Initiatives from the customer’s perspective
Initiatives targeting safety and security
Earth Corporation conducts a variety of initiatives throughout the entire value chain of product development, material procurement, production, distribution, and sales, to reduce environmental impact and create a recycling oriented society. These initiatives include preventing global warming, reducing the use of resources, reducing waste materials, and reducing and appropriately managing chemical substances.
*Pinch out to zoom in.1. Design
Using a unique approach to the measurement of concentrations in the air assuming the customers’ actual usage conditions, we design products with the appropriate volumes of appropriate components, to ensure both effectiveness and safety.
2. Formulation evaluations
We conduct a variety of toxicity tests to guarantee safety. We also comply with various laws*, including the Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices and the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act.
3. Production
Process standards are set based on design quality. We guarantee safety and quality by conducting tests in accordance with those standards, and shipping only products that pass those tests.
4. Use
We place an emphasis on safety, with easy-to-read displays and product explanations that include functions for preventing incorrect use. We have put in place functions to prevent incorrect use by children in the home.
*E.g., the Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices (formerly the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act), the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act, the Act on the Regulation of Manufacture and Evaluation of Chemical Substances, the Act on the Assessment of Releases of Specified Chemical Substances in the Environment and the Promotion of Management Improvement, and the High Pressure Gas Safety Act
R&D
Product development that benefit people: Development of Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT
Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT, which was released in December 2022, is a pest repellent that contains the new active ingredient Tenebenal®. Tenebenal® is an insecticide with a new mode of action; in addition to being highly effective against a variety of pests, a single treatment maintains its repellent effect for as long as one year. Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT is the world’s first household pest repellent to use Tenebenal®. The harm that pests bring to people’s lives has become a serious social issue throughout the world. By developing other products using Tenebenal®, starting with the development of Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT, Earth Corporation will contribute to improving quality of life for people throughout the world.
(1) Surprising characteristics of Tenebenal®
Tenebenal®, developed by Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc., is a pest repellent with a new mode of action unlike anything discovered in the last 50 years. In addition to unpleasant pests, it has proven to be highly effective against cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes, and other sanitary pests that are resistant to existing insecticides. Earth was among the first to recognize the strengths of Tenebenal®, as we discovered its surprising durability, maintaining its repellent effects for up to one year after a single treatment. With new products that leverage these characteristics, customers will be able to control pests for long periods of after a single use.
(2) Combinations with Earth Corporation’s product technologies
In order to demonstrate the unique characteristics of Tenebenal® in actual customers’ lifestyle scenarios, the product must reach every corner of a room in a single use. Earth Corporation spent seven years in R&D combining the new effective ingredient Tenebenal® with agents cultivated within the company, creating a pest repellent that allows anyone to easily achieve “one year of effectiveness at once.”
(3) Usage testing in homes with pests
We visited the homes of consumers who are suffering every day from infestations of cockroaches, bed bugs and other highly resistant pests, and tested the effectiveness of the completed product. As a result, we found that even pests which could not be completely eliminated even with multiple treatments using existing products could be completely eliminated with just a single treatment. The residents were extremely grateful, as the pests did not return even after more than a year. We also confirmed similar effects in the case of ants and various other harmful insects. These results were presented at academic society meetings, and the effectiveness has been confirmed by professionals, including researchers and professional exterminators.
(4) Phase 1: Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT
We released Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT as Phase 1 to deliver a revolutionary pest repellent product that combines ease of use and surprising effectiveness to consumers as quickly as possible. With a single use, this product can eliminate ants and other pests for as long as one year.
(5) Improving living environments for people around the world
Harm brought about by pests has become a serious social problem throughout the world; for example, infections resulting from mosquitoes and other disease-bearing insects, and damage to living environments resulting from repellent-resistant pests such as cockroaches, bed bugs, and invasive ants. To resolve a variety of social issues caused by these pests, we will develop various products using Tenebenal®, including pharmaceuticals and quasi-drugs, starting with the Iyana Mushi ZEROdeKNIGHT, and contribute to improving quality of life for people throughout the world.
Earth Shiramitori Lotion (for lice): Product development that contributes to a safe, secure, insecticide-free society
Earth Shiramitori Lotion (for lice), released in August 2021, is the first lice repellent product to be approved in Japan in the last 40 years. Earth Shiramitori Lotion (for lice) was developed to help children suffering from head lice. Here, we will describe how this product was developed.
(1) Survey of head lice sufferers
In 2022 in Okinawa, head lice was a serious problem, from which many children had been suffering for some time. Most of these head lice were resistant to insecticides, so there were no head lice repellent shampoos in existence.
(2) Taking on the challenge of insecticide-free products
In Western countries, insecticide-free lice repellents were being developed and used to deal with head lice resistant to pyrethroid insecticidal agents, which had become a problem around the world. Earth Corporation focused its attention on Dimethicone, the active ingredient in these products. The lice repellents used overseas, however, were far from comfortable to use; they were sticky, or left the user’s hair feeling dried out.
(3) Attention to outstanding comfort for users
Earth Corporation’s R&D team selected several dozen types of ingredients and conducted thorough research, finally completing a lice-repellent lotion using Dimethicone that offered outstanding comfort for users.
(4) Clinical trials beginning at universities
We visited Okinawa with the final formulation, where there were many children suffering from head lice. In Okinawa, clinical trials began with the cooperation of the University of the Ryukyus Faculty of Medicine.
(5) To see the smiling faces of Okinawa children
As a result, the lice disappeared from almost all of the children’s heads, demonstrating that the product was effective even in the case of resistant head lice. It was so effective, in fact, that the doctors in charge of the clinical trial said that they would like to see the product released to the market as quickly as possible.
(6) The first new effective ingredient in 40 years
In this way, with the clear effects and safety proven, Dimethicone became the first new active ingredient to be approved as a lice repellent in Japan in 40 years.
(7) Earth Shiramitori Lotion (for lice)
Earth Shiramitori Lotion (for lice) was developed from the customer’s perspective, combining Earth Corporation’s R&D expertise, to create a safe, secure, insecticide-free product that is useful to people.
Basic approaches to intellectual property
Earth Corporation strives to achieve competitive superiority by actively securing rights for the results obtained through R&D activities. We also maintain and use rights including patents and designs that are profitable for the company.
*Pinch out to zoom in.Quality assurance
(1) Attention to safety for testing staffs during product testing, testing systems, and increased efficiency
Raw materials are evaluated based on appropriate testing items and methods. Product tests cover both legally required test items and product functions.
During these tests, we strive for the automation of processing operations targeting organic agents and samples where large volumes can be tested at once, to ensure the reliability of tests, the efficiency of operations, and the safety of testing staffs.
For example, the Products Quality Assurance Department deals directly with outside machinery manufacturers in the design, production, and operation of automated processing equipment for samples used to measure the component volumes of active ingredients in Onpo bath tablets, in accordance with Earth’s original test descriptions. In this way, we are able to secure greater reliability, efficiency, and productivity, while at the same time reducing waste materials and the volumes of organic agents used during testing.
Ease of opening the Mondahmin cap
・Quantify torque for opening the cap
・Confirm ease of opening the cap using the same method as the customer would use
(2) Final product and usage testing from the customer’s perspective
We make every effort to ensure that products can be used with peace of mind, for example by incorporating test items that assume the customers’ actual usage conditions.
In-house study meetings
(3) Securing continued product safety and security
Our products are produced based on the Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, and other relevant laws. To maintain quality, regular study meetings and quality audits are conducted for the Products Quality Assurance Department and production divisions at in-house plants, and quality audits are also conducted for production subcontractors in Japan and overseas to build close collaboration structures and trust relationships through quality improvements. We share our approach to quality assurance based on the customer’s perspective, and put it to use in production activities. We also strive to improve product quality by conducting surveys of comments and requests sent to the Customer Service Department, and providing feedback to design and production divisions.
To prevent the falsification of test data, we have set up log-in restrictions and passwords in the system that handles the creation and management of test device and performance documentation (the quality control system), and ensure the reliability of data through a series of checks using an audit tracing function.
Initiatives aimed at improving quality at plants
Air shower for completely removing dust
With regard to plant sanitation management, we leverage the strengths of the sanitation management business at Earth Environmental Service Co., Ltd. to implement harmful insect and rodent countermeasures. We have combined a variety of other measures as well, including hair nets, adhesive sheets, and clothing appropriate to each workplace.
On production lines, we conduct contaminants inspections using visual and camera inspections as well as metal detectors, to provide better products to customers safely and securely. Safety and sanitation patrols are also conducted regularly by managers and industrial physicians. We hold plant tours for employees’ family members, to encourage autonomous improvements to the work environment.
Meanwhile, plants collaborate with the Products Quality Assurance Department through quality control study meetings and quality audit report meetings, to strengthen initiatives aimed at increasing quality.
Thorough attention to the customer’s perspective
From the Customer Consultation Office to the “Customer Service Department”
In April 2021, we changed the name of the Customer Consultation Office to the Customer Service Department. When customers raise issues that they are facing in their day-to-day lives, those opinions are put to use in product development, underpinning our efforts to make customers’ lives even more comfortable. The change in the division name is an expression of our intent to undertake these efforts, from a front-line perspective.
It can often be painful to hear what the customer has to say, particularly when they point out our flaws, but even these negative comments represent things that the customer has noticed, so we will apply these suggestions in new product development and improvements to existing products, so that customers are not inconvenienced in the future.