Executive Summary
Riordan Manufacturing “is a plastics manufacturer employing 550 people with projected annual earnings of $46 million.” (Riordan, 2004) The company headquarters is located in San Jose, California and production sites within Pontiac, Michigan and Albany, Georgia. The Michigan location is responsible for the injection molding process, creating of dies, custom fabrication, design and coloring of plastics. The Georgia site creates unique plastic bottles as specified by the customer.
Riordan expanded their production and design of electric fans to an overseas operation plant that partnered with Hangzhou, China. Plastic polymers are purchased locally and melted/injected into molds that creates the individual plastic parts.
The company’s customers consist of appliance, automotive parts and aircraft manufacturers along with beverage makers, healthcare services and the Department of Defense. Customer demands increased the demand for a larger production of plastics and as a recognized Fortune 1000 enterprise; Riordan requires to stay competitive in a constantly changing business by use of the latest technology.
The current supply chain process in place is not efficient to the Riordan Manufacturing Company. The main problem is no communication between departments, factories, and suppliers, which is causing abundance of wasted man hours and over production of products. The goal is to provide communication between departments, factories, and suppliers; thus creating an efficient and effective way of meeting customer expectations and reduce product waste.
Recommendations based on analysis require updating the supply chain management, creation of local area network, wide area network and connection of an extranet system that would communicate between departments and suppliers. The network would have department specific login and information based on the functionality of the site. Improving the communication is a way suppliers could see specific requirements based on sales. Sales department would have instant knowledge of the amount of merchandise available to the customers and an instant inventory system showing completion of products stored in the warehouse.
Selection and set-up of the network is necessary to the success of this project. A Client/Server network is needed to implement through a TCP/IP protocol. Each site functions as a local area network linked together as a wide area network. Users having access to the system can exchange information instantly.
Current inventory and manufacturing process would improve by updating the current supply chain system. Supply chain management “is the control of the supply process from the supplier, manufacturer, inventory, sales and customer. Supply chain management oversees the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished inventory.
Riordan Manufacturing, a company that is wholly owned by Riordan Industries, a Fortune 1000 enterprise specializes in the field of plastic injection molding. Riordan Manufacturing was initially Riordan Plastics, Inc., a company founded by Dr. Riordan in 1991 to process polymers into high tensile strength plastic substrates. Due to its initial success and venture capital obtained, it was able to expand and take on a new identity hence the name change. Its products include plastic beverage containers produced at its plant in Albany, Georgia, custom plastic parts produced at its plant in Pontiac, Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced at its facilities in Hangzhou, China. The company's research and development is done at the corporate headquarters in San Jose. Riordan's major customers are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers.
Although Riordan Manufacturing has a generic strategic direction, a comprehensive strategic plan reevaluation and development must occur after the move to China. Environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, evaluation, and control are fundamental to the creation of a strategic plan (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010). Because, strategic planning is integral to the corporate strategy and success of Riordan the board of directors' requesting Team B formulate a comprehensive strategic plan for their organization.
Scott and Westbrook (1991) and New and Payne (1995) describe supply chain management as the chain linking each element of the manufacturing and supply process from raw materials through to the end user, encompassing several organizational boundaries.
Behind every product manufactured there are parts, fasteners, gloves, welds, holes that are drilled, and maybe a headache or two. These are all products that are sold and manufactured by the companies W.W. Grainger and Fastenal Company. Both of these companies are in the top ten in revenue for the industrial supply industry and I just so happen to work at one of them, that being Fastenal Co.
The implementation phase of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the most perplexing and crucial part of the project. Riordan Manufacturing has carefully chosen the stakeholders to ensure implementation of the Human Resources system. Going forward, a decision needs to be made in regards to what departments get the system installed first to last. The first group to use this new HR system will be the Information Technology department, followed by Human Resources. Going in this order will be the most strategic in gaining acceptance and will also train the IT folks how to use it so they can support it the end users. Lastly the remaining departments will have the software pushed to the workstations, one group at a time.
Chinese consumers however suspect that the quality of the locally made Evoque is inferior than imported ones. Mohit Arora, executive director at J.D. Power Asia Pacific, a research house in Singapore, said being one of the last entrants, JLR has been squeezed between a diving if not slowing market and aggressive stance adopted by some German companies which doubled their efforts on products and distribution
George Mackee, manager of Ardnak Plastic Inc., runs one of small hub-sized equipment manufacturing plant divisions in Hondo, TX. Ardnak Plastic Inc. employs several of the residents of Hondo to work extreme hours and most times under strenuous working condition.
“Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion and all logistic activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third parties service providers and customers. In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies.’
Supply chain management is basically refers to the fundamental supply chain analysis of the organization which predominantly describes functionalities from source to the delivery point. In this process of delivery, supply chain management framework divides in four categories: In Planning the products and suppliers evaluated and selected, Sourcing pull the information process including contracting, ordering and expediting, Moving is a physical process from suppliers to end user and Paying is the financial process including payment and performance measurement.
Supply chain management has been defined as that process that involves the management of information, materials, and all the finances that are handled within and across the entire supply chain process (Christopher, 2016). The management is usually done through out the entire supply chain management from that moment when the suppliers are involved through all the manufacturing activities, different distribution activities, and the way that the products are served to the final product consumer (Turban, et al., 2002). The process also includes all the activities that different organizations offers to their customers as after sale services for purposes perfecting their services and products towards their highly valued customers (Christopher,
Toyota’s core competencies seem simplistic, yet they are very powerful. There are two in which they focus on which is continuous improvement and respect for people. These core competencies are a part of their production system, better known as the Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS is based on the philosophy “completely eliminating all waste”. Excess inventory, defective products, and unnecessary processing steps are all inclusive when discussing excessive waste, which eventually negatively effects the corporation as a whole. In 1924, Sakichi Toyoda created the Toyoda Automatic Loom, which improved productivity and work efficiency by eliminating wasteful practices and defective products. Kiichiro Toyoda believed that “the ideal conditions for creating things are more successful when machines, facilities, and people work together to add value without generating any waste.” (The orgin of the toyota production system,
It is undeniable that Inventory Management is an important key to success at Walmart. This paper will discuss the two main methods of Inventory Management used by Wal-Mart: Material Requirements Planning and Just-in Time. Next we write about the technical means of keeping track of inventories, like RFID tags. We conclude by discussing how Wal-Mart, one of the world’s largest retailers, manages its inventories. Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Walmart needs to make sure that consumers are satisfied all the time, not only with the quality of service being provided to them, but with the quality of the product they are planning.
A supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products, and deliver the products to customers through a distribution system [1]. The basic objective of supply chain is to “optimize performance of the chain to add as much value as possible for the least cost possible.
Supply chain would not be efficient and receptive if inventory wasn't been able properly. Inventory management is definitely a way of carrying materials from raw components to the final customer, thus managing the movements and flow throughout the supply chain. Without inventory managing, supply chain movement would certainly not in existent. Every method must be managed in line with the fulfillment in the ultimate priority that is the fact that consumer pleasure. Supply chain carries investment to fulfill uncertainties and mismatch regarding demand and supply. Smart management of the supply chain is gained by integrating the strategies business processes of the partners within a supply chain in order to make certain the flow and storage can be coordinated as this can be completed within the functional area of products on hand management as well. In summarize, effective supply chain supervision is performed by having a good inventory management. The two ought to end up being coordinated with each various other especially in monitoring the flow of inventory within just the supply chain. Any mistakes with the inventory guidelines would consistently influence the supply chain that's why investment management and supply chain administration processes should be included that may result to the success of a company if enforced successfully and effectively. Also, it's significant that managers should consider to take actions in lowering the quantity of inventory required in purchase to decrease cost expected thus raise the responsiveness in the supply chain. If inventory can be managed successfully then presently there would most likely a good management of supply chain as well. They're connected with each other with one another and if one of these doesn't fit with the other, after that it'd certainly lead to the
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).