Structures for ensuring occupational safety and preventing accidents on a global level

Management systems built on a basic policy of safety first

Global conference on work safety and accident prevention

In the group's "Safety and Disaster Prevention Policy," Brother has set a "Basic Safety and Disaster Prevention Policy," in which specifically indicates that "‘Safety First' shall be the cornerstone of all operations. We shall try to create a comfortable working environment that allows all our associates to feel safe and work in good health. Safety culture shall be established at the same time." In accordance with this basic policy, the Central Safety Committee of Brother Industries addresses to ensure the safety and health in the workplaces.

The Brother Group began introducing Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OSHMS) in FY2005. In FY2006, the Hoshizaki Plant (Aichi, Japan) of Brother Industries obtained certification for their OSHMS from the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Management Association, and activities that fall in line with that qualification criteria have been diffused to manufacturing facilities and group companies in Japan.

Support plan for factories in Asia to achieve the same level as those in Japan

In order to advance a level of the work safety, health and accident prevention of the entire Brother Group, in FY2007 plans were set to rise work safety, health and accident standards at manufacturing facilities in Asia to the equivalent level as those in Japan in three years time, and the support plan was launched. Under this support plan, the Safety, Accident Prevention and Environment Control Group of the Central Safety Committee is working with each factory to improve safety standards in the following three stages.

In order to manage progress, a comprehensive evaluation is done at each stage from the aspects of organization (promotional structure), plans, training/awareness, PDCA development, internal audits, improvement activities, performance and so forth. A preliminary survey conducted of eight manufacturing facilities in Asia in FY2006 showed an inadequate level of the safety, health and accident prevention. In response to the result, in the inaugural year of the project (FY2007) more effort has been poured to first establish basic activities, e.g., 5Ss: seiri (being organized), seiton (keeping things in order), seiso (keeping things clean), seiketsu (keeping things neat) and shitsuke (discipline).

In FY2008, safety and health representatives gathered at Mizuho Hall (Mizuho Factory) of Brother Industries for a Global Conference on Safety and Accident Prevention to receive awards of excellence for their factories and report on activities. Furthermore, in FY2008, a website on safety, health and accident prevention at overseas factories was launched for primarily committee staff outside of Japan and started providing educational materials and information on accident prevention, hence structures were put in place to share information and mutually stimulate one another.

These activities helped improve the safety committees at each of the factories in FY2008. Autonomous efforts were taken in each region including a launch of "risk assessment activities" at its own initiative to systematically reduce workplace risks. Also, activities were started with factories in the Europe and America in FY2008 and resultantly improved safety, health and accident prevention activities.

As the final year of the support plan in FY2009, in addition to our commitment to establishing the implemented activities as regular practices, we also address to upgrade the content of the website on safety, health and accident prevention at overseas factories with more educational materials and information useful towards preventing the reoccurrence of accidents, and to bring overseas factories up to the same level of safety, health and accident prevention as those in Japan by the fiscal year end. Moreover, we will continuously implement further expansion of this support plan to be introduced in factories outside of Asia as well.

Brother Group Companies Commended by Shenzhen City as Leading Companies in Preventing Work Accidents for 2008

Representative winner and Safety Secretariat staff

Brother Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd. (BTSL), one of the Brother Group's manufacturing facilities in China, has a safety committee dedicated to preventing work accidents and ensuring safety management. Various regulations are also in place for safety and health as well as preventing work accidents. It has been distributed a safety rulebook to all employees, who read out the safety rules in unison during the morning meeting and before the start of the day's work, and “safety knowledge competitions” are held to promote safety activities. Meanwhile, respective departments conduct KYT (Kiken Yochi [risk awareness] Training) activities every month, and its participation rate has reached nearly 90% of the employees since June 2008. In FY 2008, 1,685 potential safety issues were identified by safety committee members through monthly safety patrols, and improvement measures were taken to avoid accidents. Thanks to these activities, the number of work accidents has been decreasing year after year.

Highly recognized by the city's Labor and Security Bureau for the series of activities, BTSL won the special prize (second to none) at the Industrial Accident Prevention Competition 2008 in Shenzhen City held on July 30, 2009. Brother Industries (Shenzhen) Ltd., another manufacturing facility in China, won the first prize. Through these prize-giving, the Brother Group's commitment to protecting safety and preventing accident have been widely introduced by the local media.

Taking pride in these prizes, the Brother Group will continue to increase safety awareness.

	Hearing from representatives at group companies Making "Safety First" a permanent practice on production floors
	Brother Industries (Shenzhen) Ltd. Fyu Wei

With the objective of enhancing safety awareness, we imparted risk assessment (KY for kiken yochi) activities in FY2008, plus continued with safety patrols, improvement activities and monthly tutorial guidance from top management at each of our facilities. Also, the workforce is becoming aware of "Safety First" and it is becoming practice to act based on a understanding that safety comes first, as can be seen by the safety proposals from the production floor and the numerous study groups that safety committees in each workplace are planning on their own. As a result, we reduced the number of work accidents from ten in FY2007 to two in FY2008. We intend to further reduce risk locations by focusing more on risk assessment.

Hearing from representatives at group companies Introduced high safety tools to eliminate accidents

Brother Industries (Vietnam) Ltd. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh (Left) Mr. Do Xuan Chuong (Center) Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (Right)

We have finally started activities of the Safety Committee as the newest plant outside of Japan. A variety of improvement activities have been applied in line with the safety and health policy, in order to eliminate serious accidents entirely. In fact, to prevent injuries from knife cutters, we examined the tool in cooperation with the secretariat in Japan and switched to a type of higher safety in November 2008. In FY2009, we will make efforts to further enhance safety awareness amongst the entire workforce and make work environments in all workplaces safer.

Maintaining and improving mental and physical health

Maintaining and improving the health of the entire group

Employee health is a major theme in building an active organization. In the Brother Group, a physician specialized in industrial medicine is assigned to business sites in each country and region, and group companies are working with hospitals and clinics to maintain and improve the health of employees.

Dedicating efforts to prevention and early detection of mental health issues and post-illness support structures

At Brother Industries, the Health Management Center is spearheading annual health checkups and follow-ups. With regard to mental health, "self care training" was started in FY2007 for employees to identify and reduce stress on their own. About 670 employees took part in the training in FY2008. Moreover, in FY2008, "line care training" was launched for managers to identify changes in the mental health of subordinates, and about 190 employees attended the training. Furthermore, efforts are being directed at prevention and early detection, such as the start of a system that has personnel departments check the mental health of employees at their own request and encourage counseling where need be.

Moreover, for employees after periods of illness, efforts are being made to strengthen support, such as by increasing the number of physicians specialized in industrial medicine, training action trainers for each workplace, offering career management classes, creating services to provide career counseling and support activities for those returning to work. Future plans are to provide health consultations for persons being transferred overseas and training for new hirees and new appointees.