WAL MART : Identifying the factories to improve quality

In the wake of recent scandals, Wal-Mart is setting strict new policies continuing its sustainability push with its Chinese suppliers.

The company recently announced a broad program to address these and related issues, with a goal of driving the need to return defective merchandise "virtually out of existence" by 2012.

"A company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products," CEO Lee Scott said in a press statement.

A key element of the new program is the requirement that suppliers of goods to Wal-Mart identify each factory where the products are made, allowing Wal-Mart to track and inspect those factories more easily.

The agreement will be phased in with suppliers in China in January 2009 and expand to other Wal-Mart suppliers around the world by 2011, the company said in a meeting in Beijing with over 1,000 of its top suppliers, Chinese officials and non-governmental organizations.

Wal-Mart is also asking the top 200 factories it buys from directly in China to improve their energy efficiency by 20% by 2012. Whether this goal can be met is unclear, but indicates Wal-Mart continues to push sustainability issues aggressively.

Do you think Wal-Mart can eliminate product defects from China by 2012?
What would it take to get there?
Do you know where your Chinese supplier factories are?

Let us know your thoughts.

Chinese workers are sick of making toxic cadmium batteries

Over the holidays, millions of American children received Chinese-made toys powered by cadmium batteries. Cadmium batteries are safe to use. They are also cheap, saving American parents about $1.50 on the average toy, compared with pricier batteries, but cadmium batteries can be hazardous to make as workers inhale the toxic red cadmium dust that filled the air in the plant.

As the U.S. and other Western nations tightened their regulation of cadmium, production of nickel-cadmium batteries moved to less-developed countries, most of it eventually winding up in China.

In America, five years after Hasbro stopped using nickel-cadmium batteries, Mattel and Toys "R" Us are yet to follow suit, but say they are exploring alternatives. Wal-Mart no longer purchases cadmium batteries from GP Batteries but declined to comment on whether it still uses them in its products.

Mattel says cadmium batteries have some performance advantages over alternatives, such as a better ability to retain a charge when not used for long periods.

Only this year, the European Union is banning the sale of nearly all cadmium batteries.

In China, government standards on cadmium exposure are in line with those endorsed by the World Health Organization. And without question, there are safe cadmium plants in China.

But having rules and enforcing them are two different things.

Source : The Wall Street Journal Asia