Mattel's China Experience

An elementary toy that is due to be shipped at the end of the week has failed quality control testing. A metal whistle has been shown to exceed the federal regulation guidelines for lead. The testing process showed the lead level for this particular toy tested at 103 parts per million. The federal guidelines dictate that toys cannot contain lead with more than 100 parts per million (OSHA, 2013). The projected cost to conform to federal guidelines and replace the whistle are

In 2007, Mattel a California based toy company shockingly recalled 19 million toys that had been manufactured in China. Mattel was founded in 1944, and has produced iconic toys such as Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company had a long established trust with their consumers that had been forged from decades of reliability. However, when the company recalled 19 million toys due to health and safety violations, consumer confusion and outrage soared. The public wanted to know how such an established company’s safety regulations could fail, how Mattel was addressing the issue, and whether consumers could trust Mattel to produce reliable toys in the future.

recalls related to product quality problems. Observers felt the company would have lost even more

The problem surrounding Mattel Inc. is their mismanagement of international subcontractors and vendors and the production of certain toys (the manufacturing process), as well as their inability to adapt their marketing strategy or product to the constantly changing “demographic and socioeconomic trends.” This is supported by Mattel’s legal battle with Carter Bryant and MGA, their forced recall of certain toys that were manufactured overseas, and the increasing rate at which traditional toys are becoming less appealing to today’s young audience. Essentially, Mattel’s mismanagement and oversight lead to violations in terms of ethical and social responsibilities and safety standards.

The biggest environment force affected Mattel recently has been legal and regulatory with the high levels of lead paint found in their die-cast toys in 2007. This issue created a voluntary recall from Mattel for over 2 million toys and created doubt in customers to the quality of their Mattel toys. Mattel responded by immediately implementing a check system to accept paint only from certified suppliers, tightened controls throughout the production process and testing every production run to ensure compliance. Mattel said that it is working in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies worldwide. Mattel is also working with retailers worldwide to identify and remove affected products from retail shelves.

In this day and age consumers always want more and they want it at the lowest price possible, but are they willing to risk the danger that could derive from it? Hundreds of thousands of toys are imported daily from overseas countries, such as China, into the United States, some toys are inspected for irregularities, but most are not. This may not seem like such a problem but the truth of the matter is that it is one of the larger problems in the nation right now. Children’s toys imported from China are found to be contaminated with high levels of lead and infecting American children with lead poisoning. Some people may say that this is an unnecessary argument, that China isn’t doing anything harmful, maybe it was just a few faulty toys,

I will approach the process of exploring more technologically advanced and interactive toys within the American Girl core brand by pulling a team of people to complete the strategic planning process (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). A strategic plan is a roadmap to grow your business (Lavinsky, 2013). The roadmap will detail what it will take the implement the new technology and interactive product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The team will explore the new technologies and understand the current status of interactive toys that the Mattel has had success with and the pain points. This will help the team understand what works and what has not worked. Research and analysis will be performed to understand the new technologically that is available

Mattel is a global toy company that has been around since 1949. They are the company that introduced Barbie and Hot Wheels to the world as well as many others toys. Mattel has license agreements with Walt Disney and Nickelodeon. In

Recently, the company commissioned Chinese companies to produce some of its toys. These Chinese-made toys were suspected of containing harmful aspects for children such as magnets which could be swallowed by children, hazardous lead paint, and plastic ignition key that kids can sit on or fall.

1. The decision facing Mattel is whether to continue to produce their products internationally where cost are low, or produce them in the United States where costs are significantly higher but quality is better. Mattel might want to even reconsider going global if there sales are decreasing more internationally than in the United States. Mattel needs to determine how many of the products produced internationally were recalled versus the amount of products produced in the United States that were recalled. Mattel also needs to decide how they are going to advertise their products in a way that will convince consumers in the external environment to buy their products, without having any

To achieve this about 65 percent of its toy manufacturing was moved to Asia where its products could be produced cheaper. In doing so Mattel now has to work within the culture of its manufacturing facilities to ensure healthy and safe operations to its employees. This means that wage, possible child labor, and other ethical issues could arise, thus as stated before the Global Manufacturing Principles were created and implemented.

As we can see Mattel does a pretty good job of of managing risk within its own business. However, it is some of these large multi national companies that often overlook managing corporate integrity risk in there supply networks. Companies have inserted clauses into their standard contracts with suppliers requiring them to comply with the rules and regulations applicable and materials used must exactly that which has been stated in the contract.

In the past four years, Mattel has had to recall nearly 30 million of toys due to safety concerns such as lead level in paint, magnets and dangerous toy parts or design.

Others felt that they should consider Indonesia as a way to take advantage of low labor costs and very attractive exchange rates. Mattel currently operated a plant in Indonesia that produced Barbie® dolls. Montalto had to decide whether Mattel should go forward with the new China plant, build a plant in Malaysia or Indonesia, expand one of the existing facilities, or outsource the surplus die-cast volume through VOA. Company Background Based in California, Mattel, Inc designed, manufactured, and marketed a broad variety of toy products. The company’s core product lines included Barbie fashion dolls, Hot Wheels die- cast toy vehicles, Cabbage Patch Kids, Fisher-Price preschool toys, and Disney toys. Most of these toys were made overseas, primarily in southeast Asia. Mattel had wholly owned manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Italy. Mattel was founded in 1944 by Elliot and Ruth Handler. Neither Elliot nor Ruth had much business experience or capital, but they both had dreams. The post World War II demographics of a huge baby boom plus a virtually toyless marketplace provided a unique opportunity to gain a place in a growing toy market. Mattel’s first products, simple picture frames and doll house furniture, met with mixed success. The first really big hit was a music box. By partnering with another toy inventor, they developed a music box that could be

In 2111, Prof. Sethi and colleagues disclosed that Mattel Inc. had played a part in, what many would consider, unacceptable business practices (p. 483). Although Mattel took actions to investigate the level to which practices were truly occurring, they had also promised to remediate all noted unacceptable practices. One of the unacceptable business practices that was uncovered was the mandating of certain employee groups required to live in company dormitories and were not permitted to utilize any other options for housing. Was this practice a form of discrimination? In order to decide if the business practice and any alternatives are fair and ethical for all, resulting in the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people, the scenario will be run through the EthicsOps.com’s Utility Test.