Business Environment and Review of FY2021
As a global manufacturer specializing in touchscreens, DMC has been providing convenience for your business and in daily life. In FY2021, a surge in advance orders in response to the global supply shortage of semiconductors led to record orders, but this boom, supported by contingency factors, may not continue. The recent international uncertainty could also affect future market conditions. Although the domestic market, which had contracted due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, is now beginning to recover, it will continue to require a flexible attitude that accurately captures market trends. We are ready to expand our business activities while pursuing new opportunities for our technologies and products.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, cashless transactions are expected to further advance as a part of social infrastructure. Based on the assumption that as a tool that contributes to improving convenience and addressing labor shortages, the development and deployment of products that encourage greater efficiency at the time of payment will increase its pace, we will strive to ensure that our display technology can contribute to this progress. In addition, our technology should be able to expand needs in cutting-edge fields such as medicine and information communications. We will continue to respond to the diversifying needs of our customers by taking advantage of our unique business model of high-mix, low-volume production, which is based on an agile perception of the changing times and society.
Toward Carbon Neutrality
As society continues to undergo major transformations, environmental awareness is growing worldwide and companies are playing an increasingly important role in preserving the global environment. Our company, which consumes a large amount of electricity in the manufacturing process of our products, is making a group-wide effort to reduce CO₂ emissions in order to contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality by 2050 as set forth by the Japanese government.
The three pillars of our efforts are focused on reducing waste, parts, and power consumption. IT-enabled operations will reduce manhours and improve efficiency, while reducing the number of used parts and materials, which will ultimately lead to a reduction in CO₂ emissions. We are also promoting efforts to reduce power consumption, placing a priority on curbing the use of electricity in manufacturing processes. For example, the etching process (processing to form circuit patterns on glass and film using corrosion) uses a very large amount of power, but by converting this to a manufacturing process using lasers, it is possible to significantly reduce power consumption. To date, we have only made limited disclosures regarding CO₂ emission reductions. In the future, we will accelerate these efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by clearly presenting reduction targets and plans.
Establish a More Resilient Supply Chain
Reinforcing the business continuity plan (BCP) is one of the key points in maintaining stable business activities. In Italy, where we opened a branch in 2019, our business activities have been somewhat constrained by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic combined with the situation in Ukraine. And in Indonesia, our production facilities were forced to suspend operations for about two months due to flooding caused by heavy rains in February 2021. We are now exposed to various business risks such as unknown infectious diseases, uncertain international situations, and natural disasters caused by global warming, and we believe it is imperative to establish a multilayered business structure that can avoid these risks.
From the viewpoint of strengthening BCP, we took over the touchscreen manufacturing division from NKK SWITCHES in 2021 and established a new production subsidiary in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. As a result, we are now ready to increase production of resistive film products in Japan, which had been produced mainly in Indonesia. Furthermore, in May this year, we established a new office in Taiwan, a leader in touchscreen-related fields, and have started purchasing parts and selling products there. As a leading international company in the touchscreen industry, we will once again return to the principle of long-term stable supply first, and focus our efforts on building a stronger supply chain so that we can continue to deliver high quality products to our customers regardless of unforeseen circumstances.
Improvement of Work Environment and Human Resource Development
Ultimately, it is people that support a company. As a company with worldwide operations, we have long provided training in Japan for employees working at our production facilities in Indonesia (currently suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic) in an effort to raise the level of our manpower. At the same time, we also promote the recruitment of and support for foreigners living in Japan. In addition to ongoing Japanese language training to ensure that communication is not hindered, a place of worship for Muslim employees has been established at the Shirakawa Factory out of respect for individual religious beliefs. As our preceding president expressed, all employees working for DMC are colleagues, and nationality is irrelevant. To ensure that diverse human resources can continue to work with vigor and enthusiasm, we will work to further improve the workplace environment while providing support for visa acquisition as needed.
We also view support for employee career development as one of our key measures. The Shirakawa Factory, which has employed many local high school students and contributed to local employment, provides thorough in-house training for young employees to help them grow into excellent engineers, and operates a job rotation program that allows them to study in different departments. It is the role of top management to respond to employees' enthusiasm for engagement and growth. We intend to make every effort to enhance various systems, including overseas training programs.
Due in part to the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, opportunities for communication with employees were drastically reduced. However, we have strengthened our efforts to collect the voices within the company, for example, by enhancing interviews by human resources staff. Although there are still issues to be addressed, including the effective utilization of senior human resources, we will continue to strengthen the human resource aspect of the group as a whole to further solidify our internal foundation.
Toward Sustainability Progress
Six years have passed since we embarked on strengthening our Sustainability activities in 2016. During that time, we feel that the concept of contributing to the realization of a sustainable society through our business has gradually taken root within the company. However, it is not enough to say that all employees are aware of the importance of these activities in their daily work. By learning about the company's activities in detail beyond the boundaries of their departments, they will gain a deeper understanding of the company. Through this process, they will become more fulfilled with their work and be able to generate new ideas. In 2022, the sixth year of the report, we have changed the name of the report from the Sustainability CSR Report to the Sustainability Report, and prepared and published it. However, we will not rest on our laurels, and will further foster the awareness of sustainability and nurture our people and the company by ensuring that the contents of the report permeate the entire company.
To continue to be the company of choice for our customers, even as society undergoes disruptive changes, we are determined to fulfill our responsibilities as a solutions company with touchscreens as its starting point by quickly and accurately grasping the diversifying demands of society. The entire company will work together to realize our corporate philosophy of“ achieving sustainable growth while promoting happiness throughout society.”