Importance of Product Safety
I believe product safety to be the most important topic of those studied during this course. It is critical in my point of view because it affects both organizations and their customers. All products that are made for clients have to be safe regardless of the fact whether they are new or not. The same can be said about those products that are connected with services, which are not provided separately.
It is significant to ensure the provision of a safe product so that client’s wellbeing can be protected. In this framework, attention should be paid to the way a product is presented, its positive effect, and possible complications. I emphasize the importance of this topic because it is recognized by the government as well. Different countries have their specific safety legislation, which determines those requirements companies should follow to ensure that the products they offer are good enough to be used by the representatives of the general public. In addition to that, I find it critical that both a producer of products and their distributor is expected to assess goods and make sure that they are not dangerous and that all necessary instructions and warnings are described and can be easily accessed by the client.
As a customer, I expect those products that I obtain to be beneficial to me. To my mind, both providers and distributors need to maintain their safety investigations to fulfill their moral and legal obligation to protect clients. Inability to ensure product safety means that the company is not worth cooperating with. For example, if a new drug enters the market and its safety is affected, people can start using it because of the cheap price. However, then they tend to get sick eventually or even die (AALAS Foundation, 2017). I believe that adverse influences of such a kind are too critical to be ignored.
Product Safety, Reliability, and Organizational Objectives
Among the main goals of all for-profit organizations, regardless of their focuses, is the desire to be profitable and increase revenue. This target is also aligned with the necessity to be competitive, maintain continuous performance improvement, innovate, etc. Thus, it is significant for companies to attract more clients, ensure their loyalty, and improve recognition. These main goals can be addressed with the help of product safety and reliability efforts.
For example, to increase income and at least deal with production expenses, organizations should offer products of good quality. In this way, they receive an opportunity to appeal to the representatives of the targeted market and differentiate themselves from competitors. Realizing that similar goods of different quality can be purchased in a range of companies for approximately the same price, clients are likely to resort to the one that offers the best product.
What is more, it is expected that customers will be ready to pay more for high-quality goods that have no adverse influences on people’s health, which means that organizations can increase their revenue. Reliability efforts are also vital in this perspective. Customer satisfaction and loyalty tend to enhance when companies take responsibility for their actions and offerings. Thus, even if an organization provided a product of poor quality or failed to deliver it when agreed but admitted its mistake and offered some compensation, clients will still be encouraged to resort to it. As a result, they will spread the information about product quality, safety, and reliability, increasing the number of clients and income (Mrugalska & Tytyk, 2015).
Security versus Usability
A conflict between security and usability can be observed when focusing on the sphere of IT, for example. As technology becomes more and more advanced with time, customers are willing to obtain an opportunity to maintain more operations with the help of their devices, including tablets and smartphones, etc. However, such complications require the adoption of a large amount of sensitive internal information.
Trying to ensure its security and to prevent the leakage of client’s data, IT organizations develop complex security paradigms. For example, a lot of applications require passwords that are no less than eight symbols long or include both letters and numbers. In this way, it is more complicated for customers to remember all their passwords and to enter them whenever they are needed. Such experience causes dissatisfaction and affects loyalty adversely. However, this approach also ensures that hackers will not be able to get into a device easily, which is rather beneficial because important information can be saved (Janrain, 2015).
Organizational Liability
An organization that outsources the development of critical parts/services should be liable if the smaller/contractor is the cause of the safety-related issue. The main company that provides basic parts needs to ensure product quality and safety. Thus, it must be sure that those contractors it cooperates with can meet all requirements. There are specific standards for different goods, and the outsourcing company should check if they are met by the contractor (Griffor, 2016). In addition to that, the organization that treats its business seriously needs to consider every detail of the manufacturing, sales, and delivery processes. Some assessments are needed to make sure that everything is done as agreed and no issues occur (Stringer, 2017).
Scenario 1
Realizing that a product is 2 months behind schedule, I will do my best to meet the CEO’s requirements and release the product. However, as soon as I notice a high risk of a catastrophic security issue, I will contact him and report it. I will emphasize the fact that if this problem happens, our company will face enormous losses so that it will be less crucial for us to delay the release. I will try to ensure him that by being transparent and sharing this information with the representatives of the general public, we will make them even more loyal, as we will emphasize our concerns related to their safety and privacy.
If the CEO does not allow me to postpone the release, I will have no other opportunity but to contact other leaders of the organization because we make products to benefit our clients and meet organizational goals.
Scenario 2
If I encounter a difficult colleague that is “cutting corners” when it comes to safety, reliability, and security, I will try to do my best to make sure that such actions are not repeated. First of all, I will ask him for a private conversation, with the help of which I will explain to him my concerns and provide a range of reasons why his behavior is not acceptable. I will also warn him that I will have no other opportunity but to report this issue to the management team if he continues working in this way. Such actions are defined based on my moral and professional views. I believe that all employees need to perform their duties reaching the maximum of their potential so that the company can benefit. “Cutting corners”, this worker can make the company face numerous problems and worsen its reputation.
References
AALAS Foundation. (2017). Why is product safety needed. Web.
Business Companion. (2017). Product safety. Web.
Griffor, E. (2016). Handbook of system safety and security. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
Janrain. (2015). Security and usability. Web.
Mrugalska, B., & Tytyk, E. (2015). Quality control methods for product reliability and safety. 6th International Conference on AHFE and the Affiliated Conferences, 3, 2730-2737.
Stringer. (2017). Avoiding substantial OH&S liability when hiring contractors. Web.