Relationships with Business Partners

The Ajinomoto Group strives to build relationships of trust with its business partners in accordance with the Ajinomoto Group Basic Purchasing Policy, established in May 2006. With the cooperation and understanding of its business partners, the group works together with these partners to fulfill its social responsibilities in all corporate activities, including ensuring safe and reliable products.

Purchasing Department reorganized as Group Procurement Center

Ajinomoto Co., Inc., established its Group Procurement Center on April 1, 2008. The center is taking over all of the functions of the company’s Purchasing Department, and several functions handled by the Food Product Raw Material Procurement Department and the Materials Purchasing Department of Calpis Co., Ltd.
In addition to strengthening procurement capabilities and encouraging greater efficiency of work procedures, the center will function as the group’s main hub of activity to ensure the development of purchasing practices at group companies in and outside Japan, in compliance with the Ajinomoto Group Basic Purchasing Policy.

Building relationships of trust with business partners

In fiscal 2007, public trust in the safety of food products was shaken by the occurrence of numerous incidents that combined to create a serious social issue. The Ajinomoto Group recognizes that its supply chain is linked by special mutual partnerships with raw material suppliers. In response to food safety issues, the group has closely cooperated with these business partners, particularly with respect to quality assurance. The Ajinomoto Group will continue working to build even closer relationships based on communication in daily purchasing activities, audits, and other quality assurance activities.
Each purchasing department conducts fair transactions when purchasing machinery, ordering construction work, and outsourcing various functions, while giving top priority to compliance with laws and regulations.
In early 2008, it came to light that paper manufacturers in Japan had been falsifying claims about recycled paper content in their products. This incident had a considerable impact on the company's office supplies that use recycled paper and tree-free paper. Accordingly, the company adopted responsive measures, including revising labeling to ensure correctness. In meeting demands for greater consideration of the environment, the Ajinomoto Group strongly urges its related business partners to work toward recovering their trustworthiness.

Questionnaire survey concerning the Ajinomoto Group Basic Purchasing Policy

The goals of the Ajinomoto Group Basic Purchasing Policy, which was established in May 2006, are to ensure that compliance and business ethics are always given due attention, and to manage the process of conducting purchases properly. The group seeks the understanding and cooperation of its business partners by presenting them with this purchasing policy.
In February 2007, the Purchasing Department of Ajinomoto Co., Inc., distributed a questionnaire survey about the Ajinomoto Group Basic Purchasing Policy to all business partners. The first objective of the survey was to verify that purchasing departments are conducting purchasing activities in accordance with the policy. The second objective was to have business partners describe the status of their compliance with the policy. Results indicated that the business partners evaluated the group’s purchasing departments as being in compliance with the policy overall. Although few, some responses pointed out that evaluation rules for rationalization suggestions in purchasing transactions and matters relating to Green Procurement Guidelines were insufficiently explained. The group fully intends to handle these issues more conscientiously in the future.
With respect to compliance by business partners (secondary and tertiary partners from the group’s perspective), responses indicated that in their purchasing transactions, systems to ensure CSR-based procurement, including systems for human rights protection, have yet to be set up. Nevertheless, in comparison, the level of quality assurance has improved. The Ajinomoto Group will request its business partners to step up concrete efforts in the area of procurement through audits and other means of communication.

Fair transactions

The basic policy of the Ajinomoto Group is to comply with Japan's Antimonopoly Law and similar laws and ordinances in other countries, as well as all other related regulations, with a view to supporting a free economic system based on fair and free competition.
In this light, despite pressures from recent severe economic conditions, the Ajinomoto Group will continue pressing its business partners to thoroughly comply with the Antimonopoly Law.

Quality assurance through collaboration with business partners

The company's Purchasing Department and Food Product Raw Material Procurement Department, which are the organizations responsible for the purchase of raw materials, conduct quality audits following the Ajinomoto System of Quality Assurance (ASQUA).
In accordance with provisions of relevant laws and ordinances, the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance Department is in charge of quality assurance and auditing in relation to pharmaceutical raw materials and packaging bought by the Purchasing Department. In addition, the Food Product Raw Material Procurement Department conducted an audit according to the Raw Material Supplier Control and Audit Guidelines, which became applicable to the Food Products Company in fiscal 2007.

Fiscal 2007 record of quality audits of raw material suppliers