SONY Green Partner Program

K

keyplas - 2006

Has ANYONE (and I mean anyone) had to go through this ridiculous excersise? I am currently starting it and it honestly seems like a load of
%$#& .... If you have been through this and can point out a shortcut or two I would greatly appreciate it!! :mad:
 

Randy

Super Moderator
What's wrong with it? If you want Sony money you'll have to dance to Sony music.

Sony procures parts and materials from a large number of companies worldwide for its global manufacturing activities. Sony has the same expectations of its suppliers regardless of their location:

1. Work as an equal partner
Sony respects each supplier as an independent company working on an equal basis with Sony. Sony makes itself fully accessible to suppliers that can function as true partners by working together in building relationships based on mutual trust.

2. Comply with laws, regulations and social standards
Sony's goals involve more than the supply of products that give customers satisfaction. Sony also works to meet the expectations of customers by being a good corporate citizen that adheres to the laws, regulations and social standards of countries around the world. Because of this, Sony is uncompromising in its demand that all suppliers strictly comply with laws, regulations and social standards (including the protection of employee rights and the prohibition of child and forced labor.).

3. Maintain sound financial and operating bases
Sony believes that procurement activities should be conducted on a continuous basis. A sound financial base is essential for suppliers to provide an uninterrupted supply of parts and materials. This is especially important from a supply chain management point of view. Sony therefore asks suppliers to provide information on management policies and operations (including their financial statements.)

4. Conduct environmental program
Environmental conservation is one of the central elements of Sony's management policies. Sony sees the effective management of materials and processes as a crucial part of a supplier's operations. This management system is called "upstream control" and helps to reduce the impact on the environment of both suppliers and Sony.

When signing a deal with a new supplier, and regularly thereafter, Sony inspects suppliers to verify that they meet Sony environmental standards. Suppliers are required to qualify as Green Partners through an audit based on the "Sony Green Partner Environmental Quality Approval Program."

5. Develop new technology
Sony must constantly work on developing new technology to supply products that give customers a sense of excitement, joy and satisfaction. Suppliers that wish to become Sony partners must have the technological skills needed to create the new technology and parts that Sony requires. Partners are also expected to be able to merge their own skills with those of Sony to create unique technological capabilities that generate new value.

6. Utilize e-commerce
Relationships with suppliers involve the rapid exchange and sharing of large volumes of information to enable transactions to be performed efficiently and effectively. Sony employs e-commerce, through the Internet and other networks, for this purpose. Sony therefore requires all suppliers to be e-commerce ready.

7. Maintain required quality standards
The quality of parts and materials provided by suppliers has a significant effect on Sony products, with high-quality parts and materials having a major role to play in the creation of high-quality Sony products. Sony believes that suppliers can produce parts and materials that meet required standards only when suitable quality assurance programs are in place. Prior to signing a deal with a new supplier, and regularly thereafter, Sony therefore conducts audits of suppliers' quality assurance programs.

8. Offer reasonable prices
The prices of parts and materials provided by suppliers have a major impact on the cost competitiveness of Sony products. Sony therefore expects suppliers to offer items at highly competitive prices and make concerted efforts to steadily reduce prices.

9. Cooperate with supply chain management and maintain a reliable supply
Sony is linked to its suppliers through the respective supply chain of each Sony product. Each supply chain must be capable of producing items in a timely and efficient manner in order to rapidly respond to shifts in customer demands. The inability to do so could prevent Sony and its suppliers from succeeding in the marketplace. Sony therefore expects suppliers to be in close contact at all times to carefully supervise delivery dates and to supply parts and materials in a highly flexible fashion.

10. Retain a competitive edge going forward
Sony and its suppliers, through the products and operating activities of the Sony Group, must be able to continuously generate value for the future that customers find appealing. Sony expects its suppliers to formulate a corporate philosophy and implement measures designed to create this value, based on the supplier's own management policy and the guidance outlined in the 9 items above.
 
K

keyplas - 2006

All fine and good BUT

Not to sound like an A hole but copying that blurb from the sony website doesn't impress anything upon me, I have that statement (in english, japanese and german) and if you read into it what it says is this, Sony wants to be the global leader in environmental lobbying, at the expense of their suppliers. As a green partner you have to qualify all of your raw material suppliers (meaning you have to go to your suppliers find out who their suppliers are and qualify the material content and ALSO get them to commit to being a GP with Sony) SO basically the supplier does all the leg work and sony comes out looking like the superstar. The part about equal partner is rubbish as your costs to maintain the GP certification is enormous (you have to qualify every single part (at it's raw material stage) at every lot/every three months (using either XRF - fast but expensive or Atomic Absorbsion - cheap but slow) so as a supplier who "wants to do business with Sony" what you get out of the deal is $0 profit because your testing costs soak up all of your margins. I thought maybe someone here may have (actually) been through this and could provide shortcuts through this system. Thanks anyway.
 

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
Personally I see nothing wrong with trying to minimize the effects of manufacturing on the environment, or any other activity for that matter. I applaud Sony for taking the initiative.
 
K

keyplas - 2006

I agree with lessening the effects on the environment , but doing it at the expense of your suppliers and their suppliers and their suppliers and so on seems a bit like Sony isn't actually doing anything other than writing a nice document and enforcing it ...Example: I call Sony Ericsson yesterday to ask for material analysis data and the person on the other end wanted to know what the heck I need that for...I ask him "This is Sony right?" he answers "Well yeah who did you think you were talking to?" so iask him if he's a Sony GP, he replies "What's that?" So I describe it to him and he casually says, never heard of it, good for Sony...SO it seems that they are asking suppliers to do something that they themselves aren't willing to do...
Anyway I'll drop the subject as this seems to be outside of the realm of simply ISO14001 and look elsewhere...Thanks.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
OK, so I did a cut & paste, at least I'm smart enough to see that if your customer says "either do this or you don't get any money" I know that if I don't do it I won't get any money...DUH!!

Do you want their money? Yes or No? If it's yes, do what they ask and don't snivel about it. If the answer is no, then you guys are obviously doing so fantastic you don't need the business anyway, so why care?

What Sony is doing is well within the realm of ISO 14001 which you seem to not have that great of grasp on. If you did you wouldn't be puzzled, dumbfounded and lost with Sony's program.

As for Sony, they are not only trying to do what is right, the are also complying with the requirements of their national laws and the expectations of their nation as a whole regarding corporate environmental stewardship.

If your troubled by trying to function within the global economy you might ought to suggest that y'all stay a good place to make movies and visit during the season and step aside so that visionaries and folks with a realistic view can pass by.

Looking at your statement referencing your conversation, its amazing that your total view of Sony may be based on someone who may have been new, a temp, messing around or just stupid...
 
S

SilverHawk

Let's green the world!

I fully support Randy and Sony Green Procurement even though I do not have any direct dealing or business with Randy and/or Sony. But I am the beneficial to this world. This one and only green world.

If someone is try too save the world why not give a little helping hand and do our little part.

Keep it up Sony and Randy!
 
"Greening of the Supply Chain" has become more important now than in the past as more and more companies are outsourcing products and critical components. One of the key components of "Greening of the supply chain" is education and training - making the supplier understand the what, why and how of the environmental issues of products/parts and to make the supplier a real partner in progress.

Some of the views expressed by keyplas are typical - we all have gone/ and are going through such responses whenever we initiate such new programmes. In my opinion SONY should initiate a dialogue with keyplas to "buy him in" to the programme. Our interest finally is that our product does not pose any health or environmental problem while in use or at the end of life and that product related potential liabilities are eliminated or reduced. This cannot be done without suppier's involvement.

SONY spent almost 110 million Euros in 2002 because of the presence of Cadmium in plastics parts of its products sold in Europe (ref: Algemeen Dagblad, February 20, 2002); it has to avoid such things happening in the future...this cannot be done wihtout suppliers' involvement.

This issue is not for SONY alone but for all MNCs oursourcing their components and products. Being a person involved in "Greening the supply Chain", I can understand the difficulty involved in educating people on these issues inside and outside the company. We are not perfect..all our employees may not be aware of issues involved...but we have to take actions along with suppliers to reduce risk to the company. I fully appreciate the views expressed by Randy....many problems will be solved if all understand the importance of Customer-supplier relationships.
 
C

Craig H.

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan said:
SONY spent almost 110 million Euros in 2002 because of the presence of Cadmium in plastics parts of its products sold in Europe (ref: Algemeen Dagblad, February 20, 2002); it has to avoid such things happening in the future...this cannot be done wihtout suppliers' involvement.

Doctor:

If I may expand on this idea some?

I am by no means well versed in the environmental side of management systems. That said, in my mind I compare those systems to a good purchasing system - total cost vs. acquired cost.

In the U.S., we have places called "superfund" sites. These are sites that used to be factories, refineries, etc., that are contaminated and come under the EPA superfund umbrella. I'm sure Randy can tell us much more about those regulations - I've said about as much as I know already, except...

The cleanup costs are mind-boggling.

If we were to pick one of these sites, and amortize the cleanup costs on a per unit basis (per unit the factory produced), the per unit cost would go up. Way up. Even though the customers did not have to pay, someone does (taxpayers, of course).

And, the human costs, and the cost to the environment (how much is a racoon worth, or a bird?) are hard to determine.
 
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