Product safety and durability are the keys to establishing customer trust.
We have established our own product safety technical standards that not only meet legally stipulated safety standards, but consider customer perspectives on product use. We conduct rigorous safety control in design, evaluation and manufacturing to ensure “substantial safety”—a level of safety that meets these standards.
Canon’s Substantial Safety Policy*
Canon’s definition of quality risk includes not only problems related to product safety, but all potential problems that can arise in relation to the quality of products and services provided to customers.
Based on this approach, we have established a system to prevent problems that could result in physical injury and property damage, as well as the degradation of the Canon brand. This system also ensures a prompt response in the event of such problems.
Responding to Quality Risk
In the event of a problem related to product quality or safety, we promptly disclose information on our website in the Important Notices section. Regarding problems that are judged to substantially impact customers, we widely publicize information through various newspapers.
During 2006, we became aware of a potential problem in some of our PC80, PC100 and PC7 personal copying machines wherein a faulty connection involving the power cord for the fixing unit heater may have occurred at the time of manufacture or during servicing. While the likelihood was quite remote it was judged that this could present a risk of smoke emission or fire. Accordingly, an advisory notice, which asked customers to check their units and provided information on how to respond in the event of a problem, was issued in various newspapers. Moreover, our response to 10 other instances of malfunctions involving our electronic dictionaries, digital cameras and other products was to post advisories on our website in the Important Notices section.
Related site: Product Advisory Statement
Flowchart of Countermeasures to Product Malfunction or Quality Issues
We conduct product safety assessment and quality assurance activities at our Chemical Emissions Testing Laboratory in response to increasing customer awareness on the safety of chemical emissions*.
In December 2004, the Chemical Emissions Testing Laboratory was certified as a test facility for applications for Germany’s Blue Angel environmental label. Moreover, in February 2005 this facility gained ISO/IEC 17025 certification from the Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment, Japan’s only accreditation organization for audit and registration bodies. We are currently testing in preparation to meet the standards of the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), which promotes ISO certification worldwide.
Canon has established its own safety standards for chemical emissions, which are applied from the earliest stages of product development. Such built-in quality assurance enables customers to use our products with complete confidence.
Chemical Emissions Testing Laboratory
To ensure that consumers can use our printers and copiers with complete confidence, we perform safety assessments and quality assurance testing for such consumables as ink and toner. In addition to legal compliance, we carry out a variety of safety checks from the earliest stages of development. We confirm that there are no positive test results for genotoxicity, which is inextricably linked with carcinogenicity, and we conduct reversion tests using bacteria, as well as chromosomal disorder tests using cultured cells.
Canon’s testing laboratories ensure the highest levels of reliability, meeting all Good Laboratory Practice* (GLP) standards under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Chemical Substance Screening Law and the Industrial Safety and Health Law.
Ensuring and raising the level of quality in procured parts is important in improving the overall quality of our products. Canon promotes supplier quality management (SQM) activities at its production sites worldwide. These activities are designed to clarify requirements for suppliers and improve the quality of supplied parts through quality assessments, auditing of quality assessment processes, and supporting the improvement of quality control technologies and systems.
As for electronic parts, we conduct quality and reliability tests and process inspections with especially rigorous standards at the selection stage. We use only those parts that have met such standards. We leverage analysis technology we have cultivated over many years to support our suppliers in improving the quality of electronics parts.
Canon has introduced computer simulation evaluation technology for assessing performance at the design stage to improve quality. The technology makes it possible to perform efficient, accurate analysis and evaluations without using expensive testing equipment and prototypes.
For instance, packaging and cushioning materials and components are tested by computer simulation of drop impact to ensure quality.
