Fair Trade
Advantest Procurement Policy
The Advantest Group's CSR Policy pledges respect for our suppliers, places value on open communication with our suppliers, and maintains fair business relationships in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. We are also committed to sharing values and building collaborative relationships with our suppliers, toward our goal of achieving mutual growth.
Dialogue with business partners
Image of New Year meeting
At Advantest, we hold an annual New Year meetings, reunion meetings and joint quality conferences to develop good relations with our business partners, thank them for their contribution to our business and exchange views with our President and Directors.
Organization to promote fair trade (CSR procurement)
In order to promote and manage fair trade we have established a department whose role is to check the purchasing department and we implement a twice yearly audit to ensure that there are no problems and that general trade practices are being followed.
Also, every year we implement an internal control audit using an external organization and we were able to confirm again in fiscal 2014 that there were no problems.
Moreover, for outstanding orders, in addition to checking the status at the end of each month to ensure that there are no acceptance inspection omissions, for orders where the acceptance inspection is taking a long time we report the reason for this and the expected completion to the auditor.
Education for practicing fair trade
Image of subcontractors law seminar
In 2014 we held a subcontractors law seminar also for employees not in the purchasing department.
We will continue to educate our employees in order to put into practice fair trade.
Social responsibility in the supply chain
Implementation of questionnaire survey
We carry out a business partner questionnaire annually on CSR, and every quarter we evaluate our business partners on QCD*. We feed the results back to the business partners to create a relationship where they can develop together with us.
In order to fulfill our social responsibilities across our supply chain, including all of our business partners, we placed our “Advantest Procurement Policy” and “Advantest Supply Chain CSR Promotion Guidebook” on our website and we are requesting that our business partners respect all related laws and social norms.
So that we can understand the current status we carry out a questionnaire for our main business partners, representing 85% of our trade, once a year. For fiscal 2014 we carried out the questionnaire in March 2015 and gained answers from each company regarding their approach to human rights, labor problems, health and safety, environmental protection, fair trade, intellectual property protection and conflict minerals. We were able to confirm that each company had established an overall policy and Code of Conduct for societal responsibility. We will conduct another questionnaire in fiscal 2015 and confirm our business partners’ response to our purchasing policy.
* QCD: abbreviation of Quality, Cost, Delivery
Set up of inquiry and reporting window
During trade with our business partners, in the case that one of our employees infringes, or is suspected to infringe, of our Code of Conduct, trade contract or a law, we request that this is reported to the Contact window on our website. In fiscal 2014 we did not receive any complaints. The reporter and their company would not be penalized in any way for reporting. Following an investigation, in the case that a problem is recognized the action would be stopped and measures would be taken to prevent reoccurrence.
Response to Conflict Minerals
At Advantest, in order to respond to the US financial regulatory reform Act Article 1502 (conflict minerals provisions) and related regulations we are playing an active role together with the industry organization to address the conflict minerals problem.
Since 2013 we have been implementing an annual survey with business partners regarding use of conflict minerals through a CFSI* report (conflict mineral reporting template (CMRT)) and releasing the results.
- Fiscal 2014 survey results (Form SD — English only. PDF 225KB)
Structure to respond to conflict minerals
We have been taking steps to respond to the conflict minerals issue, setting up a conflict minerals working group in 2012 organized by Executive Officers. The working group includes the supply chain survey group, customer response group, disclosure group and administration office.
Conflict minerals response survey
Completing a pre-survey in 2012 and a business partner explanatory meeting to ask for cooperation before the 2013 survey, we surveyed business partners on conflict minerals use and smelters using a CFSI* report (conflict minerals reporting template (CMRT)) retroactively. In 2013 the response rate was 96% and in 2014 it was 97%.
* CFSI: Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative
Cooperation with industry body
In December 2012 we participated in the JEITA* “Responsible Mineral Procurement Review Committee” and are addressing the conflict minerals issue together with the industry body.
Since February 2013 we have participated in the Committee’s “Conflict Free Sourcing Working Group”, and in cooperation with Japanese automotive and electronic industries we are working to promote and raise public awareness of conflict free sourcing.
* JEITA: Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association
