Total Recall !!

Yesterday while shopping around in a busy shopping place in Bangalore, I noticed a long queue outside a Nokia Dealer Store. (The queue was much longer than the First day First show movie tickets line for a Shah Rukh Khan Blockbuster). My first thought was that the dealer is offering some freebies (or rather some free phones) and when something is for free or on sale, people will inevitably queue for them. (This is true in every part of the world including the so called developed countries like USA. Thanksgiving sales anyone ?).

But only later did I realize that the queue was for the replacement of the defective Nokia Batteries for which Nokia issued a product Advisory/Recall Notice. If you are wondering what that means, then welcome to the world of recalls/advisories whereby a Manufacturer admits that the product or part sold is defective and offers to replace it(for free of course). This must have been the first instance in India where a company by itself is admitting to a defective product on a mass scale and is offering to replace it. (It is a different matter that the Nokia's Battery recall is worldwide and is not limited to India). Now why is that we in India don't see such product recalls often ? Is that our production system is super perfect and flawless, and hence anything "Made in India" is defectless ?

Nay, we all pretty well know the reason. In a country where 200 Million struggle everyday just to get one healthy square meal a day, who has the resources to check for the lead levels in the paint used in some high end toys, which will be bought only by the super rich ? (Only last week, Mattel Inc. the worldest largest toy seller recalled millions of toys manufactured by it for precisely this reason ).While the poverty and the lack of resources may a prime reason, I do believe there are quite a few other reasons as well for this lack of "Total recalls".

Primary among them is the "Chalta hai" (It is working so it is fine )attitude of our people. As long as the product is working and is serving it's purpose , we in India are "OK" with using the product(There are exceptions to this rule of course) even if the product for example is producing excess heat. The second and perhaps the more important reason is the "repair and use" economy on which Indian economy operates . So if a product is defective and is under the so called "warranty period", the dealer instead of outright replacing the product, will try and make the product somehow work by using his knowledge and experience and because of the first reason cited above, we readily accept the "repaired" product instead of the new one. Not many products in India have "Replacement Warranties" . Most are service warranties.

But given the flat world we are operating in whereby products are getting manufactured in the best place at the best price (Mattel's toys were produced in China), it is time we consumers in India also start demanding replacement warranties . This will not only help the Indian consumers , but will also induce better quality control among the suppliers who are located in India and source out products to other parts of the world. Given the sensitive issue which outsourcing is (Mattel's recall of toys is already seeing anti-outsourcing lobby raising it's ugly head again with a "I told you so" face ), I think we are better off learning the lessons from the Mattel and Nokia story to introduce better Quality processes and control. After all good (or better ) quality is something for which we all strive for in our daily lives !!