There's a lot of press these days about the lack of quality control for products made overseas. And there's a lot of conjecturing on who, exactly, should be responsible for making sure that materials like, let's say, lead paint aren't used for toys.
We wonder if the recent recall of nearly a million toys, designed by Fisher-Price and manufactured in China, could have been avoided entirely if FP's designers were versed in life cycle analysis. Sure, LCA isn't necessarily part of the job description, but won't you be employee-of-the-month when your LCA skills prevent a dangerous and enormously expensive mistake like this one from happening in the first place?
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Clearly the flaw lies somewhere at the vendor level in China. Unfortunately I don't have any more information regarding this...
This is an issue of consumers demanding cheap products which forces companies to pinch pennies and put pressure on their supplier. All the while people want higher quality, higher wages, etc (here and in China). This is what happens when the last straw breaks and a factory tries to make a profit as well as making their customer happy.
Anyone who has any design experience working with a factory should know this, and probably has had to deal with it.
I am currently working on a program that will drive our new sustainability initiatives. One of the lessons that we were able to draw from the PLA (Product Life cycle Assessment) was that there is a bit of a disconnect between what you tell your factories to do and what they actually do.
Everyone knows that China is currently mirroring the Industrial Revolutions of the Americas and Europe. Unfortunately they are also mirroring the poor mindset that "Capital is king" and everything else is a trifle.
Experience has shown examples where a designer may spec a certain paint or material, but the factory will use a cheaper substitute(while charging you the same price) to increase their profits.
There seems to be only one way to avoid this and that is by rigorous monitoring procedures. Better yet have dedicated product team member on the floor to monitor production. That may seem like an expensive measure to some, but then again it's a lot less expensive than recalls and lawsuits.
Are you saying FP Designers Specified toxic lead paint in childrens toys?
More likely you'll be an ex-employee for always telling them that they need to spend more on materials.
Not to say that designers should not have more familiarity with the materials they are spec'ing, but this isn't an LCA issue, it's a QC issue that involves people much later in the production chain than designers.