Mattel takes blame for tainted toys
Posted: September 21, 2007 3:00 pm
Mattel takes blame for toy recall
Selected quotes:
U.S.-based toy giant Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.
On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers."
In fact, new research from two business professors shows that recalls due to problems with the U.S. maker's design accounted for the vast majority -- about 76 percent -- of the 550 U.S.toy recalls since 1988.
But they noted that, "if shifting manufacturing to China resulted in poorer quality goods, then the number of toys recalled due to manufacturing should be greater than the number recalled due to design," the report said. But that is not the case.
"Nobody gets a free ride on this," said Beamish, arguing that toy makers' obsession to quickly get new products to market before they are widely copied has resulted in a lot of cost-cutting and inadequate testing.
Selected quotes:
U.S.-based toy giant Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.
On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers."
In fact, new research from two business professors shows that recalls due to problems with the U.S. maker's design accounted for the vast majority -- about 76 percent -- of the 550 U.S.toy recalls since 1988.
But they noted that, "if shifting manufacturing to China resulted in poorer quality goods, then the number of toys recalled due to manufacturing should be greater than the number recalled due to design," the report said. But that is not the case.
"Nobody gets a free ride on this," said Beamish, arguing that toy makers' obsession to quickly get new products to market before they are widely copied has resulted in a lot of cost-cutting and inadequate testing.
