11. Prepare for post design safety activities:
    
    
    • Periodic factory inspections will be required (at your company's expense) by the regulatory agencies that certified your product. These inspections are to ensure that your product composition, the production process and quality control are exactly as claimed when the product was initially scrutinized by the regulatory agency during its Initial Factory inspection. Inspections are from one to four times per year, depending on the Agency.
    • Changes in regulations will occur as standards harmonizing creeps forward and as new standards and levels of compliance develop.
    • Serialize the product in production and develop a product incident-reporting system just as soon as the new product moves into the marketplace. It will enable you to detect and track early signs of previously unsuspected product hazards or other quality deficiencies.

There is a tradeoff between protecting people, property and the environment while trying to foster innovation. Up-front due diligence and product specific tradeoffs will help guide the way. An argument can be made that attention to product safety can actually support or at least not impede product innovation. Glenn Hubbard, Dean of Columbia Business School, argues¹⁴ that the US tort system creates a "deadweight loss" cost for corporations, which...

"...arises because these costs distort decisions by producers, who generate less innovation because of high litigation outlays and by consumers who pay higher prices for goods and services because of embedded litigation costs."

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¹⁴ Businessweek | August 9, 2004, pg. 18