Customers have diversified needs, and so it is difficult to constantly provide them with products that truly satisfy them. Nevertheless, AGC Flat Glass North America is committed to meeting this challenge, believing that they can differentiate themselves from competitors by building close relations with their customers. Specifically, they have established cross-functional work teams, in which their customers also participate, aimed at improving their products, services, and technologies. Consequently, the company has been able to improve CS and also heighten employees' sense of participation in the development of the business.

AGC Techno Glass, employees, in particular managers, attended the CS Seminar*1 to learn about the significance of CS. As a result, internal communications have been promoted beyond divisional boundaries, including communications with partner companies. At present, staff of different divisions often cooperate together to make improvements to their operations, which in turn helps improve the business performance of the entire company. In 2006, the company launched a program called “CS Challenge Themes.” Under the program, all employees set their own CS targets and have the progress of their achievements evaluated by internal and external customers. This program serves as a criterion for evaluating individual employees and they are given term-end allowances based on the evaluation results.

AGC Chemicals Europe is promoting product stewardship, which means minimizing the adverse impact that its products have on human health and the environment in every stage of their life cycles, namely the stages of development, manufacturing, distribution and selling, use, and disposal. At the development stage, the company designs products in consideration of their safety and impact on human health and the environment, and chooses appropriate materials for the products. At the distribution and selling stage, it gives certifications to qualified dealers and transporters, and educates, trains, and audits them. In addition, the company designates appropriate specifications for packaging to ensure the use of safe and recyclable packaging, dispatches product safety information, and provides employees and customers with education and training about safety and environmental considerations. Through these activities conducted under the product stewardship program, the company ensures CS throughout the life cycles of its products and promotes communications with its suppliers and customers.

AGC Engineering Co., Ltd., which is engaged in the manufacture and installation of machines and equipment in a range of fields, as well as in the construction and maintenance of plants, has been implementing management reforms in the course of the various mergers and business restructurings that have taken place since its establishment in 1959. As a result, the company has accumulated a variety of tools that can be used to enhance its business performance. The company, however, thought it necessary to devise a common tool that could be used across the company, in order to achieve its medium-term corporate vision of becoming an “environmaintenance company,” which contributes to customers and society at large. Accordingly, it developed its Generic Management System (GMS) and has been operating it since 2005. GMS is composed of four different management systems, namely a quality management system, an environmental management system, an occupational health and safety management system, and an information security management system. Using the process approach, the company describes all its work procedures in flow charts, thereby helping employees execute the PDCA cycle more easily. In addition, the company has been reforming its GMS from 2008, with the aim of further developing the GMS as a management tool.