Product/Service Safety

The Yamaha Group practices safety-conscious product design, and its efforts include incorporating a risk assessment process into design reviews at the development phase. Through the risk assessment process, we identify and project potential risks related to products and their use. We are thereby able to examine methods for the minimization or removal of these risks during the product design process. To facilitate these efforts, we are entrenching the R-Map risk assessment method^* as we move ahead with activities to further enhance the effectiveness of our risk assessments.

• * The R-Map method proposed by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers entails mapping risks on a 6-x-5 matrix. This method is utilized for reducing risks during design processes and for evaluating product risks. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation also evaluate risks by using the R-Map method.

The Yamaha Corporation Quality Assurance Division conducts labeling confirmation and safety inspections of major Yamaha Group products on the market (approximately 40 products per year) and provides feedback on the results to the relevant department in order to improve safety.

The Yamaha Group monitors information regarding regulations, decides internal policies, and implements systems to guarantee full compliance with the regulations and standards of relevant countries pertaining to product quality and safety as well as environmental protection.
In response to the recent international tightening of regulations applying to electromagnetic waves, Yamaha Corporation has installed electromagnetic wave measurement equipment and various other kinds of measurement, analysis, and evaluation equipment at its facilities. This equipment is used to evaluate product and component prototypes for compliance with the regulations of relevant countries. Regulations for chemical substances have also become more stringent around the world, and in response to this trend, the Company has implemented a management system for chemical substances contained in products and established its own Standards for Chemical Content in Products. These standards have been used to manage chemical substances during the product design and development phases and have helped facilitate legal compliance while reducing environmental impacts. The standards undergo revisions when necessary in response to legislative expansion and change, the accession of voluntary standards, and other factors. The Group also aspires to furnish swift and accurate responses to changes in regulations in relevant countries. To this end, we will work closely with overseas subsidiaries to share information in order to enhance legal information management systems.

The Yamaha Group has put in place a system to ensure that it places top priority on the safety of customers. In the event of a safety issue involving a commercially sold product, the employee who learned of the incident shall immediately report it to the responsible department and to the Quality Assurance Department. The department that receives the report immediately notifies senior management of the issue. At the same time, the head of the Quality Assurance Department shall assemble representatives from the relevant departments from across the Company, moving to respond to the affected customers, notify the appropriate government authorities, and initiate measures aimed at preventing recurrence.