Mars Corporation
ISO 9001 ensures that all products meet quality standards and requirement. Quality control of an organization makes sure that products are safe for the consumer and do not cause any harmful consequences. Sometimes it is seen that a whole batch of products is damaging and harmful to the consumers. In this case, the batch is recalled to ensure that customers are safe from more potential damage. When products are called back, the company is responsible for rectifying the mistake. The company is responsible for satisfying its customers again.
Product recall occurred when a batch of mars chocolate that was manufactured in a factory in the Netherlands was called back. The chocolate had some harmful ingredients that were quite damaging to consumers. The whole batch was recalled to investigate what was wrong with the product. The product is already considered safe for stomach and intestine. The product didn’t contain any ingredient that was harmful to consumers, particularly children. But suddenly it was discovered that particles of plastic were found in the chocolate. To deal with the issue, Mars chocolate was recalled. In January 2016, Mars Corporation found pieces of plastic in their chocolate bars. It was an alarming situation. The company had to recall its products to investigate the issue and avoid a scratch on their image.
On January 8, a customer in Germany complained that a piece of plastic was found in the chocolate bar. The customers registered the complaint with the company directly. As per the complaint, the company had violated ISO 9001, and serious actions could be taken against the company. There were small pieces of red plastic that were found in chocolate bars. After investigating how they were included in the chocolate bar, the Mars Corporation found out that these small, pieces came from a cap of a pipe. The cape was unintentionally and was mistakenly included in chocolate bars during the production process. The cap was ground, and small pieces of the cap were included in chocolate bars. Those small pieces were detrimental to health. These pieces could be stuck in the throat causing one to choke. The company instantly took action to rectify the serious mistake it had made (The Guardian, n.d.).
It was noticed that all products manufactured between fifth December 2016 and eighteenth January of 2016 had plastic pieces mixed with the rest of the ingredients of chocolate bars. The batch of chocolates was manufactured from a Netherlands factory. The product was sold to about fifty-five countries. The entire batch was called back. The batch included about four million bars sold to about fifty-five countries. This was a high recall. The entire product line was recalled by the mars corporations. The company recalled minimax, milky chocolate, snickers, mars and celebrations back to the facility.
The company took an immediate action to deal with the issue. Although the recall incurred them the cost of about ten million dollars, still the company preferred the health and safety of consumers over the cost of the recall. The company made sure that new batches of the product didn’t contain any such ingredient and it was safe for consumers. The company took an immediate proactive action to rectify the mistake. I feel that this event caused damage to the reputation of the company. The production manager was responsible for overseeing the production process. The quality management was also responsible since they didn’t check final products before they were shipped to customers. Quality management should have traced plastic pieces before customers had to discover them. I feel the huge recall affected the reputation of the company to deliver safe products. But instantly taking a corrective action ensure that company pays huge attention to customer complaints (Hammar, 2016).
After the product was recalled the entire production facility was rechecked so that such incidences don’t happen the future. The production manager and quality assurance unit was given clear instruction about how to avoid such event in the future time. The good thing that Mars Corporation has is the recall process. The recall process is fast and timely. A quick and responsive recall process satisfies consumers that company would take serious actions if they register any complaint. The recall of the entire line of products causes a huge loss of sales. But the timely corrective actions saved the company from disgruntled customers.
Another product recall occurred in the recent year by Mars Corporation. The company recalled all products with best before use dates of May 2018. Products were recalled because it was feared that the products contained a virus namely salmonella. Such recalls have affected the company regarding financial loss and earning a bad reputation (BBC, 2017)
References
BBC. (2017, June 9). Mars recalls chocolates over salmonella fear. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40226415
Hammar, M. (2016, March 15). The February 2016 Mars Chocolate Bar Recall – A Case Study from an ISO 9001 perspective. Retrieved from https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2016/03/15/the-february-2016-mars-chocolate-bar-recall-a-case-study-from-an-iso-9001-perspective/
The Guardian. (n.d.). Mars recalls chocolate bars in 55 countries after plastic found in the product. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/23/mars-chocolate-product-recalls-snickers-milky-way-celebrations-germany-netherlands
