In August 2007, Mattel and CEO Bob Eckert were facing an unsteady future. With a recent announcement of a recall of nearly 10 million toys, they had created an uproar in the toy industry. The uproar was concerned with the use of lead paint in toys for children. However, only approximately 1 million of the recalled toys were due to manufacturing process lapses stemming from the Chines facilities. The remainder was due to a design flaw that caused powerful magnets to become loose and fall out,…

Executive Summary Mattel has been criticized heavily for having to recall not once but thrice in 5 weeks 20 million toys manufactured in China with lead paint and/or loose, potentially dangerous magnets. Clearly Mattel does not have sufficiently tight quality control procedures in its supply chain to compensate for the extra risks of outsourcing to Chinese subcontractors and clearly there are design flaws in the toys with the magnets that could come loose. Although many observers give the company…

Case Study 2 – Mattel 1. Do you believe that Mattel acted in a socially responsible and ethical manner with regard to the safety of its toys? Why or Why not? What should or could Mattel have done differently, if anything? As the makers of children’s toys, Mattel has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that every toy is made within the tightest of safety standards. With the case of the Mattel toy recall, the company acted within the spectrum of their code of conduct that was titled Global Manufacturing…

The Mattel and the Toy Recalls integrative case poses six questions (four from the case and two from the professor) which will be addressed in this analysis. 1. What went wrong with Mattel’s recall strategy? The strategy used by Mattel in the toy recall was focused on passing the blame to China’s work practices and materials used. Mattel prematurely placed disproportionate blame on Chinese manufacturers and appeared defensive and somewhat fearful. In addition, the toy manufacture delayed reporting…

Mattel, Inc. is the largest toy company in the world. This largest toy company in the world was founded by Harold Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, as they started to produce picture frames. However it was Elliott Handler who had a visionary of a side business in dollhouse furniture out of the converted garage (Mattel). As a top company, the primary activities of Mattel are to design, manufacture, and market the toys. As the company’s sales growing slowly, Mattel started to produce varieties of…

locally. Furthermore, expertise in risk management, financial management, and other fields can be contracted through outsourcing. As far as Mattel is concerned, the key motivation for outsourcing is to have access to cheap labor, reducing manufacturing cost significantly. Causes of Mattel’s Recall Problem There are three main causes for Mattel’s toy recall: manufacturing problems which refers to the use of lead paint by Chinese manufacturers; design problem as a result of increasing use of small…

MATTEL TOYS RECALL CASE STUDY Product recall: On August 14, 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in cooperation with Mattel announced five different recalls of Mattel's toys. On September 4, Mattel announced three more recalls. Some were due to the use of lead paint, while others were due to…

an overview of the toys industry. The global toy market was estimated to be $71 billion business in 2007. About 36 percent of the global market was concentrated in North America(about $24 billion), but annual sales in this region were growing at a slower pace. However, the asia market had grew at 12 percent in 2006, and were expected to grow by 25 percent , especially in China and India.There are about 880 companies in the toys industry. The main key players such as Mattel, Hasbro, RC2, JAAKS…

Caltagirone OPMG 486 November 18, 2014 MATTEL TOY RECALLS SUMMARY Mattel Incorporated is now the second largest global toy manufacturing company after being the largest toy manufacturer for years (Soloman). Mattel Inc., headquartered in El Segundo, California, produces well-known toys such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price toys for children. Mattel is not only a leader in the toy industry with over $6 Billion in sales in 2013 (Soloman), Mattel also leads the industry in corporate responsibility…

In 2007, the international toy manufacturer, Mattel, Inc. issued several recalls for millions of their products. These recalls were for safety reasons in that testing at the manufacturing sites and special test laboratories showed that millions of their toys were coated with dangerous amounts of lead in the paint. This lead based paint contains a potent neurotoxin that if ingested can cause serious harm to children. Mattel assured the public that the problem would be solved, the recalled products…