Sam said:
I would question the use of the word "positive" with recall. How would you make recall positive, as opposed to just being a recall. Is there a negative recall? Or is it the manner in which we approach a recall; with a positive or negative attitude.
Could we be searching for the term "proactive recall" versus "reactive recall?"
Proactive = supplier recognizes issue before customers complain
Reactive = customers complain and supplier confirms, then implements recall.
From my QS and ISO 1994 days, I vaguely recall the term "positive recall" applied specifically to products when it was discovered that instruments used to inspect and approve product for shipment/distribution were found to be faulty and out of tolerance. Therefore, the process was
prophylactic [i.e. we aren't sure whether the product is faulty or not, but we better check to be on the safe side]
versus
corrective [we know there is a problem with the product and we want to prevent faulty products from causing other, more serious problems.]
There was NEVER any mention (to my memory) of "positively" recalling a product which met the original dimensional specs, but was found to fail in function due to a design flaw or unforeseen condition (environmental? abuse? etc.?)
As a customer, I'd sure want my supplier to give me a heads up about products which met design specs, but could fail anyway.