Toy Recall from China

Toy Recall from China

Mattel and Fisher Price have announced huge recalls of contaminated toys manufactured in China. It seems that these companies knew there was a problem but did not react until outside groups exposed the problems. That in itself calls for condemnation, but the thought I want to put forth in this note is the lack of quality control in those factories. I spent most of my adult working life in factories at a number of different locations in America and Canada. The common denominator was that wherever the factory was located, that factory was duty bound to follow the specifications that originated at the main office. There were large numbers of staff assigned to assure that the product was produced according to the specifications laid down by Corporate.
It is inconceivable to me that these American Corporations who moved their production lines to China, did not insist on the same quality standards that applied to American factories. I can only assume that in their zeal to produce at the lowest cost that they did not insist on these Chinese factories employing the same number of quality control employees to assure adherence to specifications. If this is so, the leaders of these companies should face severe punishment, as the cost of adding thousands of Federal inspectors at the ports will be borne by all of us as taxpayers, a cost that would not be imposed if the products were made in American factories under normal quality control surveillance.

Jack B. Walters
3961 N. Hillwood Circle
Tucson, AZ 85750
(520) 722-2958
August 18, 2007
jackbwalters@yahoo.com