Mattel, the world's largest toy manufacturer, has issued an apology to China over a series of recent recalls of the company's Chinese-made toys.
"...it's important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers."
"... Mattel's lead-related recalls were overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of US standards. The follow-up inspections also confirmed that part of the recalled toys complied with the US standards." (
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The chronicle of 2007 Mattel toy recall story:Since 2003 - Small magnet toys have been produced and purchased. Later on they were found easy to be swallowed by children.
4. 19-7.6 - Toys in the first recall are produced.
8.2 - First toy recall is announced, after the toys have been out in the market for nearly 3 months. Nearly 1 million toys are recalled due to lead paint cover. What did they do for product testing before they hit the shelves in the US? "According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China." "Unlike past notices that only named the country of the recalled products, they made public the name of the company that had supplied them." “This is a vendor plant with whom we’ve worked for 15 years; this isn’t somebody that just started making toys for us,” Robert A. Eckert, the chief executive of Mattel, said in an interview. “They understand our regulations, they understand our program, and something went wrong. That hurts.”
8.11 - Cheung Shu-hung, head of the Chinese toy manufacturer Lee Der whose name Mattel revealed to the media and other toy companies to warn them of their cooperation with this supplier, hangs himself in one of the factory's warehouses.
8.14 - Second recall. "9 millions more Chinese made toys" are recalled "because of lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed." “Another week, another recall of Chinese-made toys,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who suggested detaining and inspecting all Chinese toy imports for lead paint. “We can’t wait any longer for China to crack down on its lax safety standards. This needs to stop now before more children and more families are put at risk.”
9.4 - Third recall.
9.12 - Robert Eckert told a US Senate hearing that Mattel was "by no means perfect", and acknowledged its Chinese producers had not been monitored closely enough. "Made in China has now become a warning label," Senator Sam Brownback said.
9.21 - Mattel issued an astonishing apology to China for damaging the country's reputation due to the recalls and admits most of the recalls were due to product design flaw, not a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers.
Oct 07-Jan 08 - Holiday season in the US starts. Of course Mattel needs Chinese suppliers back in their hands and start taking orders again. They make 80% of Mattel's products in global sales after all.
Moral of the story?Yes, Mattel apologized at the end, but was it sincere? Did we actually win? What's worth more than what we've lost? My question is, why was it so easy for Mattel to use China to cover their own flaw over the past month? Do we blame them? They say they've damaged our reputation, but what kind of reputation do we ever have in manufacturing anyway? Don't forget this Mattel toy recall came at the same time with other charges from the international commnutity towards Chinese goods safety: food, tires and other products. We are so fragile in this global trust game we can't even defend ourselves. When you have to agree with those jokes about cheap and fake Chinese goods too many times your heart stops bleeding and you stop trusting your own country. There is no other way out. If we don't get stronger ourselves in quality and fighting corruption in the whole chain, another "recall" story will hit us soon and this time they won't even need to apologize, we won't have any reputation left to damage.
Source:MSNBCNYTimesBBCCNBCCaijing
