Riordan Manufacturing has grown from a small plastics research and development firm to a multinational plastics manufacturing power in the brief span of 14 years. This growth has seen Riordan expand their operation to multiple manufacturing and distribution points across North America and China. Riordan now services over 32 customers of varying size, including automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, appliance manufacturers, and beverage bottlers. This rapid growth, enabled through a series of acquisitions, an excellent product line, and aggressive sales, has enabled Riordan to increase market share while maintaining excellent customer relations and competitive pricing. However, this growth has …show more content…
The recommendations for improvement fall into four distinct categories; streamline the inventory process provide an automated, customer-accessible ordering system (which allows customer to track products ordered in transit), create a centralized sales database to eliminate duplicated effort and streamline communication consolidate Riordan's distributed network infrastructure
One of the biggest improvements to be made that would assist the manufacturing, delivery and shipping systems are changes to the inventory management system. The inventory management system needs to be upgraded to a less manual, more automated system utilizing barcode technology. Barcodes would be placed on every product built and/or raw materials received by Riordan. Inventory would be scanned when picked from the shelves, would be scanned when placed on transit, and would be scanned upon arrival and departure at any Riordan facility. This would be put into place for both raw materials arriving as well as products that are post-production and ready for distribution. With accurate inventory counts, the company could better forecast low inventory levels and drive manufacturing based on the available inventory and projected orders from our customers. The system will have reorder quantities established and will auto-reorder when inventory levels get
The ordering process begins with the decision of the customer to submit their order simply by either calling, faxing or mailing their order information. When a customer calls in their order, the customer service representatives takes down pertinent customer information, which includes the customer's name, billing and shipping address, product number and description, quantity and shipping instructions. While taking down the order, the customer service representative access the company's order entry system where inventory checks are conducted as well as credit checks are processed. In addition, delivery options are advised to the customer. Here the customer decides
This can be done at a fraction of what it would cost the businesses to build their own systems and infrastructure. This system provides businesses with a network of distribution centers, warehouses, inventory management, and customer call centers so they can take orders on their web sites.
Some of the disadvantages are: limiting the vendors may limit the variety of products, relinquishing inventory control over to vendors and distributors may negatively impact their customer satisfaction, and the customers may decide to deal with supplier directly which could put Best Buy at risk of loosing their business.
Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. is a fortune 1000 company with revenues in excess of $1 billion (University of Phoenix, 2012). This wholly owned company is a global plastics manufacturer that employs 550 people with annual earnings of $46 million. Riordan has a reputation for being an industry leader in the industry of polymer materials and has various clout heavy clients such as the Department of Defense and major automotive companies. The company recently went global by relocating its Michigan operation of fan manufacturing to China. This paper will explain lean production and capacity planning for the new process
Riordan Manufacturing is a profitable plastics manufacturer with annual earnings of $46 million. The company is wholly owned by Riordan Industries, a Fortune 1000 company with revenues over $1 billion. The following are some of the products produced by Riordan Industries: plastic bottles, fans, heart valves, medial stents, and custom plastic parts (Virtual Organization, 2009). This compliance plan will state the company's legal responsibilities and regulations necessary to continue earning a profit. The plan will address the laws affecting the plastic industry and guidelines to ensure management and employees understand and obey the laws. The focus of the
Riordan’s goals are to reduce costs by 10% and cycle time by 15%. This is increasingly difficult because Riordan has multiple products with varying demands, multiple prices, and capacity requirements. Riordan will use its forecasted sales figures to build a materials and production schedule for 2007 and beyond if needed. This plan must take into consideration existing inventory and resources as well as planned changes. For this plan to be effective, it must be followed closely and clear checkpoints must be defined to provide the flexibility needed to hit cost reduction and cycle time improvement goals.
Riordan Manufacturing 's current process is not very efficient. It calls for multiple suppliers to ship parts to Riordan 's raw material storage area at regular intervals. These intervals have been set up in advance using production history as a guideline. This process causes a huge inventory spike during slow production times thus requiring a large amount of storage space and upfront costs. There is not a standardized method for the individual assembly areas to communicate parts shortages back to the raw material storage area. Also, as indicated during our analysis, the network infrastructure and current systems at the plant are very outdated causing system slowdowns and reducing plant efficiency.
The completed product is stored in a storage room waiting for customer sales. From the storeroom, the customers can pick up their fans from the manufacture. Riordan’s transportation department uses a less expensive Chinese shipping company to ship locally. Logistic shipping internationally is similar to the method within the United Sates. In the event of forecasting shortage issues, Riordan integrated inventory methods that show opportunities to reduce costs and enhance services. The company maintains extra stock of polymer’s but not the electric motors. Nevertheless, the motor supplier maintains extra stock at their facility reducing the overhead for Riordan.
Riordan Manufacturing Industries is a worldwide manufacturer of plastics who employs 550 employees and they are a Fortune 1000 enterprise. Presently, there are three sites that they manufacture from in Hangzhou China they manufacture fan parts made out of plastic. In Pontiac, Michigan they create plastic parts for customer and in Albany, Georgia they produce plastic beverage container. On the other hand
Employing new merchandising tools aid the company in realizing lean production measures with its supply chain. Forecasting capabilities substantiated through “The combined efforts of our supply chain, merchandising, operations and finance teams, we reduced inventory by almost half a billion dollars in 2009, while at the same time improving our in-stock position” (Datamonitor 360, 2010).
For retailers, P&G has developed a sophisticated ordering application whereby retailers can now order via wired phone or wirelessly via a mobile
Riodran Manufacturing, Incorporated produces plastics and has a few diverse areas all around the United States including: Michigan, which has practical experience in custom plastic parts, Georgia makes plastic refreshment compartments and California which is the head of innovative work, and in addition a joint venture of China which fabricates plastic fan parts. Every area has obtained their budgetary and bookkeeping systems and all information into their own particular systems is sent to the corporate station in San Jose, California. They give the data to corporate to be joined together into corporates data systems. This data is given to the San Jose area either by hardcopy reports that must be re-entered or information records that must be changed over to become compatible with San Jose's data systems.
This organization developed and sold an inventory tagging technology which permits its customers to streamline their supply chains.
Excellent customer service is a way to set the organization apart from its competitors. Differentiation can be achieved through fast and correct execution of product ordering. To improve on the order process it is important to have the correct information provided in a timely fashion to all divisions. For integration to be successful information must be available throughout the entire supply chain.
A common way of decreasing the amount of inventory a business holds on a daily basis is implementing a just-in-time inventory process. A Just-In-Time inventory system means that the business gets the materials for a product, as they are demanded. “The electronic data