Health & Productivity Management and Occupational Health & Safety

Policy

While business is operated globally, the structure of society is changing dramatically. The population continues to age, and the way of hiring people as well as working styles are changing in various ways. In this time of change, it's necessary to ensure a comfortable and safe workplace environment for all employees and enable them to make the most of their capabilities and possibilities.
The Asahi Kasei Group regards employees as our most important asset. In terms of maintaining health and safety at our workplaces and work sites, our ESH & QA Principles state: "the Asahi Kasei Group gives the utmost consideration to health maintenance, operational safety, occupational health and safety, quality assurance, and environmental protection throughout the product lifecycle from R&D to disposal as preeminent management tasks in all operations." Under this policy, we work in cooperation with the Labor-Management Council and the Health & Safety Committee to create a comfortable workplace environment throughout the company.

Preventive action for occupational accidents

In fiscal 2020, the Asahi Kasei Group established a Life Saving Actions (LSA) program to eradicate serious occupational accidents, and we began implementing it throughout the Group. We have established the following four behaviors as prohibited behaviors that could result in loss of life if not observed, and are promoting thorough adherence to these behaviors in all aspects of our business activities.

The four behaviors prohibited by LSA

In addition, our ongoing efforts to prevent occupational accidents is integrated into our comprehensive OHSMS² program that combines conventional health and safety initiatives¹ with risk assessments and a prevention-oriented plan-do-check-act (PDCA) system.

¹ Conventional health and safety initiatives:
Tidiness/orderliness/cleanliness (3S), reporting of near-accidents and potential hazards, hazard prediction analysis, safety patrols, and case studies
² Occupational Health and Safety Management System:
A standardized management system used to confirm that continuous improvement is being applied to measures to minimize the risks of workplace injuries and to prevent the emergence of future risks

Approach to prevent occupational accidents

1. Identification of potential hazards

Effective prevention of occupational accidents requires the identification of all potential hazards in a workplace. In addition to conventional health and safety initiatives, it is important to think of potential issues and consider safety from the perspective of the problems which conceivably arise in a wide variety of situations—as a result of both potentially unsafe physical conditions (hazardous working environment due to equipment, materials, noise, etc.) and potentially unsafe work actions of personnel.

2. Risk assessment

Priority for mitigating the potential workplace hazards identified is assigned based on a scoring system that combines the severity of the impact of problems which could occur and the frequency with which such problems would be likely to occur. We implement mitigation measures starting with significant risks with the highest risk scores.

3. Mitigation of the highest risks

Measures to achieve inherent safety by eliminating unsafe conditions (by eliminating dangerous procedures, automation, eliminating sources of problems, changeover to safe materials, etc.) and the application of safeguards are extremely effective in the effort to avoid risks.
We focus on achieving inherent safety and applying safeguards (isolation and stoppage) to avoid risks associated with the use of machinery and equipment to prevent the “caught in/between machinery” category of accident, which can easily result in particularly severe injury.

Schematic image for prevention of occupational accidents

Inherent safety and safeguards

Measures to achieve inherent safety and the application of safeguards to avoid risks are generally considered to provide the greatest level of safety, as shown in the following table. We incorporate such measures in the construction of new or replacement facilities, upon safety reviews of existing facilities, and to prevent the recurrence of accidents.

Systems for safe operation

Our group is striving to ensure safety in our activities to comply with safe operating standards^*. Specifically, we are devising and implementing measures such as checking the status of compliance with safe operating standards in our daily operations. Operations for which the elimination of risk through equipment modification is impractical are classified as operations requiring special control and strictly managed, such as by ensuring worker competence and prior plan-based approval.

*safe operating standards
Rather than individual rules for specific procedures, safe operating standards are a system of safety principles which define common safety practices that apply to categories of operation based on similarity of risk. For example, to prevent entanglement in machinery, our standard stipulates not to touch any exposed moving parts.

Sharing and utilizing information of occupational accidents

We investigate causes and take measures to prevent recurrence at sites where occupational accidents occur. We share a database of information on all occupational accidents within the Asahi Kasei Group for utilization in activities such as safety training, case study discussions, and prevention of similar accidents.

Occupational accident statistics

In fiscal 2023, 20 lost-worktime injuries occurred among Asahi Kasei Group employees in Japan. We will continue to engage in safety initiatives through our LSA program to prevent the occurrence of serious accidents in the future.

Incidence of lost-workday injury by event category (FY2023 in Japan)
Incidence of lost-workday injury by event category (FY2014–2023 in Japan)

Group Lost Time Frequency Rate (%)¹

Group Severity Rate (%)²

¹Lost Time Frequency Rate:
A safety indicator showing the rate of occupational accidents and calculated by the following formula. [Lost time frequency rate = number of victims of lost time injuries ÷ total working hours × 1,000,000 hours]
Our goal of 0.1 or less is extremely ambitious. At a plant with 100 workers, it would mean only one worker in 50 years suffered from an occupational injury which resulted in a day off.
²Severity rate:
Lost workdays, severity-weighted, per thousand man-hours worked.

Maintaining and improving comfortable workplaces

Workplaces where potential health hazards are present are subject to regular monitoring under the Working Environment Measurement Law. Additionally, we will manage risks for chemicals to identify and reduce risks resulting from chemical substances.
With an amendment to Japan's Industrial Safety and Health Act in May 2022, there have been major changes, including the requirement for businesses to autonomously manage chemical substances. The Asahi Kasei Group is implementing appropriate measures in response. In FY2023, we held company workshops to foster chemical substance managers who are now required to be appointed at workplaces manufacturing risk-assessed substances, and trained 329 chemical substance managers internally.
Noise and heat exposure data are recorded and maintained for all relevant personnel to enable each individual's exposure to be managed and minimized. We are advancing plant modification and reviewing work procedures to create a more comfortable work environment.

Machine Safety Activities at the Nobeoka Branch

1. Significance of the initiatives

Over the past ten years at the Nobeoka Branch, we have conducted internal audits, equipment inspections, and issued directives with the goal of eradicating occupational accidents in which workers are caught or entangled in machinery; however, we have not been able to eradicate such incidents.

2. Specific initiatives

We reviewed our past activities and have launched two initiatives at our six processing and assembly plants.

1)Creation of four training programs to develop human resources capable of correct machinery risk assessments
2)Introduction of machinery risk assessments for existing facilities
Collaboration with internal and external specialists

3. Training for key persons in machine safety

The purpose of this training is not training for training's sake, but to complete a machinery risk assessment sheet on equipment actually used in production and to include it in steps leading to actual improvement of the equipment. We select participants from among Safety Sub-Assessor qualification holders, and bring in specialist instructors.

Machine Safety Key Persons Training Program

Members of the manufacturing section, who are familiar with how to use and work with the equipment, and members of the equipment technology section, who are familiar with the equipment specifications, are selected in pairs from among the Safety Sub-Assessor qualification holders at each plant.

A unique feature of this program is that, rather than desk-based, instructors who are specialists in machine safety instruct the trainees directly while observing the equipment on site, based on the "Three Actuals" principle. The training period is approximately 5 months long to complete the risk assessment of actual machinery and equipment.

4. Practical training on machine safety

The purpose of this training is to be able to find sources of hazard in on-site equipment and to be able to point out non-conformance in on-site equipment. Eligible participants are all levels of employees, including plant managers.
This training plays an important role in moving the entire plant toward how it should be. A total of 10 instructors, mainly from the Machinery Systems Technology Department, conduct the training.
A unique feature of this training is that exercises are conducted using model machines that actually move. This facility was designed by the Machine Systems Technology Department by incorporating non-conforming parts of production equipment at various plants of the Nobeoka Branch.

Practical training on machine safety
Model machines used in safety training

Participants are able to practice on model machines having many hazards, and take what they understand from the training back to their work sites to use for improvement.

5. Track record of machine safety activities at existing facilities

High-risk hazard sources identified by key persons are being improved at each plant, considering both operability and safety.
Rather than simply shielding off hazards, some plants have been thinking earnestly about how to ensure that all workers can work safely, even going so far as to change tried and tested work methods, and we believe that machine safety is now accepted by workers on the factory floor.

6. Results

Human resource development

Through these activities, we have trained a total of approximately 3,000 people. Of these, there are now over 100 key persons who can write machine risk assessments.

Identification of Hazard Sources

Trained personnel correctly performed machine risk assessments and identified approximately 1,500 high-risk hazard sources.

Equipment Improvements

Each plant has implemented risk reduction measures for identified hazard sources and has completed approximately 63% of equipment improvements.
However, there are still many plants where improvements are difficult and tests are continuing, as no way has been found to maintain production with safety equipment installed. Such facilities will continue to be operated with special controls until suitable technology is established.

We implemented this activity at 10 plants as a second phase begun in fiscal 2021, and expanded to two plants in the third phase begun in fiscal 2024, with the entire Nobeoka Branch working together to promote the activity.

7. Conclusion

In phase one, we had occupational accidents in which workers were caught or entangled in machinery happening almost every year until fiscal 2019, with none occurring since fiscal 2020. However, there are still risks in phase two, as there have been subsequent occupational injuries at facilities that have not conducted machine risk assessments in fiscal 2022. We will continue this activity through both human resource development and the creation of safe facilities.

Health & Productivity Management Policy

Human resources are the essential element for the improvement of corporate value. Providing an environment that supports the physical and mental well-being of employees is becoming increasingly crucial for corporations.
Therefore, we have developed existing Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality Assurance activities, positioning health-related initiatives as a company-wide management issue, and in October 2020, we published the Asahi Kasei Group’s “Statement on Management for Health.” Therefore, we will work to further promote health and productivity management^* based on the Asahi Kasei Group Health and Productivity Management Vision described in the Statement.

We will further enhance our programs for the prevention of mental health issues, which is a priority in our PDCA cycle, as defined in the health and productivity management goals of our medium-term plan. In 2022, we adopted the 'percentage of employees absent from work due to mental health issues' as an indicator for the director's remuneration policy to measure the progress. Moreover, we set health management goals for management issues that need to be resolved in promoting health and productivity management, and pursue physical and mental health through the effectiveness of health management measures and a real sense of performance improvement. The next step is the promotion of well-being management, which aims to create a state of physical, mental, and social well-being for our employees.

^* In Japanese “Kenkokeiei” is a registered trademark of Nonprofit Organization Kenkokeiei.

Statement on Management for Health

The Asahi Kasei Group pursues sustainable growth of corporate value while contributing to the achievement of a sustainable society by leveraging its strengths of diversity and the capability to change. We believe that human resources are the key to achieving this goal.
In the future, it will become ever more important for the company to create an environment where employees can both physically and mentally healthy and where everyone can play an active role. We hereby declare that we will work to promote health and productivity management, which further refines the initiatives for promoting and maintaining health we have developed to date, under our Group Health and Productivity Management Vision.

October 2020, Asahi Kasei Corp.

The Asahi Kasei Group Health & Productivity Management Vision

Health and Productivity Management Vision

The Asahi Kasei Group will contribute to the achievement of a sustainable society by encouraging the active participation and growth of each individual and the improv

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