It is interesting to watch the storm brewing around Mattel over it’s contract manufacturing in China. Initially, Mattel came out on the victim side, claiming that 21 million toys manufactured in China had to be recalled due to leaded paint, magnet, and choke-hazard issues. Now, it appears, Chinese quality control has been vindicated to a large extent and it’s Mattel that has egg on its face.

Mattel contracted with Chinese manufacturers to produce products that had small removable parts that posed a choke hazard to children. Whether the toys were of US design or of foreign vendor design makes no difference. Mattel should have been on top of the design questions before the injection molds were made. Period.  The Chinese vendors made product to spec. 

Mattel has issued apologies to various parties in China over the unwarranted accusations that Chinese manufacturing lapses were responsible for the massive toy recall.  This is a major hiccup for Mattel, much akin to a container ship hitting a sand bar. When a ship runs aground, it is the captains fault. When Mattel ushers its investors through a major business fiasco like this, the CEO, President, and a few VP’s must be made to take the hit personally. The Mattel toy disaster is just bad product development, which is a management exercise.  Putting a dangerous toy on the market is a liability they should be very familiar with.   

In the Mattel case, a major organizational shakeup is needed to knock loose the ossified Mattel managers who should have caught the design flaws. I don’t know about the leaded paint issue, but certainly choke hazards and dangerous magnets that can be swallowed by children are not part of some new problem.  Corners were cut and and now the guilty parties from management have to line up at the Guillotine. It’s a bummer, but it has to happen to save the Mattel brand.

Note added 9/22/07:  Mattel has apologized in a public apology to Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, among others.  It is unclear, however, as to whether the apology applies to the leaded paint issue. It’s too late for at least one character. The manager of the factory that supplied the Sesame Street figures containing lead paint was found hanged at the factory, an apparent suicide.

It must be very frustrating for Chinese officials to find themselves subject to negative publicity generated by foreign companies and amplified by their governments.  This Marxist-Capitalist chimera founded by Mao finds itself being out of control of negative information echoing around the world and within China itself.  Chinese leadership is much more accustomed to providing processed information in order to guide the populace to the more correct thinking.  It is like a comb carefully lining up all of the individual hairs to lie in the same direction. If the Mattel fiasco had been entirely internal to China, I wonder if there would be any imprisonments or executions?