Riordan Manufacturing Is Upgrade

Riordan Manufacturing IS Upgrade

University of Phoenix

Executive Summary

IS updates at Riordan Manufacturing are necessary to meet future goals. We would like to be your partner, helping you reach the $50 million dollar revenue target. (Riordan Manufacturing Intranet, 2005) Your current information systems state will not enable Riordan to achieve this mark, especially in the finance, accounting and inventory areas. We will demonstrate how systems upgrades at your Atlanta, Georgia and Pontiac, Michigan plants will improve information integrity and availability through your entire organization. This investment in the future will guarantee your financial success of the future.

In examination of your network topography, software and hardware, we have discovered some inherent shortfalls that we can correct in a cost-effective manner. The current state of the Finance and Accounting leaves much to be desired. (Riordan Manufacturing Intranet, 2005) This area is our prime focus for you. Acquiring the Georgia and Michigan sites may have been a promising acquisition; however the state of the financial systems was not taken into consideration. The product revenue's at these plants can be fully realized with data efficiencies that can be found in a better network model. The manual intervention in creation of monthly financial reports is crippling the organization. Increased sales will only amplify this problem.

Our proposal is to model Atlanta and Pontiac sites after the San Jose and China installations. We will leave the Manufacturing Floor systems intact at these plants. This implementation will not only solve your financial systems shortfalls, overall data and information flow your sites will improve dramatically. The ability to "mirror" systems from site to site as a back up plan will now be possible. The plan includes the upgraded of personal computers, network components, and servers. The standardization of the network configuration enables your departments to work with common images and software that will lend itself a continuing ROI by reducing maintenance costs across all sites. A single maintenance plan will be effective at each site. All future upgrades can be rolled out quickly and in a cost-effective manner. Your IT professionals will be able employ best practices across the board without the worry of site specific hardware or software. Six Sigma practices implementation from the Sales Teams will be easily put in place.

This implementation will also enable you to uses your full suite of communication tools in all lines of business. EDI transactions, Bar Code reading, and decision software, such as EDSS, will enhance your senior leaders ability to make sound judgments on a stable base of information at any site. This, of course, becomes a tremendous help in streamlining inventory stock levels, purchase order generation, and vendor delivery predictability. Forecasting raw material needs will no longer be a guessing game. Financial data from each plant will be available from all sites without manual processes.

We welcome the opportunity to partner with Riordan Manufacturing. Together we can make the correct IT investments that will grow Riordan into a $50 million dollar revenue business that stands out among its competitors. The stage will be set to obtain an even greater revenue stream as Riordan's systems grow to handle the companies growing processing demands.

SYSTEMS INVESTIGATION/ANALYSIS

Riordan Manufacturing has several areas that need to be addressed. To obtain the $50 million revenue goal, we have identified the following 4 business requirements that need to be addressed. The Business Requirements of the Service Request are as follows:

1. Establish seamless compatibility between Finance and Accounting Systems.

2. Enable EDI/ Scanning transactional information between vendors, Inventory, and Finance and Accounting systems.

3. Centralize Accounts Receivable and Payable.

4. Government compliance.

Finance and Accounting

The primary business objective of Riordan is to enable seamless compatibly amongst the San Jose, Hangzhou, Albany and Pontiac Plants. This mismatch in systems is causing monumental problems with the Finance and Accounting departments. The current situation does not enable Riordan to close the monthly general ledger for 15-20 days. This creates intense manpower requirements in several areas. The cascading effect of this creates a financial burden on the entire company and is possibly a legal liability. The manual effort requires make the process error prone, causing additional liabilities. External auditors are currently used. This adds to the labor and timeline of general ledger reporting.

Inventory and Billing

Riordan's inventory management and billing systems are currently using manual forms at several process points. These areas will need to be automated. The raw material receiving areas, the inventory clerks office, and the sub-assemblies areas are all using these forms. Material requirements also need to be tied to real customer orders with a computed safety stock. The ordering system is using manual forms via telephone, fax, or from the sales staff. Forms are then manually entered in the customer shipping and billing system. This is done independently at each manufacturing site. There is no coordination between the plants and the San Jose headquarters in customer orders, and the eventual shipping data.

Centralized Accounts Receivable and Payable

Centralizing accounts receivable and payable is affected by the Finance and Accounting system incompatibility. The independent billing systems will need to interact with each other. Headquarters will be able to see the overall financials liabilities and assets of the entire company. Concerns can then be quickly addressed by Accounting, Operations, Sales and Company Executives.

Government Compliance

Government compliance is a legal requirement. Sarbanes-Oxley and 5500 reporting must be done in order to satisfy these requirements. Compiling the data from each site will have to be accurate, organized and automatic. Government compliance and guideline continue to evolve. Riordan Manufacturing must prepare for future growth in this area.