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Kobe Steel Will Automate Quality Reports

Kobe Steel Ltd. says it will spend about 10 billion yen ($88 million) to set up a quality control division and automate key inspection systems in the wake of scandals involving falsified data.

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Kobe Steel Ltd. says it will spend about 10 billion yen ($88 million) to set up a quality control division and automate key inspection systems in the wake of scandals involving falsified data.

The company, also known as Kobelco, will set up automatic systems where possible to replace manual-entry procedures, starting with aluminum, copper and stainless steel operations that have been tainted by the data manipulation scandal. When automation isn’t possible, multiple employees will record the data.

At the same time, Kobe plans to update several factories to improve their yield rates and initial quality results. The new quality control unit, which will begin on Jan. 1, will have authority to inspect each of the company’s operations.

In early October Kobe revealed that four of its aluminum and copper plants in Japan had been falsifying performance data for at least a year. Within days the company found nearly a dozen more facilities, including some outside Japan, that had manipulated quality data affecting all its major product lines and materials.​​​

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