quickly.
Brother achieves flexible and swift value creation through BVCM, a process for delivering superior value to customers, consisting of three chains - the Demand Chain, the Concurrent Chain, and the Supply Chain. After providing value, we quickly add enhancements while listening to feedback from customers and the market. Furthermore, we will continue to deliver better products, services and solutions by accelerating the value chain cycle based on a customer-oriented standpoint.

Evolution of BVCM

In order to realize the Brother Group Vision of "promotion of cyclical businesses" and "expansion in the industrial area," we have added (A) Making the chain bidirectional for a circular economy and (B) A flow of rapid product improvement based on customer feedback during the development stage with a focus on the industrial area, to the basic BVCM process (solid white line). Along with the basic process, we will further advance and accelerate the process.

Brother Value Chain Management

Customer

"Value" chain starting with customers

The opinions of "existing" customers who have already purchased Brother products and "potential" customers who may purchase Brother products in the future are the starting point for all our business activities.
Our call centers, which serve as our important points of contact with customers, receive various inquiries and requests from them. We register such information in our database and share it globally across the entire Brother Group.

Specific examples related to customer feedback

Demand Chain (Choosing Value)

  • Understand the true needs of customers on a global basis and determine our unique value to provide
  • Planning and development departments work together to determine the best way to create and deliver value

Based on opinions received by call centers around the world and information acquired through sales and service activities and marketing surveys, sales and design departments work together to analyze customer expectations and demands from various angles, such as "how product use environments will change," and "what improvements would satisfy more customers." Through these efforts, they formulate product concepts.

Specific examples related to product planning and research and development

Concurrent Chain (Creating Value)

  • Development departments (for machinery, electricity & electronics, software, chemicals, etc.), manufacturing departments, and suppliers work in close collaboration
  • Utilize an optimal combination of internal and external technologies

Product concepts created in the demand chain are given a concrete shape. Product simulations and focus group testing by intended users are run again and again before and after prototyping. Through this process, we develop and design our products speedily while ensuring high product quality. The production engineering department designs optimal production lines to deliver our products at the right time for our customers.

Specific examples related to development design and production engineering

Supply Chain (Delivering Value)

  • Refine cost competitiveness and adaptability to changes, and manufacture the best products in the best regions
  • Provide detailed sales and services based on a thorough understanding of the characteristics of customers in each country and region

At the Brother Group's manufacturing facilities, we are working closely with partners, such as parts suppliers, and strengthening manufacturing processes and quality control systems, so as to produce high quality products. Products are delivered to customers through our sales facilities in countries and regions all over the world. We are also providing customers with swift, cordial support via online support over the Internet and call centers in order to make each individual satisfied.

Specific examples related to manufacturing, distribution, sales and service

Evolution of BVCM (Flow A)

Flow to achieve resource circulation by collecting and reusing

The Brother Group is helping society achieve sustainable development by positively and continuously considering the environmental impact in all aspects of our business operations. Concern for the environment shall be the cornerstone of all operations. Safety and environmental impact shall be prime considerations at every stage of a product's life cycle, from design, development, manufacturing, customer usage, and disposal, to reuse and recycling. With "the end of life" of products in mind, the Brother Group has been working to (i) increase reusability and recyclability of products and consumables and (ii) build recycling systems in accordance with laws and regulations in respective countries.

Collection and Recycling Efforts in Various Countries

Evolution of BVCM (Flow B)

Flow to improve products quickly by obtaining feedback from customers (an example in the industrial area)

The Brother Group pursues greater possibilities for machine tools through product development based on customer demands and expectations. In the SPEEDIO series of machine tools, Brother responds quickly to customer feedback and societal changes, aiming to contribute to value creation on a greater level at manufacturing sites.

"Value" chain Starting with Customers

Flow to improve products quickly by obtaining feedback from customers (examples in new businesses)

There was a growing interest in safe and secure spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a need for the rapid development of an easy-to-use air purifier. BIL employees visited the intended users, listened to their concerns and issues, and worked to develop a product that would solve those problems. Then in November 2020, BIL developed DF-1, a personal air purifier, utilizing the air flow analysis technology cultivated in its printer development. After test marketing the DF-1, BIL developed DF-2 in July 2021, nine months after the launch of DF-1, now targeting the karaoke and food service industries as well as sales to the general public, based on feedback from customers using the DF-1.

The conventional stationary product, DF-1, draws air in from below and exhales it from above through a filter to purify the entire room. While it can purify a large space, it has proven difficult in some cases to completely prevent micro-droplets generated during face-to-face communication.

On the other hand, DF-2, with its unique double-fan structure, draws in air powerfully from three directions (front, back, and top) and quickly removes micro-droplets with its high-performance filter. By targeting the personal space between people, it creates a clean space around a person much faster than purification of the entire space. In improving DF-2, BIL focused on enhancing its vacuuming performance. DF-2 is now capable of more powerful vacuuming of micro-droplets while maintaining the same level of quietness. In addition, BIL has made detailed and quick improvements based on customer feedback, such as changing the opening/closing method of the lid to make it easier to change the filter.

DF-2 Aerosol Cleaner (Japanese website)

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