Quality Assurance System
Quality Assurance in Design and Development
Status of Quick DR Education
Kubota endeavors to prevent quality problems, and a representative activity in this effort is the initiative to strengthen design reviews. Incorporating the Quick DR* approach, we discuss, test and verify even the smallest incidental change when developing new products, in order to prevent quality problems from arising therefrom.
- Quick DR is a method of preventive action of potential problems by focusing on incidental changes in design and development.
Quality Questionnaires
We conduct quality questionnaires among Kubota Group employees in Japan and abroad to encourage employees to volunteer information about issues related to quality.
Quality Training
We held training to educate employees about the necessary knowledge, approach, and actions for quality assurance and quality management.
| Training name | Number of sessions | Number of recipients |
|---|---|---|
| New recruit training | 1 | 183 |
| Technical new recruit training | 1 | 134 |
| New supervisor training | 2 | 40 |
| New foreman training | 1 | 18 |
| Internal auditor training course | 7 | 104 |
| The Safety, Environment and Quality Forum for executive management | 1 | 180 |
Internal Audits on Quality
The Kubota Group has systematically carries out the following audits.
- Quality Audits：Audits to improve the quality management system aimed at providing better quality products and services.
- Quality Compliance Audits：Audits to ensure compliance with laws, public standards, and contracts with customers.
- Cross Audits：Audits to improve independence and appropriateness of ISO 9001 internal audits, and to improve the competence of auditors.
- Audits at Short Notice
- Recall Status in FY2020
-
- Recall of M-G, GE AT tractors : Total 315 units (began July 16, 2020)
- Recall of M-D tractors : Total 1,531 units (began April 17, 2020)
- Recall of DR combine harvesters : Total 821 units (began April 7, 2020)
QC Circle Activity
Kubota first introduced quality control circles in 1967 for the purpose of “fostering people” and “revitalizing the workplace.” Currently, there are 763 circles involving 8,681 personnel active across Kubota Group companies in Japan and abroad.
Quality Achievement Award
The Kubota Group recognizes employees who have made outstanding achievements in quality improvement, with the aim of encouraging even greater achievements in the future as well as raising quality awareness in the workplace and throughout the Group.
In fiscal 2020, Kubota gave out awards in 10 themes of excellence.
ISO 9001 Certification Status
As of the end of March 2022, 44 out of 57 sites (77%) had obtained certification. 23 of our 24 domestic production sites (96%) have acquired ISO 9001 certification. 21 of our 33 overseas production sites (64%) have acquired ISO 9001 certification.
Kubota [All Kubota divisions have acquired ISO 9001 Certification.]
| Business divisions | Offices (excerpt) | Certification scope |
Date of certification |
Certifying body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farm and Industrial Machinery Consolidated Division and Procurement Headquarters, Quality Assurance Headquarters (Departments affiliated with the Farm and Industrial Machinery Consolidated Division) |
Head Office Tokyo Head Office Sakai Plant Sakai Rinkai Plant Okajima Business Center Tsukuba Plant Utsunomiya Plant Hirakata Plant Kyuhoji Business Center |
Design, development, and manufacture of agricultural machinery, construction machinery, engines and related equipment for all the above |
Jun. 1994 | LRQA*1 |
| Farm and Industrial Machinery Consolidated Division (Precision Equipment Business Unit) |
Kyuhoji Business Center |
Design, Development, Manufacture and Supervising of Installation Service for Electronic Weighing Equipment including Load Cell. | Aug. 1994 | DNV*2 |
| Water and Environmental Infrastructure Consolidated Division (Materials Business Unit) |
Hirakata Plant | Design, development, production and servicing of steel casting products. | Mar. 1993 | LRQA |
| Water and Environmental Infrastructure Consolidated Division (Urban Infrastructure Business Unit) |
Ichikawa Plant | Design, development and manufacture of spiral welded steel pipes |
Jul. 1998 | JICQA*3 |
| Pipe systems Business Division | Hanshin Plant Keiyo Plant |
Design. Development, Manufacture, Sales, Installation and Servicing of Below-mentioned Products; (1)Ductile Iron Pipes, Fittings, Accessories and Related Products (2)Ductile Iron Castings and Related Products |
Jan. 1999 | JCQA*4 |
| Environmental Solutions Division |
Hirakata Plant (including KUBOTA Kiko Ltd.) |
Project management, design & development, manufacture, sales, sales engineering, procurement, construction & installation management, commissioning and servicing, maintenance of products & equipment of pump, pump station, valves and gates. | Oct. 1997 | LRQA |
| Shiga Plant Kyuhoji Business Center (including KUBOTA Membrane Corp.) |
Design & Development and Production of the Small-sized Plastic Septic Tank and Bathtub, and Design & Development, Production Trust Management of the Medium/Large-sized Plastic Septic Tank; Reserch & Development, Design, Production and After-sales Service of Membrane Unit, Membrane Cartridge and All Its Related Spare Parts | Apr. 2003 | JUSE*5 | |
| Tokyo Head Office Hanshin Office |
Project management, sales, sales engineering, design & development, procurement, manufacture, testing & examination, installation & construction management, commissioning and servicing of facilities for sewage & sludge treatment, water purification, and wastewater treatment, of product and equipment for hydraulic gate, pump and pumping equipment | Jul. 2014 | Intertek*6 |
- *1.LRQA: Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Ltd.
- *2.DNV: DNV GL BUSINESS ASSURANCE JAPAN K.K.
- *3.JICQA: JIC Quality Assurance Ltd.
- *4.JCQA: Japan Chemical Quality Assurance Ltd.
- *5.JUSE: Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers
- *6.Intertek: Intertek Certification Ltd.
Affiliates in Japan
| No. | Company | Certification scope |
Certifying body |
Date of certification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kubota Systems Inc. |
|
BSI-J | May 1997 |
| 2 | Kubota ChemiX Co.,Ltd. (Including Okinawa Kubota Kasei Co., Ltd.) |
|
JUSE | Apr. 1998 |
| 3 | Nippon Plastic Industry Co., Ltd. |
|
JSA | Dec. 1998 |
| 4 | Kyushu KUBOTA Chemical Co., Ltd. | Manufacture of synthetic pipes for water supply, agricultural water, sewage, electric power, and construction machinery | JUSE | Oct. 1999 |
| 5 | KUBOTA KASUI Corporation |
Design, installation and maintenance of water treatment and gas treatment facilities | BCJ-SAR | Jan. 2000 |
| 6 | Kubota Environmental Service Co., Ltd. |
Design, construction, maintenance, operation, and management services of plant facilities (including equipment and machinery) for water purification, sewage, night soil, and waste. | MSA | Feb. 2000 |
| 7 | Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. | The design / development and manufacture of central air conditioning equipment & heat pump type air conditioning equipment. | JQA | Feb. 2000 |
| 8 | Kansouken Inc. |
|
JCQA | Apr. 2004 |
| 9 | Kubota Seiki Co., Ltd. |
|
LRQA | Apr. 2007 |
| 10 | Kubota Construction Co., Ltd. |
|
JQA | Dec. 2011 |
Overseas Group companies
| No. | Company | Certification scope |
Certifying body |
Date of certification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kverneland Group Operations Norway AS |
Development, production and sales of farm implements for soil cultivation | DNV GL | Nov. 1993 |
| 2 | Kubota Materials Canada Corporation |
Design, development and manufacture of cast steel including stainless, heat resistant and corrosion resistant alloys, in the production of steel castings and fabricated assemblies, as well as the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products (titanic oxide compounds) | IQNet | Apr. 2018 |
| 3 | Kubota Materials Canada Corporation |
Design, development and manufacture of cast steel including stainless, heat resistant and corrosion resistant alloys, in the production of steel castings and fabricated assemblies, as well as the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products (titanic oxide compounds) . | SGS North America |
Feb. 1995 |
| 4 | P.T. Kubota Indonesia | Manufacture of internal combustion engines | LRQA | Jan. 1998 |
| 5 | Kubota Manufacturing of America Corporation |
The manufacture and distribution of farm implements, lawn tractors, sub-compact tractors, RTV’s, tractors and skid steer loaders. | SGS | Dec. 1999 |
| 6 | Kubota Industrial Equipment Corporation |
|||
| 7 | Kubota Saudi Arabia Company, LLC |
|
TÜV NORD CERT |
2011 |
| 8 | Kubota Agricultural Machinery (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. |
Design & manufacturing of harvester, transplanter; manufacturing of tractor | CAM | Jun. 2011 |
| 9 | SIAM KUBOTA Metal Technology Co., Ltd. |
Manufacture of casting iron parts | MASCI | Oct. 2012 |
| 10 | Kubota Sanlian Pump (Anhui) Co., Ltd. |
Design and manufacture of clean water pump, sewage pump, axial flow pump, mixed flow pump. | CCS | May. 2013 |
| 11 | KUBOTA Engine (Thailand) Co., Ltd. |
Manufacture of diesel engine | LRQA | Oct. 2013 |
| 12 | SIAM KUBOTA Corporation Co., Ltd. （Head office） |
|
MASCI | Mar.1997 |
Management of after-sale service of diesel engines, power tiller, tractor, combine harvesters, tillers and excavators
|
MASCI | Mar.1997 | ||
| 13 | SIAM KUBOTA Corporation Co., Ltd. （Amata City office） |
Manufacturing of farm tractor with and without wheel and tire including transmission and front axel, agricultural machinery (combine harvester), implement (rotary tillers, slasher). | LRQA | Feb.2014 |
| Assembly and Distribution of Agricultural Machinery | LRQA | Feb.2014 | ||
| 14 | Kubota Engine (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. | Manufacture of water-cooled multi-cylinder diesel engines used in industrial machinery and agricultural machinery | SGS United Kingdom |
Nov. 2014 |
| 15 | Kubota Construction Machinery (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. |
Manufacture of hydraulic crawler excavators (operating weight less than or equal to kx175 type) | SGS United Kingdom |
Dec. 2014 |
| 16 | KUBOTA Precision Machinery (Thailand) Co., Ltd. |
Manufacture of transmission assembly and linkage hitch hydraulic cylinders for agricultural tractors | LRQA | Jul. 2015 |
| 17 | Kubota Baumaschinen GmbH |
Development, distribution, procurement, manufacturing and service of construction machines | PÜG mbH | Feb. 2016 |
| 18 | KUBOTA (U.K.) Ltd. | The import, sales and distribution of engines, agricultural and construction machinery including the provision of service and training to a dealership network | CQS | Aug. 2016 |
| 19 | Kubota Europe S.A.S. | Tractor reassembly: Local market application | Apave Certification |
Sep. 2016 |
| 20 | Kubota Farm Machinery Europe S.A.S |
Production and shipping of agricultural tractors, technical assistance and spare parts | BUREAU VERITAS |
Feb. 2017 |
| 21 | Kubota Kasui Vietnam Co., Ltd.(Head office) |
The manufacture and supply of chemicals for water treatment systems; Provision of RO membrane cleaning, water treatment regenerated resin and water analyzing servece. | IAS | May.2018 |
| 22 | Kubota Kasui Vietnam Co., Ltd.(Bac Ninh) |
The manufacture and supply of chemicals for water treatment system; Provision of RO membrane cleaning, water treatment regenerated resin and water analyzing service. | IAS | May.2018 |
| 23 | Kubota (Deutschland) GmbH | Sales and customization of tractors, machines for ground care, attachments, spare parts, engines, engine accessories, service and customer support | EQ ZERT | Sep. 2018 |
| 24 | KUBOTA Turkey Makine Ticaret Limited Sirketi |
Manufacture of tractors and power tiller | LMS | Sep. 2019 |
| 25 | Escorts Kubota India Prt Ltd, | Manufacturing of Tractor and its Assemblies | TUV SUD | May.2021 |
- LRQA : Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance Ltd.
- DNV : DNV GL BUSINESS ASSURANCE JAPAN K.K.
- JICQA : JIC Quality Assurance Ltd.
- JCQA : Japan Chemical Quality Assurance Ltd.
- JUSE : Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers
- Intertek : Intertek Certification Ltd.
- BSI-J : BSI Group Japan K.K.
- JSA : Japanese Standards Association
- BCJ-SAR : The Building Center of Japan
- MSA : Management System Assessment Center Co., Ltd.
- JQA : Japan Quality Assurance Organization
- MASCI : Management System Certification Institute (Thailand)
- CCS : China Classification Society
- CQS : Certified Quality Systems
- LMS ：LMS Certification Limited
- TÜV SÜD ：TÜV SÜD South Asia Private Limited
- SGS ：Société Générale de Surveillance S.A.
- IAS ：International Accreditation Service（IAS）United States Of America