Every Company Needs a Good Map

Maybe Comedy Central has already shown the episode but since I don't watch South Park I would not know. However, all through this recent spate of accusations I keep hearing the song, "Blame Canada" that was in the movie, which I did not see either. You can see the bit without seeing the whole move thanks to YouTube. Until they take all of these clips down that is.

It is a plain fact that suppliers from China have been at the heart of a significant number of recalls in the past few years. Is there any number that is not significant when it comes to safety? One would think that such a rash of problems would spur a government, ours or theirs, to do something about it. Well, they are going to have a meeting next month to see if there is something that should be done. In the meantime, there will just be a rash of import rejections to retaliate for the name calling and such.

As of today there are 27 recalls, and 2 general warnings, listed on the US CPSC website just for August 2007. Some of these are for hazards that may result in a fall and thus are not specifically life threatening. How many are for a product of Chinese origin is hard to say without more information from the manufacturer. Just the same, it should be said that all companies have the same responsibility: the must test their products and proactively protect their customers from negligent oversight at internal or external production facilities.

As I was composing this entry, Hsien Lei sent me this link - How to protect your children against those lead-covered Chinese toys? It is an article by James Fallows from the Atlantic. He makes a great point - We cannot rely on market forces because that only works after people get hurt. I agree, we also need to be proactive in our efforts to make certain that people are hesitant to put others at risk.

What we as consumers need to hear from every company is a description of how they will deal with the issue. This description should have:

1. Their procedure for dealing with the item in question
2. The procedure for dealing with internal or external management that fails in their responsibility to public safety.
3. Copies of testing data (inspected by #12 may be insufficient at this stage)
4. Management names
5. Company addresses for parts suppliers

Are there other elements that we want to see????