Riordan Service Request - Supply Chain

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.” (Supply Chain Management)

Each department would have a designated person process the information pertaining to the process. The information could be accessible via remote access to allow mobility and flexibility for managers and allow to position resources and staff in vital area of the process. The internet/extranet solution would allow the process of E-Commerce connectivity. Suppliers can access the extranet site to update the data with a valid username and password, and the username determines which part of the extranet can be viewed.

When the supervisor of the receiving area comes in the morning, he or she could view what materials are scheduled to come in by looking at the link from the suppliers. The supervisor would have an approximate time trucks arrive by selecting the tracking capability within a network link to the supplier. Updates can be generated to the database instantly before the shipments arrive and creating a production plan for the days to come.

Assumptions toward the recommendations are the following; computer systems updated with HP xw8600 workstations, HP Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstations, HP Thin Clients, HP ProLiant ML570 G4 Server series, HP Integrated Lights Out 1.92 Global Software (Hewlett-Packard); also the departments at each site are under the same structure.

The network system is located at the corporate headquarters in San Jose and requires an information technology department dedicated toward keeping the system operational. Development of the education department is responsible for training throughout the company, factories and suppliers with connectivity to the network. An established regional trainer is responsible for the individual departments with a dotted line to corporate education for training new hires and executing system implementations. Having a regional point of contact avoids delays with network updates and contributes with production when training is not required.

Riordan Manufacturing Re-Structuring

Riordan Manufacturing is on the cutting edge of dynamic plastic injection molding. International acclaim has followed the company as it has expanded globally and created exciting new products. With a staff numbering well over a thousand the company needs to create an effective and efficient computer system utilization that will expedite the processes between each department and employee. System upgrades are crucial to keep the organization at the forefront of its field and by suggesting significant improvements to the IT department this can be achieved. By providing Riordan Manufacturing with a better supply chain that can be used to cross-communicate between buying, receiving and the inventory and shipping necessary for their products. This model also suggests an intricate intranet that will have access to four plants and an extranet that will simplify the process for supplier and customer access. If Riordan IT department chooses to employ the suggestions that will improve inventory and manufacturing processes, the company will be in a better position to charge more for their product and provide exemplary customer service at a fraction of the cost. Networking within the outside of the plants is crucial to share important information. A company this large needs to be able to communicate with outside sources as well as people within the building.

The problems that stem from Riordan Manufacturing can be seen because of poor planning the company has show in updating equipment and keeping up with current trends and software necessary to streamline business needs in today’s 21st century economy. The networking in the company is poorly done as it does not incorporate the global schematic. The infrastructure of each building does not use any time of network connection, which limits the way employees can send confidential information over secure servers. Email