Problem definition and analysis

Interoffice Memo

Consumer Project Manager

Product Safety Analyst

Re: End User Safety - Necessity of Rigorous Testing for Small Packaged Children's Toys

In developing and testing consumer products there must always exist a rigorous protocol to which the investigator must adhere (Ohlson, 1996). The problem herein outlined is one of whether or not rigid product testing is necessary for the testing of consumer related products, namely, small child give-away toys. As such the research question becomes one of whether or not there exists a scientific need to test these small consumer products with respect to safety related issues. In addition, a determination as to what level of acceptance is needed to accept or reject a toy as being safe and whether or not a toy should be produced based on the statistical data received through testing must be made.

Discussion: Sample Procedures. Prior to official lab testing of small give-away child toys it is first necessary to assess the level of consumer concern with respect to safety issues. In order to determine the areas of concern a focus group (25) of participating mothers and fathers who have toddler age children will be assembled together to express their safety concerns with respect to certain small give-away toys. Each participant will be asked to present feedback to the moderator with respect to a toy's size, its moveable/removable parts, tensile strength, material content, color, and design configuration (pointed parts and square or rounded parts). The information gathered by way of a well-defined questionnaire will then be quantified so as to determine which of the aforementioned variables are most significant. The questionnaire will also be designed to collect data referencing certain nested variables such as age, gender, personality, cost, and product longevity. The resulting data from the questionnaire will be quantified and subjected to a statistical analysis to determine the importance of all variables measured; that is, which variable is statistically significant with respect to having a certain child toy manufactured and which variable or variables are not.

With reference to the sample selection issue the product safety tester is obliged to follow the principal of random sampling and if this cannot be achieved then the statistical tool chosen to analyze the data will be modified to correct the non-random selection process. However, randomization is always the best rule to follow. In the above-described focus group situation the 25 member sample will be obtained by the following method: garnering information about the number of toddlers currently attending as many as 10 local daycare centers wherein the enrollment is at least 30. Out of a 300 possible population, 25 mothers and fathers will be randomly selected and asked to participate in the focus group. The actual selection process will be based on the Table of Random Numbers sampling technique (Kerlinger, 1964). Further, knowing that a parent's time is valuable each attendee will be paid a reasonable amount to attend the focus group seminar. The data obtained from the focus group will then be tabulated with respect to that which is most important to parents when selecting a safe toy for their children. Those items most important will then be followed up my actual lab testing of the toy itself.