Do you dread having to do a product recall? We bet you're not alone. How about turning a recall into something positive, instead? Something that strengthens your brand! A SURGICAL recall!
From indiscriminate recalls to surgical
Common practice is to recall thousands upon thousands of items produced during a period (which you probably have extended a bit on either end, to be on the safe side) – because you cannot be sure which ones were fitted with the faulty part (common reason).
Doing a surgical recall would mean targeting a limited number of specific items because you DO know which ones were fitted with that pesky part.
The difference is component identification, a part of the isAuthentic suite.
Product authentication – for inputs too.
The basis of the isAuthentic process is two scans of products; one at origin and another at destination. The origin is usually at the end of a production line. For finished products, "the destination" may be a scan by a sales rep in the field or a trusted retailer equipped with the isAuthentic app and a smartphone.
But "the destination" may well be at the start of subsequent assembly line, if "the origin" was at the end of a component production line. Originally, this set-up was intended as a safeguard against counterfeit components making their way into the assembly of finished goods but there is more to it.
Adding product data for component identification
How about the scan at "the origin" being supplemented with additional data. For example:
A generated unique item ID.
A batch ID.
Data on the exact time of production.
Data on origin and composition of components and raw materials.
Intended use at "the destination" ("mudguard for the all-terrain motorbike", "for the blue version or the black version", "for 500cc or 800cc"...).
...and more. Your choice. Your imagination.
Think for a minute on how that information could turn out useful at the start of "the destination" assembly line....
A few thoughts of ours:
Quality assurance – alerting if the component isn't intended for what is currently being produced.
Tracking and tracing in case of any substandard inputs might be discovered.
Enabling surgical recalls
Obviously, it's #2 that forms the basis for surgical recalls. When you can identify exactly which individual components were fitted in which individual finished products, the scope of the recall is greatly reduced, made surgical. The result: instead of your recall signalling that "we aren't on top of our production process" it will signal "we are in perfect control of our process, so we can identify exactly which faulty input was fitted into exactly which final products.
"We know what we do, had some bad luck, but are still on top of everything."
How's that for boosting confidence in your brand?
Image by Eoneren on iStock