Mattel Toy Recall: Could Lean Have Helped?

If you have small children (and even if you don't), you are likely aware that Mattel issued a substantial recall of nearly 1M toys across 83 products manufactured from mid-April to early-July in the last few days. The recall was prompted by the use of lead paint by a Chinese contract manufacturer. As we are a blog examining topics in Lean production and Kanban systems, we wonder: Can Lean prevent such breakdowns in the supply chain?

While we'll often extoll the numerous virtues of Lean in this blog, Lean itsself could not have prevented this problem. But it could certainly have made it less likely.

Why? Because Lean production gives you greater visibility across the supply chain. And that visibility should give each successive party further up the chain, from floor supervisors, to Mattell QA engineers, the opportunity to identify and fix the problem.

I actually suspect if you look at Mattel's processes, some elements of Lean are deployed. So if that's the case, why didn't it work? As we said, Lean isn't foolproof. It takes the full participation of employees and management to make a successful Lean operation. Remember our piece on Management By Walking Around? Having visibility isn't enough. You have to use it.