Quality and Safety Practices at LEGO


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Case Details:

Case Code : OPER062
Case Length : 13 Pages
Period : 1916-2007
Organization : LEGO Group
Pub Date : 2007
Teaching Note :Not Available
Countries : Global
Industry : Toys

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Please note:

This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.

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Safety First Contd...

LEGO laid special emphasis on quality and safety, as its main customers were children. The company took care to see that the toys were able to not only endure extreme wear and tear, but also did not harm the children in any way. Special care was taken during the production process to see that there were no loose parts or harmful elements that could pose a potential hazard to children. Even after the toys went into the market, LEGO monitored them regularly and was proactive in seeking feedback on their performance. LEGO did not often have major product recalls, and the Explore Super Truck recall was one of the few instances where a LEGO product had been found to be unsafe in the more than 50 years of the company's existence.

The immediate recall of the potentially hazardous product was widely perceived to be a demonstration of LEGO's commitment to quality and safety.

Background

LEGO's origins can be traced back to 1916, when Ole Kirk Christiansen (Christiansen), a carpenter, purchased a woodworking shop in the Billund region of Denmark.

Christiansen earned his living by building houses and furniture for the farmers in Billund. In the late 1920s, he started producing miniature versions of his products (like ladders and tables) as design aids.

These proved to be popular with customers, and eventually inspired him to venture into the wooden toys business. However, the toys business slowed down because of the economic depression in the 1930s when people could not afford to spend money on non-essentials, and Christiansen found that he had to continue producing furniture in addition to toys to stay afloat.

In 1934, Christiansen coined the name 'LEGO' from the Danish words Leg Godt, which meant 'play well'. Around the same time, his son Godfred Christiansen also joined the business and started playing an active role in creating designs for new toys.

When plastics started gaining popularity in the 1940s, the Christiansens decided to diversify into plastic toys. They bought a plastic molding machine, becoming one of the first to do so in Denmark, and began producing toys made of a plastic material called cellulose acetate...

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