Supply Chain CSR

Communication and Training

Communications with Suppliers

Annual Supplier Conference

In addition to its commitment to delivering quality products, Epson believes that maintaining human rights, labor standards and environmental conservation throughout its entire supply chain is an important part of its corporate responsibility. Epson therefore considers all suppliers as important business partners.

At an annual supplier conference, we explain our procurement policies. The conference is held in Nagano prefecture where many Epson's main facilities are located, we provide a general overview of our business situation and strategies, explain our initiatives and procurement policies, and ask for suppliers' understanding and cooperation in improving quality, reducing costs, keeping strictly to appointed delivery dates, participating in CSR initiatives, promoting business continuity plan, and reducing environmental impacts.

We consider annual supplier conferences to be valuable opportunities to capture supplier feedback. We host a separate social gathering to foster communication between suppliers and the Epson executive team, including the president of Seiko Epson. The 2020 supplier conference has been suspended due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Supplier Conference for CSR

At annual CSR procurement supplier conference (since 2016), we explain CSR trend, our CSR procuring activity and request to the supplier. A lot of suppliers attend the CSR procurement supplier conference in various Epson manufacturing site such as Japan, China, and Indonesia.

In the conference, we request to comply the Sustainable procurement policy and the Epson Procurement Guideline. And we explain the guidance for self-assessment (SAQ) of CSR detail evaluation and emergency response capabilities, and conflict mineral survey. In 2019, we introduce Environment SAQ as a basic supplier evaluation to reduce the environmental impact of products. We also ask to strengthen emergency response capabilities and conduct in each supplier.

^*1 Rate of attendance = Number of attendance / Invited suppliers
^*2 Target of critical supplier attendance: Rate = Number of attendance / Critical suppliers

Whistleblowing System for suppliers

Epson has established compliance hotlines for receiving reports and consultations from suppliers regarding violations or potential violations of legislative requirements and the Epson Group Procurement Guidelines. Suppliers are asked to report any real or suspected misconduct or legal, regulatory, or ethical violations relating to Epson’s operations or involving Epson officers or employees. By establishing compliance hotlines, Epson will further promote corporate ethics.

Internal Training

The Epson Group's Management Philosophy champions respect for the individual and teamwork. Principles of Corporate Behavior, meanwhile, outlines conduct for creating a corporate culture by fostering employee independence and confidence through professional development. We believe it is particularly important to understand legal and other requirements to ensure compliance and sustainability in procurement. Epson thus provides general procurement training for all employees, as well as courses tailored to the needs of procurement staff.
The achieved rate of FY2019 was down for the reason of the some of the classes were not held to prevent the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

Basic Procurement Training (Japan)

Procurement compliance seminar

Basic online course

RBA (supply chain CSR) Professional Training (World Wide)

Epson provides professional training for procurement staff to manage supplier CSR. These programs are based on the RBA Code of Conduct and RBA (VAP) audit standards. Some are conducted by outside consultants.