Here, we are introducing Yokohama Rubber's risk management such as its vision, support system, and addressing of such risks. Also in the wake of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, in regards to what to review and what to focus on, here are some reports on our discussion being conducted beyond their divisional restriction, and also our activities right after the earthquake.
Yokohama Rubber's Risk Management
Yokohama Rubber has a Risk Management Committee to consider general guidelines and support systems against various risks such as Safety Sanitation, Earthquake / Fire, Legal Compliance, Environmental Accidents and so on; we also have some specific Committees and Councils who deal with the actual risks.
Our Risk Management Committee's main role is raising awareness during normal situations and specific procedures in place during emergencies. It prepares for the procedures and support systems inplace by conducting an extraordinary meeting when an emergency occurs, considering how to respond to the media, what effect on the related departments and understanding of their activities to deal with it, develop information to the management team, communication to the employees, labor unions, local communities, partners, public offices, and so on. Specific Committees and Councils hold not just regular meetings, but also hold an extraordinary meeting when an emergency occurs to deal with the situation. Examples of recent extraordinary meetings held were to deal with the bird flu case in 2009, a declaration of state of emergency in Thailand in 2010, and so on. We think it is important to examine the contents of the action items for such situation on a later day for further improvement.
In the Wake of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake
Since the majority of our production sites are located in the Kanto to Tokai region, the impact on our factories from the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake were minimal and the restoration work was not too much, however, our distribution channel of Tires and MBs in the Tohoku region was badly affected.
Right after the earthquake broke out, the first priority was to make sure all our employees were safe and sound, understand the situation of the damage, and how to have the employees of Tokyo Headquarters go home safely. As for the issue of going home, an Emergency Meeting for Central Disaster Handling Division took place in the evening on the 11th decided to have them wait in the premises of the headquarters until the transportation system goes back to normal operation, followed by notifying our employees.
Our handling for the emergency situation is mainly led by the Central Disaster Handling Division, progressing from by 1) making sure our employees are all safe and sound, 2) understanding the situation of the damage, and 3) material support and restoration work for the affected areas, followed by informing the situation externally in timely manner. The meeting by Central Disaster Handling Division took place seven times in total by March 31.
In the wake of this earthquake, the initial action for disasters, etc. entails proper actions per physical location or business office; in order to do so, it is important to obtain accurate information promptly and make it clear about the decision-making protocol, and we were strongly reminded that it takes the entire company's support for the restoration work of our affected offices. From now on, we are about to realize our BCM by understanding the situation of the damage with our partners (supply chain), creating our cooperation support to deal with production quantity fluctuation, and have a support system in place in the event that our headquarters and main factory were significantly affected.
In the Wake of Great Eastern Japan Earthquake
What can we do as a corporation from now on?
On April 28, 2011, about one month and a half after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, there was a discussion held at the headquarters of Yokohama Rubber attended by relevant personnel. After sharing information on how various situations were dealt with, the topics were whether our company was prepared enough or had sufficient supporting systems in place for the earthquake, and what areas have to be reviewed from now on.
Attendees:
Takashi Fukui, Director and Managing Corporate Officer, in charge of Global HR Department. General Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility Division (then)
Atsushi Kanazawa, General Manager. CSR & Environmental Affairs Department
Yasuhiro Kurokawa, General Manager. Global HR Department
Minoru Osada, General Manager. Corporate General Affairs Department
Koichi Tsuruno, General Manager. Corporate Planning Department
Ryoji Saito, President of Yokohama Industrial Products Japan Co., Ltd. Tohoku Company
About Emergency Handling Right after the Earthquake
The discussion started by reflecting on their activities on the very day of the earthquake on March 11.
The first priority was to make sure our employees were all safe and sound right after that. During this earthquake, even though the system to make sure of their safety through text messages on mobile phone was operating normally, there was no connection with text messages systems at all at that time. After that, Fukui of CSR Division had pointed out that "I felt that we must think about alternative communication tools as well without totally relying on text messages." Also, a number of attendees have expressed that "This time was fortunate as most of our employees are staying in the office on Friday afternoon, but we must think how to get in touch in the event that the disaster occurs at a different time."
Also, the majority of them commented that our experience of emergency drills were useful when a real emergency suddenly happened like this. However, some said that the magnitude of this disaster was too great and, very honestly, we did not know how to react to it. Kurokawa of Global Human Resource has stated that "I was having some difficulties to make judgment upon numerous questions such as whether people could be reimbursed under the Workmen's Compensation Scheme in the event of an injury while going home even among the Disaster Handling Division. I think it is necessary to create a manual by incorporating how to deal with such a case as well."
Yokohama Rubber MB Japan Co., Ltd. Tohoku Company who was affected by the earthquake had some water and food for emergency for one day; they had distributed an emergency bag for each employee when they went home. Saito of Tohoku Company who came from Sendai says, "Like this time, lifelines may be cut off for a long time. I felt that we may need to keep water and food to last for about one week."
How to Maintain Continuous Business Operation
After that, the discussion developed into the establishment of continuous business operation required after such emergency handling. Osada of General Affairs Department said by reflecting on the situation this time, "As for the information of our partner factories, distributors, and companies to supply, we were able to start gathering on the following day, based on that information, we had a good supporting system in place like we import necessary parts from overseas, or change our production system temporarily, and so on. However, the judgment over whether those actions were really appropriate may take some time to decide." Based on this, someone pointed out that it is necessary to have multiple options as to parts procurement and production method all the time.
Also, Fukui had commended that "I think we were able to act based on top-down instruction in quite an organized way in order to maintain our business operation." Meanwhile, he had analyzed that "Another reason is probably that we were able to act calmly as the effect on the metropolitan Tokyo was not too bad. I think we need to review one more time, whether this is sufficient in the event that the earthquake occurs directly in the center of Tokyo."
There were number of opinions raised as to the transfer of headquarters' functions. Tsuruno of Planning Department said that "We are unable to cease the functions such as accounts, human resources, information systems, and so on related to financial closing in the light of the relationship with our customers and employees, also as an important data management operation of our entire group. However, there is a possibility that we may need to shift such functions to another place very urgently; I realized that we need to consider specifically as to their space and personnel involved. I have neither notified internally nor conducted any preparation work yet, but I am considering about 50 personnel both in Fukuoka and Sapporo."
However, if a major scale of headquarters transfer were to take place, some of them have pointed out that maybe we had not discussed enough as to where to shift to and at least we need to determine how many employees." Others stated that even though it may have been discussed among this Central Disaster Meeting, it has not reached the stage to be incorporated properly as a form of BCP.
Also, Kanazawa of the CSR Environment Council participated from Hiratsuka Factory, which was subject to the planned blackout of Tokyo Electric Power Company, emphasized the necessity of the infrastructure to be in place so that our employees can work from home such as by connecting from their PC at home to company server in readiness for an actual blackout. Also, the co-generation system of Hiratsuka Factory is not structured to supply electricity for the entire factory, as such they had no choice but to stop operations; he had pointed this out as room for improvement. Also, some people have expressed that such issues being made clear by each office should be shared among our offices across Japan.
By Utilizing our Strength of Logistic Functions
In the light of our support for the affected areas, firstly, Kurokawa reported about their employment guidelines. "As for the employment at the factories, we are considering hiring people from the affected areas as the first priority; also for the employment of fresh graduates, we are considering preferential treatment for a certain period for the applicants from affected areas." Also, Saito from Tohoku Company had the opinion that "There are a lot of factories, and so on which are our customers; it is important to maintain a supporting system in place to deliver necessary goods when required as the first priority." He went on to express his experience by saying, "In a sense, I am grateful that right after the earthquake, our Koriyama branch and Hachinohe branch on behalf of our Sendai headquarters of Tohoku Company had greatly supported our communications and logistics."
Right after the earthquake, the company had also conducted some humanitarian work such as transporting necessary goods for the affected areas such as Sendai. Looking back, some people commented that they were once again reminded that our logistics function is truly working so tremendously. Could the support utilizing such function be authentic CSR based on our core businesses? Harsh conditions may linger for a while, but by making use of our company's resources to the fullest, everybody there agreed on the same recognition that the next challenge should be what kind of supports can be provided.
Our Company's Actions since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake
*Part of the actions under the headquarters as the lead.
March 11, 2011 (Friday)
- At 14:46
- The earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 occurred in the entire eastern Japan with the coast of Sanriku as the epicenter.
A few window at the headquarters building were cracked; also, there were some cracks on the walls as well.
Almost every employee in the building wore a helmet already distributed in advance.
Systems to make sure of their safety were operating; however, it was hard to gather information as the system for textmessaging on mobile phone was only working on and off. - At 15:10
- The Emergency Disaster Handling Division was convened; ensuring no fire broke out in the building and no injury of employees therein was reported.
Employees were still asked to stay in the building. - At 15:30
- The Central Disaster Handling Division has been established under Fukui, Director and Managing Corporate Officer as Deputy Head of Handling Division.
Upon gathering their members, they started taking actions as to gathering information and how to deal with it.
They confirmed that there is no bodily injury reported from all other Yokohama Rubber offices. - At 17:00
- They decided to ask their employees to remain in the office considering the public transportation system may be badly affected, followed by the instruction to the entire employees at headquarters accordingly.
- At 21:00
- The subway system started to resume its operation; those who wish, were allowed to go home but in a group by stating their names.
Water and emergency food was distributed to everybody else remaining in the building.
March 12, 2011 (Saturday)
- At 7:00
- JR (Japan Railway Company) resumed their operation. Employees in the building could leave. Breakfast wascooked for everyone.
- At 13:20
- Under (then President) Nagumo as Head of the Handling Division, including President of the Tire Group, President of the MB Group, all the Directors and assisting Department Heads from Production, Distribution, Technology, Raw Material Procurement, Logistics, Information Technology, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and General Affairs convened for the first Meeting of the Central Disaster Handling Division with the Head of General Affairs Department as Secretariat.
The situation of earthquake victims such as employees and factories was reported.
March 15, 2011 (Tuesday)
- At 15:00
- Tire Distribution Company (YTJ) had transported some goods for victims such as water and food for Sendai.
March 17, 2011 (Thursday)
- At 15:00
- The production quantity of Mishima and Shinshiro Factories had dropped. Due to decreasing raw materials, everyfactory ends on time punctually without any overtime work.
The goods for the victims were confirmed to be safely delivered by YTJ.
March 31, 2011 (Thursday)
- At 15:00
- At the 6th Meeting of Central Disaster Handling Division, only one person among our Group, who was with our Sendai Port Office went missing, was confirmed to be dead.
As a part of relief efforts, YTJ has arranged some trucks and so on. MB distribution companies also, includingcollaboration with YTJ, had delivered goods for victims for seven times in total.