Case Analysis: Mattel and Toy Safety

Introduction

Mattel Corporation is the largest toy company in the world, a publicly traded organization with a market capitalization of over $6.5 billion, employing approximately 36,000 people worldwide in 42 countries. Their products are sold in 150 nations (mattel.com).

In the summer of 2007, Mattel suffered a major product recall incident. The first recall was the result of vendor failure in China where traces of lead paint were discovered on 83 different products. This led to a recall of 1.5 million items worldwide. The products contained levels of lead paint that failed the products’ specification.

Mattel even announced that a significant portion of the toys were …show more content…

The CPSC has granted Mattel's request to use their own labs for testing as long as they are under federal law to recall any items contaminated by lead.

Most importantly, parents shouldn't assume that toys are necessarily safe just because these new regulations are in place. In order to minimize any risk of injury, parents should be educated on the hazards of recalled toys as some may still be on shelves of toy stores.

The best way to ensure the safety of children’s toys would be for Mattel to make safety its number one priority by creating and producing toys that will not harm children. Additionally and most importantly, they have to establish trust in their products for consumers by employing strict standards from product design to manufacture up to distribution of their products.

In order for the stakeholders to ensure the society that their products are safe for children, they have to apply internal operating procedures that are designed to meet or exceed regulation compliance or laws that are enforced by the U. S. CPSC and regulatory counterparts around the world.

In addition, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have legal responsibility for making sure they do not sell dangerous toys. However, safety standards and regulations cannot cover every situation, and among the thousands of toys entering the marketplace each year, some unsafe toys are likely