Sony recently reconfigured its quality management system by reviewing its quality management mechanisms across all processes, from development, planning, design and manufacturing through to sales and service; redefining the roles, responsibilities and authority of those responsible for product and service quality; and establishing guidelines to guarantee an appropriate level of quality. Based on this new quality management system, Sony has developed a framework and is implementing measures on an ongoing basis to improve the quality of its products and services. This framework and examples of such measures are shown below.

Sony makes active use of customer feedback to improve its products and services. Opinions, reports of malfunctions after purchase, questions regarding use and other feedback received through Customer Information Centers are evaluated promptly and accurately and disseminated to the planning and design groups so that improvements in product quality can be made in a timely fashion, thus contributing to efforts to enhance product power.

One instance of this process in action is improvements made to the default settings for certain BRAVIA LCD televisions that made it possible for customers to begin enjoying their new televisions immediately after purchasing. In particular, the format for the setup guide was changed to the easy-to-follow wizard user interface, which made it easier for customers to enjoy BRAVIA's extensive networked services.

Other examples include overhauling built-in electronic product user manuals to enhance usability, as well as adding explanations that use images and illustrations, thereby making manuals more intuitive and easier to understand.

It is vital to detect product quality-related problems as early as possible. To that end, Sony therefore established the Quality Hot Line in 2003, to gather product quality-related information, including reports of problems, as well as opinions from Sony Group employees. Employees can send messages regarding such matters as issues that are too difficult to handle at their workplace and problems concerning the quality of Sony products and/or services from the customer's perspective, to the Quality Hot Line's in-house website. Upon investigating a problem to ascertain the veracity of the information received, the Quality Hot Line proposes and introduces measures to prevent previous problems from recurring and precluding potential new problems.

One example of measures proposed and introduced by the Quality Hot Line was the redesign of the image processing mechanism used in a digital high-definition video camera based on information provided by a Sony employee, resulting in an improvement in image quality.

As of March 2011, Sony had received more than 1,560 reports since the establishment of the Quality Hot Line. The diverse range of information received has included proposals to make products and manuals more user-friendly, and has led to more than 1,000 improvements.

As these initiatives indicate, Sony is wholeheartedly committed to improving product and service quality from the customer's perspective with the aim of maintaining and enhancing customers' satisfaction, reliability and trust.

Sony has established dedicated quality management organizations in each of its business areas that are responsible for improving quality for pertinent products in market places.

With the aim of fortifying its ability to identify quality issues in the markets and to accelerate its ability to respond in the event of a problem, in May 2009 Sony created a market quality monitoring committee within its headquarters in Tokyo, enabling it to swiftly gather information from a wide range of sources, both in Japan and overseas, in the event of a product quality issue in the market. The headquarters' quality management and technology experts gather weekly and share quality issues among them. They are also responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of responses in such situations, ensuring responses are consistent and promoting the adoption of measures to prevent previous problems from recurring and precluding potential new problems, thereby helping to expedite Sony's quality improvement efforts.

Initiatives Aimed at Improving the Quality of Products
Sony pursues design-, manufacturing- and parts-related initiatives aimed at improving product quality.

Design-related quality initiatives
At the start of the design process, the individual in charge of a particular business group verifies new technologies and new parts and, from a user's perspective, determines how a product is to be used. At the conclusion of the design process, the individual in charge ascertains the degree to which the intended level of product quality, reliability and usability has been realized. In addition, to ensure our ability to provide customers with products of a quality worthy of the Sony brand, we required OEM/ODM companies and parts suppliers to comply with Groupwide quality standards. Compliance with these standards is also tested at the end of the design process. Such approaches prevent the occurrence of problems pertaining to new technologies and product parts, as well as ensure product designs that incorporate consideration for user convenience.

Manufacturing-related quality initiatives
In its efforts not to receive, manufacture or ship anything with quality-related problems, Sony adheres to a policy of workmanship at all of its production sites that ensures customers can use Sony products with confidence. Initiatives include establishing important independent quality-related targets at each site and pursuing continuous improvements in product quality and the achievement of such targets through implementation of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle.

Sony has also established standard product quality rules to ensure Sony products manufactured by OEM/ODM companies are of the same high quality as those manufactured at Sony production sites.

Parts-related quality initiatives
Recognizing the importance of parts, and resolved to manufacture products built for long-term use, Sony carefully selects key parts independently for each of its major product categories and is pursuing focused efforts aimed at increasing the reliability of the parts it uses through cooperation with relevant departments and Sony's headquarters.

Initiatives Aimed at Improving Product Safety
As another part of the effort to improve the safety of its products, Sony has established an in-house committee to address product safety from a medical perspective, and has prepared related internal standards, which it updates and modifies as necessary to reflect the ever-evolving understanding of human health. Sony is also promoting efforts company-wide to strengthen internal processes for ensuring that Sony's products are in line with applicable laws, regulations and standards.

When developing products employing new technologies, Sony also seeks advice on product safety from a medical perspective from experts outside the company, which it then incorporates into product development, design and engineering. When deemed necessary, Sony also conducts evaluation tests to verify safety with the assistance of a specialized organization.

Sony recognizes the safe and comfortable viewing of 3D televisions, which it commercialized in 2010, is a significant issue. Since 1997, representatives from Sony have sat on committees set up by various industry organizations and have attended meetings on international standardization to handle image safety, in order to obtain advanced knowledge of potential health risks or concerns including motion sickness. With the aim of leveraging such knowledge, Sony is also participating in various conferences on 3D images.

Initiatives Aimed at Improving the Long-Term Reliability of Products
The Quality Reliability Lab, established in January 2009, continues to enhance Sony's product reliability, thereby ensuring Sony's ability to deliver safe, durable and reliable products to customers.

Sony has assigned specialists to work full time on improving technologies essential to product reliability and continues working to ensure the long-term reliability of its products by developing elemental technologies for preventing the deterioration, wear and corrosion of materials and parts, as well as technologies necessary to ensure the reliability of new technologies and products and evaluate such technologies and products.

The reliability and evaluation techniques, and the information obtained through these activities, are openly accessible and available to all Sony employees via training sessions, seminars, and websites, and are utilized to improve design and parts selection processes.

Sony also presents some of its own knowledge on new evaluation techniques at academic meetings and industry conferences and gatherings, in its efforts to contribute to industry.
For example, a drop test method, using strain gauges applicable to surface-mounted semiconductor devices, has been adopted by Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) as its standard, illustrating how Sony extends its contributions to industry and acts above and beyond the responsibilities of a manufacturer.

The digitization and networking of consumer electronics products and an increase in the relative importance of software in recent years have heightened the danger of, among others, the leakage of personal information and the destruction of data. As a consequence, software vulnerability has become an important issue.

In addition to establishing a special function for collecting security risk-related information from outside experts, Sony has created an internal software vulnerability team comprising individuals assigned to each business group who are responsible for software vulnerability issues. Based on information received, the team -- led by such individuals -- assesses the impact of risk on customers from a security perspective and implements appropriate measures.

To ensure its ability to deliver products that customers can use with confidence, Sony has also established internal guidelines pertaining to software vulnerability and continues to implement employee training programs. Additionally, in 2009 Sony reinforced its product security framework by introducing a mechanism that detects software vulnerabilities during the security inspections prior to product shipment and ensures that the inspections are duly conducted.

Sony recognizes that ensuring its customers' satisfaction, reliability and trust is one of its most important management tasks and strives to prevent quality-related problems through the systems and efforts described above.

Following a product quality issue involving lithium-ion batteries for notebook PCs in 2006, Sony made several design improvements including selecting a higher grade of insulation materials and redesigning the device's structure to prevent foreign particles from penetrating the devices.
In addition to implementing the forced internal short-circuit test of cells and introducing new evaluation techniques, Sony developed a new manufacturing process for these batteries with enhanced levels of cleanliness, building on know-how accumulated in the fabrication of semiconductors, thereby further improving battery quality.

Sony strives to prevent quality-related issues through the kinds of systems and efforts described above. As this case illustrates, Sony also responds swiftly when a problem arises, by investigating the facts and taking the appropriate actions. Sony approaches such efforts with a global perspective, working closely with concerned parties in local markets.

Sony also seeks to respond swiftly to the concerns of customers in the event of a quality-related issue, following a process common to all Sony products for determining the basic policy and timing of a public announcement. This process starts with the gathering of information from Customer Service Centers worldwide and collaborating with concerned local parties to ensure an accurate grasp of the issue. Based on information collected, Sony identities the causes of a quality-related issue and implements the appropriate measures, taking prompt steps to verify the effectiveness thereof, as well as to view the issue from the customer's perspective, and deciding on countermeasures in cooperation with the individuals in charge of product quality at local sites to provide the same level of service to customers worldwide.

With regard to methods and media for issuing public announcements of product quality-related issues, Sony examines the effectiveness of the various means at its disposal, including the Internet, e-mail or other electronic media, as well as direct mail, newspaper advertisement or other conventional media.

As an organization that manufactures and sells a wide range of products in markets around the world, Sony strives to ensure its ability to provide safe products by promptly resolving safety-related issues by, among others, leveraging its internal product supply systems and reporting to top management, and is working actively to raise awareness internally by capitalizing on lessons learned from Sony's voluntary recall of battery packs in 2006, as well as to rebuild its culture of product safety. In fiscal year 2009, these efforts were recognized when Sony was chosen to receive the Director-General for Commerce and Distribution Policy Award in the third METI Minister Awards for Best Contributors to Product Safety, sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

At the fifth METI Minister Awards for Best Contributors to Product Safety, for fiscal year 2011, Sony was once again honored with the Director-General for Commerce and Distribution Policy Award, this time in recognition of efforts by the VAIO & Mobile Business Group*, part of the Consumer Products & Services Group.

1. Having objectively evaluated the effectiveness of R-Map risk management, the VAIO & Mobile Business Group developed a proprietary testing method tailored to the types of situations in which Sony products are used to ensure that product safety is built into product designs.
2. Using results generated by the self-diagnostic functions incorporated into products to identify key safety-related considerations, the VAIO & Mobile Business Group created a monitoring system that detects abnormalities after products have been sold, thereby helping prevent accidents before they happen.
3. All employees of the VAIO & Mobile Business Group were given training aimed at enhancing their awareness of product safety by enabling them to hear directly from customers regarding product uses and customer perspectives.

*Group names are as of award date.