Expert Recall

By Howard Aughinbaugh

Keeping up with changes in federal regulations and routinely testing your products to make sure they meet federal standards are basic steps you can take to avoid recalls and other adverse product safety events. But these steps are just the tip of the iceberg. Alone, they are not enough to prepare for the vast number of product safety issues your company could face. When addressing these issues and preparing your company for the worst-case-scenario, there are several ways you can make sure your team is educated in regulatory trends and product safety best practices.

We spoke with Don Kornblet about product safety issues and how companies should prepare for the future. Mr. Kornblet has been involved in various aspects of recall management for 35 years. Early in his career, Mr. Kornblet helped clients develop communication programs for recalls. More recently, he was in the call center industry working for a company that provided product recall administration support. Currently, Mr. Kornblet is the president of the ADK Project Resource Group, which publishes the Product Safety & Recall Directory, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Product Safety Management certificate and workshop programs at Saint Louis University.

ExpertINSIGHTS: Describe the Product Safety Management certificate and workshop programs you conduct at Saint Louis University. What will professionals learn through and how do you believe it will enhance product safety?

Don Kornblet: The certificate program is the first university-level education program designed specifically for product safety professionals. It is divided into three parts: a two-day workshop on campus at Saint Louis University, a series of distance learning modules, and a two-day on-campus classroom instruction period. The first on-campus workshop provides the conceptual framework of product safety and why it’s important. The distance learning modules will address the more practical aspects of each product safety area, including risk management, designing product safety plans, and understanding how to plan product recalls and retrievals. The final on-campus instruction period will focus on communications and will give students an opportunity to present their response to a hypothetical case study of a product safety issue.

We hope professionals enrolled in these programs will, for first time, gain a complete overview of the product safety management environment. This begins with the development of a product safety strategy and carries through to each element of that strategy, from product safety program design to product hazard analysis and warnings and labels programs, down to how to manage product recalls and retrievals and the database management requirements. Up to now, the primary training opportunities have been one or two day workshops. The Saint Louis program focuses on professional development.

ExpertINSIGHTS: Given your work publishing the Product Safety & Recall Directory, you stand at the center of the industry and maintain contact with professionals at all points in the recall event lifecycle – government relations, logistics, communications, etc. What trends have you seen in the industry and how will the program at SLU prepare students for the future?

Don Kornblet: Over the past five years, I have observed three trends that every company needs to be thinking about with regard to product safety:

1. Globalization of product safety, that is, the international nature of the design, and manufacturing process. For example, if a design engineer or an equipment operator in a factory in China or Indonesia has a problem, a consumer in Europe or the United States could end up with a hazard in their house.
2. From a technology standpoint, the growth of communications and the ability to do things with technology in terms of notifications, registrations, production, distribution, and program management, etc., that were not possible a decade ago; and
3. The increased focus of compliance and regulation at both the domestic and international level, as well as the increased communication between compliance agencies around the globe. They are all talking to each other now.

The course at SLU addresses each of these areas and will provide tools that will be useful to product safety professionals.

ExpertINSIGHTS: For company leaders concerned about a recall, return, or withdrawal event, what would you suggest be their first step to prepare before one of these occurs?

Don Kornblet: They need to be informed about the requirements for managing product recalls and retrievals, even if they’ve never had a recall. Companies can get informed through industry associations, companies that are specialists in the field, and through the use of consultants.

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