The American Society for Quality (ASQ), in a recent press release, agrees, saying that much of the responsibility for quality problems with toys manufactured in China lies with U.S. importers who failed to provide adequate oversight.
“Companies are so used to dealing with suppliers in the United States or Europe that comply with their specifications that they aren’t taking into account that the whole concept of quality systems is a radically new thing to many foreign suppliers in countries like China,” said Randy Goodden, chair of ASQ's Product Safety & Liability Prevention Interest Group.
Last year, “Americans fell prey to one of the many dangers of China’s rough and raw capitalism,” reported the Washington Post. “It’s a cutthroat, predatory world where many factories cut corners to make an easy buck or just stay ahead of the thousands of others vying for their business. Safety scares, copyright ripoffs, and outright thuggery are endemic.”
But Chinese officials defend their factories, reiterating that only a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in exports had problems last year. However, it only takes one bad batch of toothpaste to cause deaths, according to the Post.
AsiaInspection, a quality assurance services firm based in Shenzhen, China, serves about 150 U.S. clients and approximately 1,500 clients worldwide.
“We have indeed felt a growing concern from our clients, especially in the U.S., but elsewhere, as well, following the quality issues mentioned in the news and related to lead paint, or, more generally, defective fillings and constructions in products made in China,” said AsiaInspection’s CEO Sebastien Breteau. Since July, when the first big news about defective products was reported, “we have experienced a raise of about 30% in our activity.”
“Our response to these concerns consists in the implementation of full quality control processes, from factories evaluation to laboratory tests when launching the order, to on-the-line inspections during and after production,” Breteau continued. “AsiaInspection helps importers enforce a safe and reliable supply chain in Asia.”
The U.S. toy industry is lobbying for a stronger safety system that involves better production-line audits of materials and approval of designs by independently certified auditors, reported the New York Times. “The move to tighter regulation will force toy companies to place a new level of scrutiny on Chinese suppliers.”
Chinese regulators have also intensified their inspections of manufacturers in recent months, the Times reported. “Li Qingxiang, an official in the Guangdong Province Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, told a [recent conference in New York] that some 200 small manufacturers had been prohibited from exporting because of ‘substandard products.’”
The toy industry should consider application of the margin of error that airplane manufacturers employ. “When is a door not a door? When it’s on an aircraft,” reported US Industry Today. “An aircraft door is actually an integrated electromechanical system that includes sensors linked to a data unit which feeds the onboard computer and cockpit control panel.”
Aerospace Avionics “manufactures advanced aviation components such as proximity sensors that use inductors. The company uses solid-state electronics, meaning that there are no moving parts to maintain or wear out,” US Industry Today reported.
When airlines are constantly dealing with flight delays and weather inconsistencies, airplanes need to be manufactured with the smallest margin of error possible. Similarly, the toy industry should make product safety their number one priority.
The challenge will be doing so in a cost-effective manner. Despite safety concerns, most consumers will still want to pay the same price for their toys as they have been paying.
“I think there are probably a lot of shoppers who made the effort over Christmas to read the box and say, ‘It’s made in China; I won’t buy made in China this year,’” said Philip Shoptaugh, who owns Shoptaugh Games, as reported by the New York Times. “But having said that, are you going to pay twice as much for a doll because it’s not made in China?…You cannot make these products in the United States and have them be competitive on the shelf.”
