Toray Industries, Inc. disclosed that its subsidiary, Toray Hybrid Cord, Inc. (THC) has falsified data that was provided in inspection reports to thirteen of its customers.
Toray will now investigate the operations of the entire group. At present, no legal violations or other problems relating to product safety have been found.
Between April 2008 and July 2016, THC falsified data in inspection reports for parts of products that were manufactured in its factory headquarters before being provided to customers, including car parts manufacturers, felt makers for paper production and tire manufacturers.
The products involved are tire cords, cords for car hose belts and cords for paper making. 149 out of approximately 40,000 data entries investigated were falsified to fall within the standards set in contracts with customers.
Toray is currently reporting this issue to customers, but has not received any reports of problems in regard to the performance and safety of products concerned.
In order to prevent a reoccurrence of this incident, THC’s quality guarantee system was changed in 2016.
Once the details of the incident are fully determined, it will decide as to how employees responsible for the data overwriting should be disciplined.