Product Recalls: Why So Many?

by Fred White | February 5th, 2007

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America. Home of the brave? Check. Land of the free? Check. Sometimes-maker of shoddy, hazardous products? Check. While this statement might anger a few IMT readers, let’s get some serious debate going on this blog as to why product recalls have become so commonplace. Who’s to blame? What can be done to improve the safety and satisfaction process?

Top Auto Recalls of 2007

Ways to Survive a Product Recall

First, let’s dive into a few product recall zingers that have cropped up over the last few days. First up is Maytag, a company that markets its products as so reliable, its repair people sit around and twiddle their thumbs all day waiting for something to break. Well, they should be pretty busy now that Maytag has decided to recall 2.3 million dishwashers due to faulty wiring.

Get this: The recalled appliances are blamed for causing 135 fires and four injuries, reports The Associated Press. Effected dishwashers were sold at department and appliance stores between July 1997 and June 2001, and sold at prices between $370 and $800. The machines should immediately be disconnected from electrical power by shutting off a circuit breaker or disconnecting a fuse, the CPSC said.

The dishwashers were manufactured in the United States.

If I am not mistaken, it is the year 2007, correct? Was Maytag ignoring all of the complaints it was receiving over the past decade? Did Maytag execs decide to wait until the fire tally hit 135 to issue the recall?

Maytag, of course, is not alone. The Houston Chronicle recently served up a dissection of a recent IKEA recall. The popular furniture maker had to recall some 877,000 glass vases because they can “unexpectedly break, posing as a laceration hazard to consumers.” IKEA said it received 18 reports of vases breaking, resulting in seven reports of injuries.

Is it just me or is recalling a vase because it might unexpectedly break similar to recalling a can of beer because someone might unexpectedly drink it? Either way, IKEA probably did the right thing by not waiting around for 10 years’ worth of lacerations before recalling the product.

Food recalls typically aren’t a pretty scenario , either due to the immediate and widespread danger that bad food poses. (Ahem, spinach infused with fecal matter from pigs? Anyone?) Whole Foods recently said it’s recalling 6,000 jars of olives because “the product may contain glass fragments which may cause injury if ingested.”

May cause injury? Is that some kind of sick joke? C’mon! Stay on top of your suppliers and make sure they’re reputable. Retailers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are becoming increasingly popular for their eclectic mix of high-quality, private-label products. I hope we don’t see more of these kinds of slip-ups in the future as each company continues to expand its reach.

And that’s the additional “ugly” side of product recalls: lost profits. Dell and Sony know a thing or two about sinking profits due to recalls. Now its seems as though another beloved brand has taken a product recall hit: Hershey. The largest U.S. candy maker recently said that its fourth-quarter earnings fell 10 percent, below Wall Street’s expectations, as sales dipped and a product recall hurt results.

Analysts expressed concerns about the quarter and the company’s prospects for 2007, and, as a result, Hershey’s stock fell $1.59, or 3 percent, to close at $50.78 on the New York Stock Exchange. Not good.

So let’s get down to it. Are product recalls in the manufacturing community another “cost of doing business” excuse? How can U.S. manufacturers reduce the number of recalls that occur?

UPDATE: Effective Recalls and the Perilous Easy-Bake Oven

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Comments:

Danny

February 6, 2007

I addressed some of the food recall reasons in an article in food science central some time ago. See:

http://www.foodsciencecentral.com/fsc/ixid14428

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BP

February 6, 2007

Hurry up and wait! Everyone is just in a hurry to sell and get it out the door. It’s likely the electronic modules used in these products such a Maytag came from China. Jenn-Air if I’m correct. Companies need to hire people who “care” about the job their doing. Consumers are paying for QUALITY they’re not getting. Give me back the “mom and pop” shops in America. They put their hearts and souls into what they made.

Greed is a terrible thing we as Americans pay dearly for sometimes with our lives. Bring jobs back and let Americans do what they do best.

I can’t wait to see what happens when India gets heavily involved with making American products.

Cheap IS NOT always best. Haven’t we learned that yet?

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Victor Saymong

February 6, 2007

Dyadem is a company that has software that helps companies reduce their product’s potential for recalls.

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Norman Mitchell

February 7, 2007

I think we are seeing the results of a lot of unhappy workers. One is lucky to get a job today with decent insurance. Pay scales are based on how much profit the company wants to make, and not what the people are worth. Experienced workers are let go everyday with their pension plans, 401k etc. being eliminated from the bottom line. Now let’s hire someone else and pay them less and without 401k’s pension plans, etc.

Now it is true that many components are manufactured in China, but that does not mean that quality has to suffer, though sometimes it does. If the quality is poor, the company didn’t do their homework while finding a supplier in China. Keep in mind that the bottom line rules. Take some of that bottom line and make the employees happy again.

Happy often equals better quality.

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Mohamed H H Aniff

February 9, 2007

Todays quest to get rich quick is catching on so fast, no one is willing to give a quality product for the value.

Everything has been outsourced, and what standard are these outsourcers being held to?

The health of many are at risk to the cost of companies that line there pockets with huge profits. GIVE ME BACK THE MOM AND POP SHOPS.

Now when you call a company to complain, all you get is a computer. WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE … COMPUTERS

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Lazlo

February 12, 2007

Waitwaitwaitwait… Yes, you’re all right. But…

A) You can’t have it both ways. Doing it right (in the U.S.) will certainly increase costs — and those costs will of course be passed along to the consumer. Consumers, except for the wealthy, want a good product at a reasonable price. Start making washers and dryers, for example, here — costs will skyrocket. Would you be willing to pay, say, a 25-35% premium just because it’s Made In the USA? As consumers, are we that patriotic anymore? Look at Toyota’s successes. I don’t think so.

B) The U.S. isn’t well-liked overseas these days. Any number of sources/articles will back that up. And, gee, look at the country who’s making most of the products that end up in your local Wal-Mart — that you and yours buy. Do we really expect high quality from the citizens of a country that, well, hates us?

C) Take a look at the odds: of 2.3 MILLION dishwashers, 135 burst into flames. Oh, well. It’s statistically insignificant. A few cars self-ignite or their systems fail such that they head into immovable objects like trees — every day. As long as it’s just a few, we’re really doing okay. Put yourself on the manufacturer’s side of things: “Hey, we built millions of these things and only 0.02% (just an example) had a problem.” From that direction, that’s bragging rights.

D) When you’re using manure to fertilize crops of anything, you’re going to occasionally have a problem with fecal matter. Oh, well. S–t happens.

E) The complexity of the products around us (especially those of the 4-wheeled variety) is so great — and built in such staggering quantities — and has to meet so many regulations — that there’s bound to be problems. Hire more and better people? Improve automation? Build better plants? Yeah, right. Justify the budget for that to the Board.

All of the quality programs in existence have pretty much taught us so far that all we can do is improve — sometimes dramatically — but 100% error-free is still WAY out of reach.

Is there a solution? No. Unless we become protectionist (Oh, yeah… we can’t control borders.) and change the entire system from top to bottom to better support U.S. manufacturing — and quality.

That’s not going to happen. So just be glad it’s not YOUR dishwasher that threw a rod, vibrated too much, walked over your cat, and exploded after dinner — all before you got your first call from a telemarketer.

Life is good!

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JOHN

February 12, 2007

To Lazlo: Finally, someone with a true grip on what causes the current manufacturing world to go ’round!

I will need to see evidence that doing it right equates to doing it in the US. We want quality and immediately blame “them foreigners” for anything that is not to the standard we expect. But we seem to want to forget about the “Kings of Recall” — Ford and |GM…more recalls per vehicle built than any of the foreign models. It is no fluke that manufacturers who want to cut waste, increase quality and improve worker involvement in production study the Toyota way as the benchmark.

But wait, a large percentage of those cars are built here…American workers in American cities, just maybe management gets what it expects or demands, maybe Ford & GM are willing to settle for less and get what they are willing to allow? Perhaps the abundance of recalls is related to the “class action suit racket” that so occupies the legal profession…better to recall a few and fix ‘em than to pay millions to attorneys who advertise for anyone who touched the item to come forward for a small taste of a settlement.

Perhaps the best current application of the RICO statute would be to the class action attorneys!

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Cheryl's Office

January 12, 2008

It seems like there is a new product recall everyday. I am especially concerned about all the recalls on children’s toys and household products.

I set up a personal file that alerts me to all product recalls and it sends me a timely notice when one of my products has been recalled: http://www.personafile.com/product-recalls.html

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