Business Solutions to Inventory FunctionsDuring a brief span of 14 years Riordan Manufacturing has grown from a small plastics research and development firm to a multinational plastics manufacturing power. Riordan has expanded their operation to multiple manufacturing and distribution points across North America and China as a result of this growth. Riordan now services over 32 customers of varying in size, including automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, appliance manufacturers and bottle bottlers. Enabled through a series of acquisitions, an excellent product line, and aggressive sales, this growth has enabled Riordan to increase market sh ...view middle of the document...
Customers cannot order during non-business hours at this time.* No real-time inventory system. No visibility into finished product and raw material inventory levels. No verifiable inventory levels without manual counts.* Disparate IT environment. Servers not centralized creating extra administration time and travel expense.* Expensive IT costs. Workstations are full systems and vary by OS and system type* Connectivity between locations no longer fit business needs. Satellite link is expensive.The financial allotment for this project is $150,000, which has already been earmarked in the FY05 budget. This plan has been constructed and will be implemented as per the directives of the Riordan mission statements. The Riordan Corporation has a very strong company mission statement. The mission includes focus, customer relationships, the employees, and future goals. Without these mission statements, the company would not have a solid ground to build upon for strong company business.The areas of focus include:* Six Sigma, leading edge R & D and exceeding ISO 9000 standards define the attitudes and abilities of Riordan manufacturing.* We are industry leaders in using polymer materials to provide solutions to our customer challenges.* Our R & D is, and will remain, the industry leader in identifying industry trends.Customer Relationships:* We will strive to be a solution provider for our customers and not be a part of our customer's challenges.* Long-term relationships will be sought by maintaining rigorous quality controls, innovative solutions, a responsive business attitude, and reasonable pricing.Our Employees* We will maintain an innovative and team oriented working environment.* By ensuring that our employees are well informed and properly supported, we will provide a climate focused on the long-term viability of our company.Our Future* We must be focused in achieving and maintaining reasonable profitability to assure that the financial and human capital is available for sustained growth.Riordan Manufacturing has a number of key operational areas that need to be improved if the company wishes to keep pace with the double-digit sales forecasts for FY05. The recommendations for improvement fall into four distinct categories:* 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 infrastructureOne 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, wo...
