Quality Assurance
Our goal at Little Tikes Commercial is to ensure that our customers are 100% satisfied with the play equipment that we design and manufacture. To ensure you receive the highest quality product in the industry, we’ve implemented the latest ISO processes throughout our organization.
Quality Design
Regardless of your playground expertise, Little Tikes Commercial has the tools available to help you design the playground of your dreams. Our highly advanced, proprietary FunBuilder® design software guarantees to build the playground of your dreams that also meets all industry safety standards. This unique software is used by all of our factory trained sales representatives worldwide and allows for your input in real-time, while the design is being created. FunBuilder also allows our representatives to upload a picture of your site so you can see how your final design will look in the actual setting.
Furthermore, the FunBuilder program uploads orders directly into our order entry system, which ensures that no errors occur along the way. This means that your playground will arrive just as ordered.
Quality Manufacturing
- Little Tikes Commercial uses “tried and true” state-of-the-art manufacturing practices that have proven efficient and effective over time. In 2000, the entire Little Tikes Commercial manufacturing facility incorporated best practices from the Toyota Production System (TPS). This was the first manufacturing system of its kind in the commercial playground industry:Just-In-Time (JIT) – Every playground that we build is built one at a time when the order is placed. This process produces a very high quality end product. It is an extremely efficient method of production which ultimately translates to delivering exactly what the customers ordered and improved customer satisfaction.
- Jidoka – This simply means to build into a production process the capability to immediately respond to customer changes.
- Kaizen – Kaizen has become the focal point of our manufacturing culture. Kaizen means a “change for the better” and is the process of a multi-functional team looking at and resolving issues. Out environment is team oriented which gives all of our manufacturing personnel a sense of ownership and pride in the products we produce, on every order.
Little Tikes Commercial is also an ISO 9001-2000 certified manufacturer. ISO 9001-2000 is a quality management system that aims to provide both quality assurance and enhance customer satisfaction. To retain our ISO certified manufacturer status, Little Tikes Commercial developed specific ISO processes for the type of manufacturing that we do. We also start with the highest quality raw materials.
Quality Materials
Since Little Tikes Commercial is part of the PlayPower family, your purchase will benefit from the experience of not only the Little Tikes Commercial supply team, but the PlayPower supply chain team, which is constantly looking for the highest quality and innovative materials to be used in the manufacturing of our playground products. We start with using the highest quality of raw materials. This ensures that customers get the brightest and best quality products delivered on-site for their playground. Some of the material features and benefits of our product include:
- Allied Steel Tubing—all of our steel tubing contains a corrosion resistant coating on the interior of the tube and a Flo-Coat®, 99.99% pure zinc galvanizing coat, is applied to the exterior of the tube to eliminate rusting
- Epoxy Primer —applied to all of our painted steel components to provide superior paint adhesion—an industry exclusive!
- Polyester Dry Powder Coating Paint System—uses only super durable paints to ensure color longevity. Our paints are electrostatically applied, non-toxic, and lead-free to keep children safe
- High quality virgin resins with UV stabilizers—creates vibrant plastic components such as slides and climbers
- Two-color PVC Dip Line—provides soft, vinyl coated decks, steps, ramps, bridges, and site furnishings. Our PVC contains UV stabilizers, color pigmentation, and flame retardants to give your playground many years of attractive use
- Steel Clamps -- give strength and durability
Environmentally Mindful
Protecting and preserving the environment for our children's future is a priority of everyone at Little Tikes Commercial. We are committed to recycling by using pre- and post-consumer recycled material wherever possible. We ensure that nearly everything we make can be recycled. From steel and aluminum to rubber and plastic, almost everything we make uses some amount of recycled material. Our KidBuilders®, PlayBuilders®, and MaxPlay® product lines consist of 76.5 to 87% post-consumer content. We also use pre-consumer materials in 4 to 17% of these brands. In all, our play systems’ total recycled material content totals 80.5 to 100 %*.
* Pre- and post-consumer content percent useage is based on a yearly use. Individual components or models content percentage may vary.