GC was ranked No.1 in the 9th Quality Management Level Research 2016!

The result of the 9th Quality Management Level Research in 2016 conducted by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and sponsored by Nikkei Inc. was announced on November 29. We are pleased that GC was highly evaluated and reached the first place, the highest honor in our history, moving up from 2nd in 2014 and 6th in 2012.

The ranking is based on the analysis of 51 indicators under the 6 categories (66 questions), and GC received the following high evaluations.

Commitment of top management: 17th
Cultivation of human resources for realization of quality management: 1st
Management of safety, security and trust: 4th
Pursuit of customer-oriented policy: 9th
Establishment and thorough implementation of a process: 7th
Capability to deploy a system horizontally: 2nd

In the newspaper “The Nikkei” the reasons for the high evaluation were highlighted as follows: GC held the first Global KI (Kaizen Innovation) Activity Presentation Meeting in February this year, sharing success cases of KI Activity among GC Group Associates from Japan and overseas and making the best use of it for mutual enlightenment. GC has appointed GQM (GC’s Quality Management) Promoters at the group companies overseas to cultivate human resources for the realization of quality management. Classifying functions into 12 groups such as “Quality Assurance”, “Production Engineering”, and “Manufacturing Management”, GC strived to achieve the numerical targets through functional management group-wide. These efforts are highly evaluated as the basis for the corporate quality. Here is the list of the top 10 companies from the overall ranking:

1. GC
2. Konica Minolta, Inc.
3. Takenaka Corporation
4. Canon Inc.
5. Suntory Holdings Ltd.
6. Denso Corporation
7. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
8. Fujifilm Holdings Corporation
9. Ricoh Company, Ltd.
10. Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP)

GC received the “Deming Application Prize” (current Deming Prize) in 2000, and the “Japan Quality Medal” (current Deming Grand Prize), the highest honor of Japan’s TQM, in 2004. Furthermore, within our GC Group, GC Dental Products Corporation received the “Deming Application Prize” in 2003, GC Dental (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. received the “Deming Application Prize” in 2010, and GC America Inc. received the Deming Prize in 2014. For the recognition by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), GC Europe was selected as one of the finalists of the Excellence Award 2013, and won the “Prize in Leading with Vision, Inspiration and Integrity” in 2016. Chairman Makoto Nakao received the Deming Prize for Individuals in 2012 for spearheading GC Group’s efforts for promotion of TQM and building it into a global company over thirty years. Furthermore, Chairman Nakao received the “Marcos E. J. Bertin Quality in Governance Medal” from the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) in 2016.

Through continuous promotion of GC’s Quality Management (GQM), GC would like to step up company-wide efforts for quality management and fulfill customer expectations.

Your continued support would be much appreciated.