Procurement policy

The Yaskawa Group Code of Conduct sets forth the following to pursue optimal procurement, understand suppliers, and ensure sound relationships and proper payment procedures. Suppliers are also required to comply with the law.

1. When selecting suppliers, we make a comprehensive assessment and rational decision based not only on quality, price and delivery times but also on the state of their system for operations, such as technical and operations capability, business soundness, legal compliance, environmental conservation, health and safety, and other criteria.
2. In procurement transactions, we secure documents or data that show the agreement between each supplier for the unit price of the order and evidence that the products or services have been received. We also carry out thorough recording of expenses, amounts of cost and times that are consistent with the facts by following appropriate procedure.
3. We pay close attention in procurement transactions to whether there is any violation of the laws and regulations, risk for conflict of interest, or risk of involvement with organized crime group through money laundering, etc. We have no relationship whatsoever with organized crime group and take a firm stance against its demands.
4. We examine the facts about suppliers and their eligibility as a trading partner before a transaction starts and reexamine them regularly after the transaction starts. We also strive to understand as much as possible about the subcontractors of suppliers.

Procurement policy briefing

Yaskawa holds a Procurement Policy Briefing every six months for managers of major suppliers with whom we do business on a global basis, and shares and harmonizes our management policy and business strategy. At the briefing, opinions are exchanged so that we can reflect the opinions of suppliers in our purchasing policies and enhance their effectiveness.

Environmental communication

In Yaskawa’s pursuit to create products in harmony with the environment, Yaskawa communicates with materials suppliers via the Internet through the exchange of environmental information on procured products and information on supplier’s environmental preservation initiatives.

We are actively accepting proposals for the procurement of “materials with low environmental impact” from “suppliers actively involved in environmental conservation activities”.

Sustainable procurement activities

Yaskawa Group established the “Sustainable Procurement Guidelines” in February 2021. These guidelines set forth a code of conduct to be observed by suppliers. The guidelines were posted on our website to disseminate the guidelines to all suppliers.

Compliance with the sustainable procurement guidelines

As part of the Yaskawa Group’s initiatives, our domestic group companies conduct an SAQ^*2 survey every two years for major business partners^*3. We received responses from 216 companies in fiscal 2022 and from 180 companies in fiscal 2024.
For our overseas group companies, we obtained SAQ responses from 51 business partners in China in fiscal 2023, and from 34 business partners in the United States and 18 in India in fiscal 2024.
As a result of SAQ survey, it has been confirmed that the suppliers comply with the guidelines both in Japan and overseas.

*2 Major business partners: Business partners that account for the top 80% of the previous year’s purchase value.
*3 SAQ:Self Assessment Questionnaire

Efforts to respond to conflict minerals clauses

Some minerals (Tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold) produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or neighboring countries are called conflict minerals because there are concerns that such minerals are a source of funds for armed groups that commit human rights violations, acts of violence and other illegal activities. Yaskawa formulated the “Conflict Minerals Clause Guidelines” in 2013 to clarify response policies. Through these efforts, we are working to eliminate the flow of funds to armed insurgents, and is earnestly tackling human rights issues in the Congo region.
In order to realize Yaskawa’s management principle of “contributing to the welfare of humankind” we will work with our business partners to ensure that we comply with the provisions on conflict minerals.

Studies to date have not confirmed the use of raw materials to finance the rebels. In the future, if the use of raw materials is discovered as a source of funds for the armed groups, we will promptly replace them.