KOBE Steel Ltd. said Friday a lack of quality controls and a focus on profits was behind the widespread data tampering that has shaken up the supply chains of car and plane makers around the world. Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, which has posted losses in the last two business years, promised to automate more of its operations and reorganize its quality control systems to recover from one of the nation’s biggest corporate scandals. The 112-year-old company admitted last month that workers had tampered with product specifications, causing global automakers, aircraft manufacturers and other companies to check whether the safety or performance of their products had been compromised. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. Kobe Steel was ordered last month by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to provide a detailed explanation of the data cheating and say what steps it would take to prevent future abuses. “Improving our management and corporate governance and instilling a culture where employees can say anything are imperative,” CEO Hiroya Kawasaki said at a press briefing after submitting its report to the government. “This is my utmost priority,” he said. Kawasaki said his “ultimate management responsibility” will be decided after recently appointed outside investigators report back to the company. “Given the magnitude of the scandal, we expect upper management to get the boot,” Thanh Ha Pham, an analyst at Jefferies in Tokyo, said Friday, without saying when that might happen. (SD-Agencies) |