Manufacturing Monday - Caveat Emptor, Made in China

Riley Murray — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:57:22 GMT

MADE IN CHINA
Buyer beware. A familiar concern returns. Products made in China can be hazardous to your health. This systemic pattern of data, does not bode well for China.

Melamine: Product adulteration... again in China - Reuters

With a renewed regulatory vigor, expect the FDA to ramp up surveillance of medical products and pharmaceuticals. The Bush Administration, took a laissez faire attitude in fundamentally reducing the oversight role of government in business, resulting in severely reduced FDA enforcement resources. The Obama Administration will likely ramp up much needed scrutiny of China's bad manufacturing practices. Process and product quality data will lead to corrective and preventive actions. China will probably continue severe punishment for those responsible, but systemic reform will take much longer.

Well beyond regulated products, Quality and Engineering professionals generally regard Chinese Manufacturing as risky business. Labor cost are very low, but often, so is product quality and safety. Companies concerned about intellectual property rights and intentional fraud in compliance to product specifications, are increasingly looking outside of China to reduce risk to their supply chains. The tendency to cut quality control corners, substitute off-spec raw materials (see Melamine and Heparin incidents), and intentionally circumvent design specifications, all purely for profit motives; is an endemic problem that reaches well beyond the more well-known problem of music and video piracy.

Confronting China's Quality Gap - Business Week

Consumers and US corporations alike, are reconsidering the risk of products, Made in China,

cross-posted Blue Ridge Data

Blue Commonwealth - Quality

Manufacturing Monday - Caveat Emptor, Made in China