Product Recalls

I have the honor of attending the Dassault Systemes Customer Conference in Las Vegas this week. After making my donation to The Flamingo last night, I was well prepared for a morning filled with proudct discussions and customer testimonials.

So far, the most compelling presentation of the day was given by Steve McCarthy of Johnson & Johnson entitled "Product Lifecycle Management and the Patient." During his presentation, he mentioned that the number one reason for product recalls at J&J is design errors.

I found this to be very interesting since so much of what we offer at CATI allow companies to reduce design errors: Simulation to virtually test products, PDM Workflow to assure that products are checked and approved before manufacturing and shipping, and Technical Publication creation to assure that manufacturing processes are standardized and followed.

I did a little research and found several articles that in fact confirmed that the FDA has run studies that prove that design errors are responsible for 90% of all product recalls. I can't imagine that this is exclusive to the medical industry.

It got me thinking...if this figure is accurate and the use of applications such as those mentioned above can reduce even 25% of our customer's total recalls, what kind of cost savings could they realize?