I sit down around this time of year and construct a wish list of what I want to focus upon and achieve across the following 12 months – something I’ve found particularly useful ever since I set up my own business.

This coincided with a chat I had with a client last week, whom I refer to as Bob, about PAS7100 that was published back in 2018. I say, ‘back in’, as this does now seem like quite some time ago when you consider BREXIT and the amount of time we’ve lived through a pandemic.….

With the 2nd iteration of PAS7100 about to be published, Bob asked me what my hopes and dreams might be for the refreshed code….which did get me thinking…💭

I was working within Government when the first PAS hit the streets and then more recently delivering bespoke training for a number of businesses via DSL Consulting.
I have witnessed first-hand the many benefits of its 42 pages have provided to a) trading standards who have used the PAS to bring the topic alive and give it some context when guiding business through incident management planning and b) how businesses can best prepare for and deal with a product recall situation.

So, my starter for 10 would be that online platforms took their place within the steering group discussions and fed into the consultation process.  With the likes of Amazon profits having soared 220% during the pandemic, (as well as the sale of unsafe products) there must be some recognition and accountability in 2022 that online platforms now play a key role in the supply chain.  It’s imperative that they as well as everyone else ensure that a robust product recall management process is in place to negate as much risk as possible.

My second wish and something I know Bob would appreciate is that several case study examples have been included that he could share as a training guide for his management team which would make the content more relatable.  At the very least I do hope OPSS will be offering some free training specifically for business after the new code is published.

My third wish is that some consideration has been given to how to tackle the sale and supply of second-hand goods as well as products that are repaired or refurbished.

My fourth wish is that conversations have taken place with a consumer organisation to thrash out how to capture customer details at the point of sale to be able to swiftly locate unsafe products in homes and prevent any incidents before they occur. I’ve concluded many retailers are good at identifying their customers unfortunately many struggle when they are asked to identify products they have sold.

Lastly….I said to Bob….”I’m hoping for the day when I have more photos of my children in my photo library than lateral flow test results…”…

“Ditto David, ditto….”

If you want to find out more about how you can use PAS7100 to improve your recall processes and give you assurance that your doing the right thing, contact me for further details..….