For more than 60 years, Pigeon has continued to challenge the norms when it comes to nursing bottles. Our understanding of the mechanism of lactation allowed us to develop wide-mouthed, slim shaped artificial nipples that were ahead of the times and have now become mainstream products. To encourage smoother, more natural feeding, we make every effort to reproduce the shape of a mother’s breast so that these nipples fit the baby’s mouth perfectly.

It is difficult to make silicone – the main material used in Pigeon’s nipples – both soft and durable. Softer, more flexible silicone makes it easier for babies to drink, but is also less durable, which led us to engage in repeated research and prototyping in cooperation with our suppliers to develop silicone materials with different formulations for each age group. Accumulated research also prompted us to adjust the thickness from the teat to the bottom of the product for better drinkability (babies’ natural sucking motion) and durability.

Mass production is the final stage in a process that begins with product design and involves a great deal of verification and prototyping, and the need to maintain a high level of functionality and durability while also ensuring productivity at the factory means that the development and improvement of a single nursing bottle can take many years.

In order to ensure the safety of each and every nipple we produce, we conduct the same quality inspections at all of our factories, ensuring that our products meet our own strict quality control standards in addition to official standards such as EU and JIS standards.

The quality inspection regime at our factories checks more than 15 aspects of each artificial nipple for defects. Special measuring equipment is used to assess functional aspects such as mold size, sucking hole, ventilation valve and elasticity, and external visual inspections are conducted using a magnifying glass rather than relying only on a machine. Our staff check for foreign objects, dust, resin overflow, and missing parts, and remove any dust protruding resin by hand.

Each Pigeon artificial nipple has small laser-engraved letters and numbers on its base that indicate when, where, and at what time it was made. This allows us to quickly trace the manufacturing history of our products when receiving inquiries from customers.

In order to ensure the safety of each and every nipple we produce, we conduct the same quality inspections at all of our factories, ensuring that our products meet our own strict quality control standards in addition to official standards such as EU and JIS standards.

The quality inspection regime at our factories checks more than 15 aspects of each artificial nipple for defects. Special measuring equipment is used to assess functional aspects such as mold size, sucking hole, ventilation valve and elasticity, and external visual inspections are conducted using a magnifying glass rather than relying only on a machine. Our staff check for foreign objects, dust, resin overflow, and missing parts, and remove any dust protruding resin by hand.

With production sites in Japan, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Turkey and India, Pigeon aims to become the number one baby product manufacturer in the world. We have established our own quality standard, the PQS (Pigeon Quality Standard) to ensure that our products are always of the same quality around the globe, regardless of the environmental and cultural differences that exist in each region.

Factory workers have different values depending on their environment and culture, and they often question why we need to maintain such strict standards for safety, hygiene, and usability. To maintain and improve quality over the long term at all or facilities, our staff must understand the context behind our strict requirements rather than simply learning them by rote.

At Pigeon, we believe that it is people who create superior quality, and even though we use the most advanced technology, we do not rely solely on machines. Rather, each of our staff members take the needs of babies and their families into consideration as they work to devise ways to improve safety. This is something we consider to be a strength of Pigeon and shows the love we put into our products.