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Renesas, a cutting-edge manufacturer of semiconductor devices, was founded by Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric in 2003. From the start, the company has actively used certification as a tool to unify and align the two former companies and create a new international network with efficient internal processes.
Microcomputers and memory chips are everywhere, even in places you wouldn’t expect, like cars, TVs and cell phones. Wherever computing power is needed chips can be found. After the merger in 2003, Renesas has become a global leader in this market. Currently number five in the world, Renesas is firmly established as the number one semiconductor manufacturer in Japan.
“We mainly produce semiconductor components for the communications, automotive, and consumer industries. Basically the components can be used anywhere where there are needs for electronics,” explains Hiroshi Sadohara, deputy general manager for the Quality Assurance division of the Renesas Technology Corporation.
Among Renesas’ customers are international companies such as Sony, Canon, Toyota, IBM, HP, Siemens, and Dell.
Motivation.
With the merger in 2003 of the two semiconductor groups, newly formed Renesas had to deal with two company cultures, different internal processes, and even different technical terminology. This was a challenge they addressed immediately.
“Our motivation for going through with the certification process was based on the goal of unifying the two companies: Hitachi and Mitsubishi electric semiconductor groups. We found that using international standards, such as ISO/TS 16949 on the automotive division and ISO 9001 for the other parts of the company, could help us in this process,” says Hiroshi Sadohara.
ISO/TS (technical specification) 16949 is a comprehensive quality system standard for the automotive industry. ISO 9001 is a generic certification standard for quality management systems, applicable to companies in any industry.
First steps.
The first step on the road to certification was to find the right partner to work with to achieve certification to the international ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949 standards.
"We researched certification bodies and found out that only a few international certification bodies are present in Japan,” says Hiroshi Sadohar. DNV brought its high reputation, competence and deep industry knowledge to the process.
Achievements.
The ISO/TS 16949 process began first, and Renesas achieved a joint certification for the entire company this year.
“The project was successful, as we achieved what we set out to do, and it has been carried further by our international sites in for example Europe, where some have switched certification partners,” explains Hiroshi Sadohara.
As a parallel project, the ISO 9001 certification process began.
“Here we have made several changes, but the biggest improvement for us has been to measure the Customer Satisfaction Index, which had not been done as thoroughly before. This is a demand of the ISO/TS process, and now every year we search all customer feedback and make improvements based on that. This has been very useful for us,” says Hiroshi Sadohara.
A clearer policy.
Another important improvement for Renesas was envisioned by the top management before the project began.
“Before we started we had many different policies in the quality area. The process of certification enabled us to create one single policy that is more clearly and more strongly formulated. We have also built our own Quality Assurance manual, based on the ISO and TS standards, which is actively used,” says Hiroshi Sadohara.
One unified company.
The plans for a continuous certification process are well established in Renesas, and more sites are aligning themselves with the corporate certification policy during this year and next.
“It is our policy to recommend how to proceed, but we don’t ask our production sites forcefully,” Hiroshi Sadohara explains.
As for the end result, Mr. Sadohara has little doubt that a unified company where everyone moves in the same direction is a clear benefit for Renesas.