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Samsung’s recall problems put global supply chains in the spotlight

Written by: Supply Chain Online
Published on: 13 Oct 2016
Category:

SAMSUNG NEWS

Samsung’s recall problems put global supply chains in the spotlight

Samsung’s problems with its flagship Galaxy Note 7, which was recalled and finally scrapped due to handsets catching fire, have put the spotlight on supply chain oversight, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The South Korean electronics giant launched the phone on 19 August, ahead of rival Apple’s iPhone 7. Following complaints that batteries were overheating and causing fires, the phone was recalled.

According to the WSJ, Samsung initially blamed the problem on one battery supplier. It cut the supplier out of its supply chain, but supposedly safe replacements raised the same complaints.

Frank Gillett, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said: “A design flaw should have been caught during review and testing, and this is much harder to do at global scale with multiple suppliers and factories for the same part.”

Samsung declined to comment, but the report cited Fangruo Chen, a professor at the Columbia Business School, who is an expert in supply chain management. According to Chen, problems in the supply chain can be worsened when different departments within a company as well as their suppliers fail to coordinate or communicate in an effective manner.

Timothy Brown, managing director at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, added that companies looking to cut costs by outsourcing large parts of their supply chain to countries with more affordable labour markets run the risk of compromising quality.

Richard Soley, chairman and CEO of Object Management Group, a technology standards consortium, said of the challenges of a major product recall: ““This is an example of where Internet of Things will make a difference. When you maintain a connection to all the devices, you know where they are and can do something about it.

“Apple knows this could happen to them too, and so do all the other manufacturers.”