Pursuit of High Quality

In early days of our history, Fuji Photo Film, the predecessor of the Fujifilm Group, repeated trials and errors to develop photographic films and improve the manufacturing process by making use of its own technologies. As a result, the company succeeded in providing the market with photographic films comparable to those made overseas in terms of quality.

In recovering business after the end of the Second World War, the company adopted the statistical quality control approach from the United States ahead of others to provide the market with photographic films having the world’s top-level quality. It also conducted the total quality control (TQC) activity. In recognition of these efforts, the company received the Deming Prize in 1956, being appreciated for its comprehensive quality control activities which were conducted in line with the management philosophy and business environment.

Subsequently in the 1990s, our production department acquired the ISO 9001 certification and in 2003 we began introducing an integrated management system consist of quality, environment, occupational health and safety, and information security gradually to our sales and staff departments and also to our affiliates. We are aiming to be higher quality of the management style through an extending system to cover development, production, quality assurance, and marketing with each of our business divisions to improve operational process and outcome.

Since the latter half of the 1990s, FUJIFILM has been applying the base technologies that had accumulated in the fields of photographic sensitive materials and xerography to create new business in response to the progress of digitization. In developing new business and products, the company judges not only their quality achievement but their environmental performance and safety, legal compliance and customer’s requirement at each stage gate of the development process from planning to final product review (figure below). The company thus ensures high quality also in the fields of highly functional materials, (*1) optical devices and systems, (*2) and information systems and solutions, (*3) in addition to the fields of photographic films.

Also in the field of generic drugs, in which FUJIFILM began participating in April 2010, the company ensures the safety of its products to customers based on the recognition that the quality of pharmaceuticals could give great impact on human lives. Specifically, FUJIFILM manages the quality of raw materials, the manufacturing process and design, and products released in the market, applying its expertise in quality control systems.

*1 Field of highly functional materials: Flat panel displays, semiconductors, recording media, cosmetics and life science

*2 Field of optical devices and systems: medical life science-related devices

*3 Information systems and solutions: document solutions and digital imaging