Imagine this scenario. You are a manufacturer of drinking glasses and one day you learn you are being sued by someone who tried to use one of your very fragile products to hammer in a nail. It shattered, cutting the user's hand, and now he is blaming you.
Ridiculous? Yes. Impossible. No.
Product safety is a serious issue. In the past decade, many companies have been blindsided and even bankrupted by unanticipated safety issues - most notably product-related lawsuits. ITT Industries is taking steps to ensure that it never makes a list of companies hurt by product liability issues, and is working to develop a comprehensive product safety process that covers products on the market, in the pipeline, and even looks ahead 10 and 20 years and identify possible product safety issues that aren't on the horizon today.
Spearheading this effort is a new Product Safety task force, led by Usha Wright, vice president, ITT Industries, and director of Environment, Safety & Health. The task force (see sidebar box for members) includes product development, engineering, legal and ESH personnel and has a mission to "design, implement and validate a 'beyond compliance' process to evaluate the safety all new products and conduct periodic safety reviews of existing products."
In 2003, the team conducted fruitful benchmarking studies of Eli Lilly, Mattel, Rockwell and other safety-conscious companies. It also borrowed the blueprints used by two of our most progressive product safety operations - Bell & Gossett and Flygt - to create the product safety template for the organization as a whole.
The team's recommendations - many of which will be put into place in 2004 - include naming product safety representatives and review boards for each management company, product safety training for all design engineers, a product safety website and an annual self-audit process and bi-annual ESH audit for all sites.
Going forward, ITT Industries design engineers, product development people and marketers will consider all aspects of product development and usage - not just intended use, but any foreseeable use - to ensure that they are safe for customers, employees, the general public and the environment.
"We will consider all the worst-case scenarios possible, and take the necessary precautions early in the product design process to prevent them from ever happening," says Wright. "It benefits the customers by enhancing their safety and benefits our companies by elminating costly lawsuits and recalls."
Product Safety
Task Force
Dick Arra
Anders Balter
Bob Boulden
Al Collado
Fern Daves
Paul Davies
Andrew Dawson
Donna Dawson
Andy DeCicco
Rosann Kryczkowski
Bennett Leff
Jeff Melo
Gary Miyake
Ron Watson
Usha Wright