KONE Sustainability Report 2017

KONE 2017 | SUSTAINABILITY REPORT Providing the most sustainable offering 2 7 QUALITY AT KONE Quality is an integral part of KONE’s culture and embedded into all our pro- cesses. We work continuously to improve the quality of our products and services throughout the equipment and building life cycle. We want to deliver consistent high quality to make people’s journeys safe, convenient and reliable. We look at all our operations from our customers’ point of view and this is also visible in our targets and key perfor- mance indicators for quality. Ratings show that quality is among the top reasons for choosing KONE as a partner. At KONE, everyone is responsible for the quality of their own work. We encour- age people to adopt a “quality starts with me” attitude. Good, solid working practices help us deliver world-class products and ser- vices. If there is an issue regarding quality, we investigate the root causes and take immediate action to solve it. We support our employees so that they have the skills to solve quality issues in the most effective way possible. We give practical guidance to our employees and provide them with effective and easy- to-use problem solving tools. Employees are actively encouraged to take part in improving product quality and processes through an idea management system and Kaizen continuous improvement practices. Positive feedback on quality At KONE, we have a systematic way of col- lecting customer feedback through cus- tomer loyalty and transactional surveys. In addition, we for example also measure the ride comfort of our equipment, accuracy of deliveries and percentage of defect-free units. We also analyze data from different sources to improve our own performance and enable smooth journeys for the people using our equipment. Our net promoter score has developed favorably for several years. In our annual global customer loyalty survey, we have received continued positive feedback on product and maintenance quality and cus- tomer service. Solution creation quality KONE’s new solutions go through sev- eral quality and reliability gates before they qualify to be released to produc- tion. This process is applied to all prod- ucts from electrification and mechanics to software. Quality in manufacturing and delivery KONE continuously improves its delivery chain in terms of quality, responsiveness, and efficiency. In 2017, we implemented a new manufacturing execution system in our escalator factory in China and in our elec- trification factory in Finland. KONE also continued its 10X better factory program aimed to further enhance the quality of our in-house production and support har- monization of process control activities in production lines. Read more about KONE’s supply chain operations on page 40–41. KONE pays special attention to ensur- ing our suppliers have excellent manufac- turing processes and process controls in place. We audit all of the main suppliers that deliver direct materials to KONE distribution centers or factories on a regular basis. KONE’s installation process qual- ity enables us to monitor the installation quality at different stages of the process. We take corrective action if needed during installation and conduct thorough quality tests to monitor the outcome. Maintenance quality KONE develops a unique maintenance plan for each piece of equipment. Each technical module is maintained at appro- priate intervals. This enhances quality and end user safety, and minimizes equip- ment downtime. Clear procedures for call handling, strong, real-time support from the KONE Customer Care Center and detailed reporting and quality control on every site visit strive to guarantee quality in everything we do. About 50 training hours per person per year give KONE ser- vice technicians the latest technical know- how of the equipment they maintain. KONE’s 24/7 Connected Services, launched in 2017, sets new standards for customer service. Using IBM Watson IoT platform enables KONE elevator data to be monitored and analyzed to improve equipment performance. These cloud- based services enable us to deliver faster, smarter and more personalized support for our customers worldwide. The services also enable vast amounts of data from elevator sensors to be moni- tored, analyzed and displayed in real-time, improving equipment performance, relia- bility and safety. Developing quality together with our suppliers KONE’s supplier development and sup- plier quality management function con- tinuously strives to coach our suppliers to implement best practice quality man- agement methods in their factories. This includes the implementation of process quality control points in manufacturing lines to check specific product and process characteristics that are considered critical to the end product’s quality. When new KONE products or changes to our products are implemented, KONE’s supplier operations project managers follow up the implementation with the suppliers’ quality and production managers. This helps ensure that aspects related to prod- uct and process quality are taken care of and KONE’s requirements are met from day one. When suppliers make changes to their products or processes affecting products delivered to KONE, they need to inform KONE about these changes. On a case-by-case basis, KONE’s sup- plier quality engineers evaluate what kind of evidence is requested in order to check that the change is made in a controlled manner. To develop our cooperation with our suppliers, during 2017 we have bench- marked the automotive industry. As a result, KONE will for example implement KDA audits (VDA6.3), the German automotive industry quality standard. With these audits we will help our suppliers to improve for example their project management, manu- facturing quality control, supplier manage- ment and customers claim management. We have also renewed KONE supplier audit content and these new audits will be fully in place in 2018. Another key element that will improve our performance is the implemen- tation of a mistake proofing method, which will help prevent and detect mistakes before they negatively impact our customers. During the reporting period, we also created a distribution center quality audit process and it was implemented in our dis- tribution centers in China and Italy.