Planning for product recalls is important given the large number of recalls, increasing frequency, and high costs involved. Over 25% of consumer product companies have experienced a recall, with some recalls involving millions of units. Both direct costs, like communication and distribution during the recall, and indirect costs, like lost future sales, can be substantial. Thorough planning is needed to effectively manage a recall and mitigate associated expenses if a recall becomes necessary.
Planning for product recalls is important given the large number of recalls, increasing frequency, and high costs involved. Over 25% of consumer product companies have experienced a recall, with some recalls involving millions of units. Both direct costs, like communication and distribution during the recall, and indirect costs, like lost future sales, can be substantial. Thorough planning is needed to effectively manage a recall and mitigate associated expenses if a recall becomes necessary.
Planning for product recalls is important given the large number of recalls, increasing frequency, and high costs involved. Over 25% of consumer product companies have experienced a recall, with some recalls involving millions of units. Both direct costs, like communication and distribution during the recall, and indirect costs, like lost future sales, can be substantial. Thorough planning is needed to effectively manage a recall and mitigate associated expenses if a recall becomes necessary.
Planning for product recalls is important given the large number of recalls, increasing frequency, and high costs involved. Over 25% of consumer product companies have experienced a recall, with some recalls involving millions of units. Both direct costs, like communication and distribution during the recall, and indirect costs, like lost future sales, can be substantial. Thorough planning is needed to effectively manage a recall and mitigate associated expenses if a recall becomes necessary.
A safety-related product recall seeks to have been recalled under
withdraw products from the market due the fast-track program to one of the following hazards: design since its implementation. flaw, production defect, new scientific informa- Given the number of When your product tion about dangers from a product or material parts, processes, suppliers, problems come previously thought safe, accidental contamina- types of consumers, and tion, product tampering, unforeseen misuse, or product uses encountered, back to haunt you, failure to comply with safety standards. An ex- it is probably only a matter ample of each type of hazard is provided in Fig- of time for any product you'd better know u t e 1. Although many of the recall examples in manufacturer to have one what to do. this article relate to safety issues, some of the or more of its products strategies discussed apply to non-safety-based recalled. recalls as well, such as when a product does not Both direct and indirect costs are associated meet a given performance standard. with a product recall. Direct costs include those The importance of planning for a product for communication to intermediaries, business recall can be seen by analyzing the large number customers, and final consumers; physical distribu- of recalls, the increasing frequency of them, and tion in recovering and returning the recalled the high overall costs they incur, both direct and product; product replacement or repair; product indirect. According to Richardson (1992), an A.T. disposal; and the loss in profits for the recalled Kearney survey of more than 500 consumer and related products due to diminished sales product companies found that nearly 25 percent during and after the recall period (see Figure 2). of the firms had experienced a product recall. These costs can be substantial, even crip- Many major recalls have involved several million pling, for a firm. Toy and Driscoll (1990) estimate units. In 1996, Ford Motor Company recalled 8.7 that the total direct costs of Perrier's 1990 world- million cars and light trucks due to an ignition wide product recall, resulting from the discovery' switch thought to be responsible for nearly 900 of traces of benzene in its bottled water, came to ignition-related fires. Intel's recall of a Pentium $30 million after taxes. This estimate did not in- chip that made errors in complex mathematical clude Perrier's loss in future sales caused by the calculations involved 5.3 million flawed chips. product's tainted image. Intel's Pentium replace- The number of products affected by recalls ment program, reports Bertrand (1995), resulted has grown in the past decade. In 1988. the U.S. in its racking up a one-time charge of $475 mil- Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) lion. Schwan's Sales Enterprises' ice cream was negotiated 221 recalls affecting 8 million product found to be the cause of a major salmonella out- units. In 1993, these numbers had risen to 367 break affecting 224,000 people. The company CPSC-based recalls covering about 28 million was able to recoup a large part of its recall costs product units. And 1997 saw 362 CPSC-based from two suppliers and one hauler of its ice recalls involving more than 76 million consumer cream mix. According to one of Schwan's attor- products. In addition to the CPSCs traditional neys, the "claim was over $200 million" (Katz product recall program, the agency now offers a 1997). This covered the costs of the nationwide fast-track program that removes the stigma of the recall, including the retrieval and disposal of the CPSC's "preliminary detern~ination" that the prod- ice cream, the value of the ice cream that was uct is defective. More than 21 million products destroyed, the loss in sales of other Schwan's