Ideal business model for 2030

• “Occupational safety & health”: Increase each employee’s safety consciousness through education and training on mutual awareness and resilience, and achieve zero occupational accidents and zero commuting accidents by fostering a culture of safety
• “Stewardship throughout the product life cycle”: Thoroughly ensure the safety management of our products, enabling all stakeholders to use our products safely
• “Quality control and quality assurance”: Thoroughly ensure the quality control and quality assurance of our products, enabling all stakeholders to use our products safely
• “Chemical substance management”: Thoroughly disseminate information on the dangers and hazards of chemical substances and thoroughly implement risk management

Challenges to achieving our ideal business model

• “Occupational safety & health”: Further enhance the safety awareness of each employee, including the management team
• “Stewardship throughout the product life cycle”: Strengthen information sharing and collaboration with logistics companies to address the logistics issues that represent social challenges
• “Quality control and quality assurance”: Enhance the quality control and quality assurance systems and reduce the loss of time and resources due to nonconforming products
• “Chemical substance management”: Accurately ascertain and disseminate information on the dangers and hazards of chemical substances, even where not required by law or regulation. Conduct appropriate information gathering and provision suited to the region (both in Japan and overseas), particularly for our own products and compounds under development
  Strengthen the chemical management system across the entire Group

Results for FY2024 and Plan for FY2025

^*There were an unusually high number of accidents with workdays lost in FY2024, totaling 7 cases, with 4 domestic and 3 overseas. One of these was the fatal accident at the Nichino Service Saga Plant, which occurred in July 2024. We are working to strengthen our safety foundation and prevent any recurrence by analyzing the causes and identifying hazardous areas. We uphold the policy of “Safety First, No Growth without Safety,” and strive to foster a culture for safety based on mutual awareness. The entire Group is fully committed to working together to achieve safe operations and ensure that such accidents never occur again

Global Zero Accidents

Domestic Group Companies
As part of the Responsible Care activities, we work toward the goal of achieving zero occupational/commuting accidents and serious equipment-related accidents through the Occupational Safety & Health and Process Safety & Disaster Prevention Code. Regular safety and health committee meetings are held at all sites, regardless of whether they are offices, laboratories, or other facilities. Furthermore, all commercial vehicles are equipped with dashboard cameras, and ratings of driving by insurance companies are used to raise awareness about safe driving.
 
Overseas Group Manufacturing Companies
In addition to initiatives based on ISO 45001 (Occupational Safety & Health Management System), we promote zero accidents in the context of our Responsible Care activities.
 
NICHINO Group
We prioritize the speed of information sharing so that disaster and accident information from the ADEKA Group and NICHINO Group can be shared, and measures to prevent recurrence can be considered for horizontal deployment at each business site, enabling measures aimed at preventing any occurrence, even at sites where incidents have not occurred. We will continue to strengthen existing activities, such as identifying dangerous areas on-site, Kiken Yochi (risk prediction) activities, and risk assessments, while also expanding Responsible Care promotion activities to steadily foster a culture of safety from the perspectives of mutual awareness and enhanced resilience.

Global Occupational Safety Audit System

The Environment Safety & Quality Assurance Department conducted audits of overall Responsible Care activities, including occupational safety and health, at all plants and offices of Group companies in Japan and manufacturing sites overseas to enhance monitoring and check-and-balance functions. Audits consist of confirming whether improvement measures against accidents have been implemented at work sites and providing instruction on improving the safety of their activities. Going forward, we plan to develop a global audit system based on Responsible Care and ISO methods and to audit offices in the Group outside Japan other than manufacturing sites.

Avoiding Accidents in the Research Stage

To implement a high level of safety management for research activities at NICHINO Group’s research sites, we continuously encourage employees to acquire national qualifications, such as hazardous materials handler qualifications, to increase the number of qualified personnel. We also conduct safety activities with an emphasis on avoiding accidents through Kiken Yochi (risk prediction) activities, risk assessment, safety education, and safety patrols led by business sites’ safety and health committees, as well as holding various drills aimed at keeping damage to a minimum in the unlikely event of an accident. We carry out safety activities from a wide range of approaches, such as conducting risk assessments based on actual accidents that occurred at other offices and conducting multifaceted safety research from the early stages of research.

Eliminating Serious Accidents at Production Sites

All of the Group’s production sites have acquired ISO 45001 and promote safety activities and equipment maintenance using an Occupational Safety & Health Management System. Nichino Service carries out risk assessment on a 5-stage scale, and with a company policy of eliminating level 3 or higher risks, it works to reduce risks by reviewing work procedures and improving equipment based on the results of assessment. We have also started deliberations on developing an intelligent and automated smart factory that considers not only production efficiency but also safety. We are engaged in preventing and eliminating accidents at our overseas production sites. Going forward, we will carry out initiatives to improve our management level through regular inspections and audits.