Mattel’s Toy Recalls and Supply Chain Management Essay

This fictitious character dialog focuses on the event in the year of 2007 when Mattel the stretch forthing global goldbrickmaker voluntarily recalled its toys from worldwide stores. Mattels name is synonymous worldwide for its most noteworthy product the Barbie Doll. The recall was initially for 83 toys which had excessive work blusher and soon after 6 more products we recalled which had a design riddle of small magnets coming away the toys in addition to the use of lead paints. The lead that was apply could potentially be toxic for children and the magnetic move that could come off the toys could potentially be fatal for the digestive systems of children if ingested. either the toys recalled were manufactured in China and in total more than 1.5 meg toys were called back. The initial diagnosis was that the main cause of the problem was Made in China however the case explores that the root causes for the default were defective designs.setting Mattel & China* China had become the leading manufacturer of toys by 2000 * 80 % of toys coming to US were manufactured in China* 65% of Mattel toys were produced in China* around Chinese toys were made in most 5000 factories primed(p) in Guangdon province in China. These factories were majorly owned by Hong KongMattels preparation ChainMattels product fell into two broad lays. first was the incumbrance products exchangeable Barbie dolls which sold through longer periods and the second bucket comprised of the non-core products which comprised of seasonal toys like movie characters. By 2007, more than half of the revenues for Mattel came from core products that were manufactured in Mattel owned plants in china. The remaining products which were procured from local Chinese licensed vendors. Mattel had an inspection program in place for its products. Off the 5000 products that it used to develop each year, it would randomly check products by taking them off the production line.In order to tot paint t o Mattels supply chain a vendor had to be a certain one. The fork with this arrangement was that on legion(predicate) occasions Mattels direct vendors contract down to other suppliers who in turn contracted to other suppliers and thereof the origin of certain products were difficult to trace for example the lead paint. regular though Mattel had not allowed its vendors to sub contract to other vendors without its permission, it was not indisputable how well Mattels suppliers were adhering to this. Ironically, 200 of Mattel quality and vendor assurance employees were situated far away from the production facilities in Hong Kong. As a nigh(a) HR practice Mattel had hired a professor with international paper for being a critic of worker treatment to report severally of any malpractices in Mattel. Reasons leading to the event* Pressures on Chinese toy manufactures. nigh toy sales were coming from big box stores like Walmart, Tar spawn etc. The business model of these big retail ers revolves around organic cost pressures. This led to a lot of bargaining with Chinese manufacturers to thinning down their be. At the similar time, the Yuan had appreciated and increasing costs of raw materials (such as fuel costs) left little room for Chinese manufactures to invest in significantly progressive quality programs.* Manufacturing ProblemsLead in paint was a frequently occurring problem for toy manufacturers. Even though Chinese manufacturers had put processes in place that had checks to avoid having lead in the paints, it was increasingly difficult to monitor the quality of paints* Design ProblemsIn 2007 many toy products had small magnetic parts attached to them which could potentially get detached from the toys and then they could be accidently be ingested by the children. These magnets, once inner the digestive system were toxic and could potentially stick together and defame the intestines. Another design problem was that some of the toys were susceptible t o being broken. Most of the designs were made outside China and thus this was not a manufacturing problem.* mathematical product MisuseSome recalls of Mattels products were because of the potential misuse by children. thither were choking or strangling hazards associated with some of the products that made the products dangerous.Mattels reparteeThe expected impact of Mattels recalls was to the tune of $30 million dollars which was about half of the operating income of that quarter. The media coverage and global attention aggravated the issue. In order to deal with this Mattels response was as follows.* Three extremum check systemAs the first point check for the lead paint every batch of paint could only be acquired from certified vendors. Second, the controls for vendors and contractors were made more stricter and random checks were constituted. Thirdly, the finished products would be subjected to final checks forwards they reach the customers* Sub contracting policiesMattel re viewed its subcontracting policies to control excessive subcontracting* leveraging of new equipment to detect leadMattel incorporated a plan to buy more lead detectors* PR & CommunicationsThe company followed a proactive communication strategy to address the issue.ConclusionThe consumers reacted strongly to Mattels response. The case elaborates how systemic failures can almost cripple a global leader. Most importantly, the made in china brand lost significant personality because of this episode. However, better measures and corporate controls resulted from this event and they eventually transformed the manufacturing world for the better.