Mattel Toy Recall Essay

Words: 2603
Pages: 11
Open Document
Executive Summary

Mattel has been criticized heavily for having to recall not once but thrice in 5 weeks 20 million toys manufactured in China with lead paint and/or loose, potentially dangerous magnets. Clearly Mattel does not have sufficiently tight quality control procedures in its supply chain to compensate for the extra risks of outsourcing to Chinese subcontractors and clearly there are design flaws in the toys with the magnets that could come loose. Although many observers give the company credit for responding to the crisis quickly with an apology from the CEO and pledges to institute more rigorous product safety checks, Mattel still faces a number of problems, including significant costs associated with the recalls and new …show more content…
Recommendations

Long-term quality assurance measures:

Quality assurance needs to cover all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation as well. Product quality and safety have their roots in the design process. Mattel must screen designs for a range of safety issues long before a part goes into production. For example, they could look for strangulation and suffocation, as well as part features that could pinch, cut or poke a child much before these designs hit the production floor.
Mattel needs a quality assurance process that will permit only approved raw materials to be used in the production, will check every batch of goods from the sub-contractor (and sub-sub-contractor) before it reaches the supplier, will check every production run of finished toys from its suppliers to ensure compliance before they reach its customers. Mattel also needs to increase random inspections by both internal and external auditors and quality inspectors. Mattel needs to test failure rather than test compliance, which is the practice in the rest of the toy industry11. Testing to failure has its own benefits as it reveals root causes of problems in ways that often remain hidden with compliance testing. Mattel needs to continue to invite independent and public monitoring of its manufacturing facilities12.

To address the above long-term quality assurance measures, it is recommended that a
Show More

Related Documents: Mattel Toy Recall Essay

Business 250 Essay

reading the Mattel and Toy Safety case it showed to us how much we need an organization that is one of honesty. Mattel Inc., was thought to have been a role model when it came to safety and quality. However it failed to that high quality and the safety of its toys. In 2007, the company ended up recalling many of their toys several times. The toys were recalled because there was a presence of lead in the paint and also had magnet issues. While Mattel Inc. was responsible for distributing the toys Chinese…

Words 3510 - Pages 15

Mattel and Mattel Recalled Thousands Essay

Mattel and Toy Safety Jennifier Nash BUS 250: Corporate and Social Responsibility Professor Ryan Horner March 2, 2015 Mattel In 2007 Mattel recalled thousands of toys. “The toy recalls had alarmed parents and consumer activists, as well as the toy industry retailers who marketed their products and product safety regulators,“ (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). The recall was due in part to lead paint found on some of their toys. The other part was magnets found on some toys that were choking hazards…

Words 1243 - Pages 5

Essay on The Final Case Analysis

Final Case Analysis In August of 2007, Mattel, the world’s largest toy company announced the biggest recall in its history, and the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, recalled nearly one million toys in the United States because the products are covered in lead paint. All the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. This recall is the second biggest in the year of 2007 that involved toys. More than 300,000 of the tainted toys have been bought by consumers in the United States…

Words 1342 - Pages 6

Essay on Leadership and Mattel

Study May 27, 2012 Week 5: Case Study Mattel started off in 1945, in a garage in California. Mattel is a world leader in the manufacturing and marketing of family products. The company is well-known for its toy brands, such as: Barbie, Fisher-Price, Disney, and Hot wheels to name a few. The company has annual revenue of about 6 million billion. Recently Mattel has faced some ethical problems due to recalls, and problems with partners. Mattel will have to make some changes in order to move…

Words 731 - Pages 3

Toy and Mattel Essay

Whistle-blower rewards After Mattel announced recalls of toys containing lead paint in September 2007, Mattel announced another sixteen recalls from 2008 till now. The last recall was on April 24th, 2014.① As we can see, Mattel continues to be plagued with product quality. Our group suggest Mattel found whistle-blower rewards. Every manufacturer’s employee or informed source can report any product quality issue via e-mails, letters or phone calls with evidence and product batch number to support…

Words 377 - Pages 2

Amazon.Com and Mattel - a Strategic Perspective Essay

Millions of toys were recalled due to the Chinese factories using lead-based paint on many of Mattel’s products. This soon became a serious issue with lawsuits from parents whose children were harmed or died as a result of lead paint being ingested. It cost Mattel over $30 million to recover the recalled toys. Additional money was spent in advertising and marketing to allay the fears parents were had about the…

Words 1376 - Pages 6

Tell Mattel To Stop Destroying Rainforests

Tell Mattel to Stop Destroying Rainforests! The Paradise Forests of Southeast Asia are habitat to an incredible variety of animal and plant life, and home to people whose livelihoods depend on the health of the forests. Endangered species such as Sumatran tigers, elephants and orangutans are found here and nowhere else on Earth. These amazing forests are in crisis. Clear-cutting, burning, logging, and the development of palm oil and paper pulp plantations are driving the destruction of these…

Words 1157 - Pages 5

Mattel's Unethical Behavior

things, they did to get back the toys that were hurting people. They open up an investigation into how this came about and as one of the largest toy, companies around they had all the tools to find out who did what. I think that Mattel did all that they could do they use Radio and TV Ad’s to let people know about the recall they put it in some of the biggest newspapers around they did to me everything but go door to door. Mattel gave the jobs of making the toys and these companies maybe because…

Words 486 - Pages 2

Globalization Essay

Globalization Globalization is defined as the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology (Global, 2013). This description capsulizes the meaning and basis for the answers described below. I believe that globalization is inevitable and unavoidable. With that said it is important to understand what globalization means for the world and for Americans…

Words 825 - Pages 4

Customer Service and Toys Essay

Toys R Us / Babies R Us TBS908 Supply Chain and Operations Management Erman Yildiz - 4427919 Table of contents: 1. Castle Hill ‘Toys R Us’ Supply chain……………………………………………..3 1.1 ‘Toys R Us’ store interactions…………………………………………………3 1.2 Store interactions with head office……………………………………………3 2. Competitive priorities……………………………………………………………….4 2.1 Delivery speed…………………………………………………………………..4 2.2 Consistent quality……………………………………………………………….4 3. Efficiency of supply chain………………………………………………………….4 3.1 Product…

Words 2098 - Pages 9