Social Responsibility
Policy
PERFORMANCE
DURABILITY
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
INTRODUCTION
This document outlines our company-wide approach to making both our products and our activities
more environmentally friendly, as well as the efforts we have made (and continue to make) to give
our customers an unrivalled level of quality and service, to ensure a better working environment for
our employees and to support our local community wherever we can.
Part one of this document looks at all the organizational measures we have carried out to achieve
these goals, with particular emphasis on the work we have done to refine our production process. Part
two, meanwhile, highlights the steps we have taken to ensure that our world-beating range of materials handling equipment consists of some of the cleanest and 'greenest' lift trucks anywhere.
CONTENT
OUR ORGANIZATION
OUR PRODUCT RANGE
- Customer satisfaction
- Emissions levels
- Total quality orientation
- Noise and vibration levels
- Working towards tomorrow
- Hydraulic oil
- Environment
- Eco-settings on diesel trucks
- Developing our staff
- Truck recycling
- Health and safety
- Into the future
- Award winning employer
- Sponsoring the local community
- Emissions reduction
CONCLUSION
- Cutting down on waste
- Streamlining transport
- Into the future
2
PART I
OUR
ORGANIZATION
In general terms, we follow the corporate social responsibility policies and values set out by our parent company, the MHI group, which have been translated into the following core values for all of the
production activities at its counterbalanced lift truck plant in Almere, The Netherlands.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
TOTAL QUALITY ORIENTATION
For us, the customer always comes first and their
complete satisfaction is our top priority.
We maintain high safety and environmental standards in our production process, delivering best-inclass quality with reliable and flexible lead times.
TOGETHER WE CREATE TOMORROW
To make sure these values are adhered to,
we have implemented an integrated management system which meets or exceeds all
the requirements and principles of:
Agreed annual departmental and individual
targets, with particular emphasis on quality,
safety & environmental improvements and the
prevention of pollution
Quality standards such as ISO 9001
The environmental management standard set
out in ISO 14001
Our managers lead by example, inspiring our workforce to ever higher standards of quality and teamwork and ensuring we always act with complete
integrity with both our business partners and our
customers.
Local legislation.
MHI's corporate social responsibility guidelines.
The J-SOX financial reporting standard.
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ENVIRONMENT
DEVELOPING OUR STAFF
As part of our ISO 14001 certification (achieved in
July 2002), we committed ourselves to setting targets and implementing measures to reduce our impact on the environment and to monitoring and
measuring our progress in this respect on an ongoing basis.
Our staff is important to us and, as part of each
employee's annual appraisal process, every individual's strengths and skills are continuously reviewed
in a Personal Development Plan. Generic and specific training is subsequently applied to enhance
each employee's skills, competence and job satisfaction.
These targets are incorporated into business plans
for our various departments, along with key performance indicators that let us measure and monitor our progress along the way.
One good example is the significant reduction in
waste and hydrocarbons we have achieved in the
production of lift trucks in recent years, as illustrated in the following table:
Year
Overall
waste
(kg/truck)
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
258
225
221
208
209
249
301
Non-recyclable
waste
(kg/truck)
16,2
15,4
10,8
9,2
9,0
9,0
3,8
Since it is often difficult to find the right qualifications in the open job market, we have also set up
our own in-company training facility. Different
training programs are offered there, some catering
for new apprentices coming directly from school;
others tailored to existing staff. Apprentices will be
given basic training in welding, painting or assembly. All kinds of training in several modules is
given within the company training centre for all
employees to secure the basic knowledge and skill
level. After a period of on-the-job training, each
employee can pick an area of specialization and
will then be entered into a modular training program designed to refine their skills in their chosen
area.
There are, however, many other ways apart from
this in which we have improved our factory's sustainability and reduced our environmental impact,
both in terms of process and human resources. We
believe in stimulating and creating awareness .
This will lead to responsibility and prevention.
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HEALTH AND SAFETY
AWARD WINNING EMPLOYER
We have an excellent site safety record at Almere
and actively stimulate safety awareness among
both shop-floor workers and management on a
continuous basis to help ensure the safety of all our
staff and visitors. Daily safety reviews are held at
each of the production line workstations, where
supervisors present and discuss all the key issues
on a regular basis.
We're also very keen to protect the health of our
staff, so we have invested in streamlining our assembly line to make it thoroughly ergonomic from reducing the distances staff need to walk to
collect vital components to installing a state-of-theart overhead conveyor for our chassis line that rotates the chassis as required to avoid staff having to
work at awkward angles. Vitality and prevention
are important ingredients that have led to a lower
illness ratio.
Our company was named 'Enterprise of the Year
2008' by the City of Almere in recognition of our
role as one of the region's biggest employers, with
over 650 staff on the payroll.
Among the reasons given by the judges in selecting
us for this prestigious award was the fact that we
have expanded production capacity in Almere with
a new production line, preferring to invest in The
Netherlands rather than following the 'herd' in relocating to lower-cost production facilities on the
other side of the world. We took this decision in
order to retain maximum possible control of quality and also to reduce the transport emissions associated with the manufacture and delivery of its
products.
The judges were also impressed by the level of
investment we had made in staff training and development, both within the in-house training facility and via other local training organizations.
In 2010 our company was nominated in the Province of Flevoland for the best “Training/Learning
Company”.
SPONSORING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
For many years, we have sponsored activities in
the community, including the local football team
and local theatre.
We're proud of being one of the biggest employers
in Almere and proud of the region we're based in,
so it makes perfect sense for us to support our local
community in this way.
We have a very good cooperation with the local
school (ROC) to develop their technical subjects/
topics.
5
EMISSIONS REDUCTION
We have dramatically reduced emissions of hydrocarbons and other hazardous materials in the production of its lift trucks.
For the protection of our masts, we use a dry,
powder coating process free of hydrocarbons
used in paints.
For the protection of our chassis, we use 'high
solidity' paint which means we use 30% less
paint overall and have also cut down on the
use of solvents.
For cleaning equipment used in the painting
process, we regenerate 90% of the Thinners
used to reduce chemical waste.
Where Chrome is used (anti corrosion), we
have switched from Chromium VI materials
to alternatives wherever possible.
CUTTING DOWN ON WASTE
STREAMLINING TRANSPORT
Several years ago, we introduced a waste management initiative to cut down on the amount of waste
we produce and increase the quantity of materials
we recycle.
Our company has also made great efforts to reduce
the number of heavy goods vehicles employed for
lift truck deliveries to dealers and customers and to
reduce the total distance travelled by inbound raw
materials and components.
Among the measures we have taken to achieve this
goal was a switch from using disposable, one-trip
pallets to high quality wooden pallets from a pallet
pool. This reduces the quantity of wood needed to
get the parts to the factory, as pallets are always
reused. We have also invested in the use of returnable plastic pallets in other parts of the operation
which last much longer than wooden equivalents,
to further reduce our impact on natural resources.
On top of this, we have worked hard with our suppliers to cut down on the amount of individual
component packaging they use when sending us
the parts and materials we need. Fasteners, for instance, are no longer packaged at all but supplied
to us in reusable plastic bins; and we now get our
suppliers to group kits of mixed parts together in
just the right quantities for particular production
operations, rather than supplying them all in individual packages and in greater quantities than are
needed.
Wherever possible, we will consolidate outbound
loads to ensure goods vehicles are only dispatched
when full, reducing the so-called 'empty running'
that wastes lorry capacity and increases emissions
per tone carried. For inbound deliveries, meanwhile, we have established a 'milk run' in which
our goods vehicles visit several suppliers in turn
around Europe before returning to deliver them
into our plant at Almere - dramatically reducing the
total distances travelled.
We have also sought to source materials and components as locally as possible, cutting down on the
sourcing of parts from the Far East in favour of
local European suppliers and even investing in
equipment like laser, plasma and flame cutting
machines so that we can manufacture as many
parts as possible within the Almere factory itself,
rather than relying on outside sources. Rear axle
and engine assembly, for example, are now both
carried out fully on site.
6
INTO THE FUTURE
We are in full compliance with the requirements of regulation 1907/2006/EG for the Registration, Evaluation
and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH). This calls for us to limit the quantity of hazardous materials used
in our lift trucks and ensure that such materials cannot escape out into the environment during a truck's normal
working life.
We are committed to meeting and exceeding regulatory standards in the future, taking whatever actions
we can to ensure our operations continue to demonstrate high standards of environmental responsibility.
7
PART II
OUR
PRODUCTS
Continuous innovation and the introduction of new technologies have helped make our lift trucks
among the cleanest and greenest in the world.
EMISSIONS LEVELS
NOISE AND VIBRATION LEVELS
All our trucks comply with European Union Directive 2000/14/EC on noise levels and we always
endeavor to achieve the lowest possible noise and
vibration levels in its products beyond such standards, both to make drivers more comfortable and
to keep general site noise to a minimum for our
customers.
HYDRAULIC OIL
All our lift trucks are manufactured in compliance
with the applicable European Union regulations on
emissions. Diesel powered trucks, for instance, are
produced in compliance with Stage IIIA of the EC
exhaust emissions Directive 97/68/EC (as
amended).
Continuous development is ongoing in cooperation
with our parent MHI to ensure we continue to comply with all future European emissions legislation
and, in particular, that we are ready for the forthcoming regulations on emissions due in 2012.
All our trucks also comply with the requirements
of the European Union Machinery Directive
2006/42/EC, ensuring our products can be used
safely without posing any unnecessary risk, as well
as the requirements of European Union Directive
2004/108/EC on electromagnetic compatibility,
which means our trucks will not interfere with
other equipment nearby or be affected by electromagnetic emissions from such machinery.
The optional available biodegradable hydraulic oil
provides class-leading performance for our customers while helping them to meet their environmental targets. The oil can be used in environmentally sensitive areas such as waterways and harbors
as it is rapidly broken down by micro-organisms,
helping to minimize any impact on the environment.
ECO-SETTINGS ON DIESEL TRUCKS
Our diesel trucks now feature a switch that can be
used to reduce the overall power used. Operating
with these 'eco-settings' can reduce fuel consumption by 12% and noise levels by 3dB(A), cutting
the truck's carbon dioxide emissions drastically and
making the working environment more peaceful.
8
TRUCK RECYCLING
CONCLUSION
Since the majority of material used in a modern lift
truck is steel, a high level of recycling is possible
at the end of a truck's life and we are fully committed to maximizing the amount of recycling that
actually takes place.
Our company takes the environment very
seriously and we look forward to carrying
on with the process of continuous refinement, both on the production line and in
our products, to ensure that we remain one
of the leading provider of the cleanest,
greenest, best quality trucks anywhere on
the market - and at the forefront of best
practice in protecting our environment.
INTO THE FUTURE
We are constantly improving and innovating in our
product range, investing large sums into research
and development to ensure our lift trucks continue
to lead the field, both in terms of performance and
environmental impact.
Key aspects such as reducing fuel usage, using
alternative energy sources and recyclability are all
kept under constant review. With minor modifications, our diesel trucks can already be run on a biofuel mix and we are also actively considering the
use of hybrid diesel-electric technology and alternative fuels in the future.
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YOUR PARTNER IN MATERIALS HANDLING
OEFC1187 (March / 11) © 2009 MCFE B.V. All rights reserved.
Hefbrugweg 77. 1332AM . Almere . The Netherlands.
CAT,, CATERPILLAR their respective logos, ‘Caterpillar yellow’ and the
‘Power Edge’ trade dress, as well as corporate and product identity used herein,
are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.