Riordan Manufacturing: a review of the business’ systems and sub-systems.

Published 21 Feb 2017

Table of content

Mission

Guntz and his colleagues (2007) mention Riordan Manufacturing as a very important player within the industry to which it belongs to – the field of plastic injection molding – and it is because of this that the company has gained international acclaim for the products that they launch in the markets. As a result, their mission focuses heavily on making their company the best in the plastics manufacturing industry as they enter the twenty-first century. To achieve this, Guntz, et al (2007) recommends the company to pay more attention to its management of the manufacturing processes rather than just ensuring the quality of their products in order to meet the demands of their customers.

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Description

Owned by the Riordan Industries and established in 1991, Riordan Manufacturing Inc. is said to be a fortune 1000 enterprise (Riordan Manufacturing, 2006), with an estimated annual earnings of forty six million dollars (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007a). As earlier stated, it is one of the most important leaders to the industry to which it belongs in, thus gaining an international acclaim. The headquarters, together with the Research and Development department of the said firm is located in San Jose California yet a number of its plants are distributed across the United States (Georgia and Michigan) as well as in the People’s Republic of China. Their major customers are the following, as cited by Berg (2007): (1) automotive parts manufacturers; (2) aircraft manufacturers; (3) the Department of Defense; (4) makers of beverages and bottlers; and finally, (5) manufacturers of appliances.

Finance and Accounting

According to the article entitled Riordan Finance and Accounting (2008), the said organization is currently having problems in terms of gathering data and other pieces of information from their departments that are in charge with finance and accounting. This is due to the fact that their plants which operate outside California where their headquarters are based in have different systems that deal with finance and accounting. Simply put, the organization needs to develop a new sub-system in order to efficiently manage the information obtained from their different locations that pertain to finance and accounting. Furthermore, it is suggested that they make use of softwares that could help them report the data that come from the following sources (Riordan Finance and Accounting, 2008): (1) the general ledger; (2) account payable; (3) accounts receivable; (4) order entry; (5) procurement; (6) sales and purchasing history; (7) invoicing and shipping; (8) payroll; and lastly, (9) financial reporting. Finally, the article reiterates that the development and implementation of the system that has been previously mentioned should not interfere with the affairs that the company has with their customers. In the same manner, it must also be assured that billing and invoicing must not be affected by whatever changes the company would incorporate in order to ensure customer satisfaction.

Human Resources and Legal in Riordan Manufacturing: A Review

Human Resources

Currently, Riordan Manufacturing is managing over five hundred fifty employees which fall under three demographics: (1) the baby boomers; (2) those belonging to the so-called Generation X and finally, (3) the members of Generation Y. As earlier mentioned, the mission of Riordan Manufacturing focused heavily on making themselves the leader in the industry where they belong in, thus they have applied a customer-relationship management system. Unfortunately, this strategy significantly lowered the employees’ level of satisfaction especially within the areas of compensation and benefits (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007a). This then becomes one of the reasons why the company is losing its key personnel thus affecting their sales records.

Once again, one of the problems currently being experienced by employees of Riordan Manufacturing is the compensation benefits that they receive which is said to be below the industry average. Because of this, many authors suggest the necessity of revising the current compensation plan of Riordan in order to meet the needs of the organization (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007). It is through this that they would be able to raise their pay scale and base it upon the performance of their employees, Riordan Manufacturing (2007a) asserts. An increase in the job satisfaction levels of the employees that the latter would perform according to the mission of the company.

Legal

The legal system of Riordan Manufacturing should also be examined as this is another very important sub-system that must be readjusted in order to meet the needs of the organization as they manage their businesses in other locations.

For the legal issues they face such as civil litigation, tax law, real estate matters, employment law, immigration matters, the compensation of their workers, labor laws and customs regulations, Riordan Manufacturing consults the Litteral and Finkel law firm (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007b).

The article Riordan Manufacturing (2007b) also suggests that the legal department must work together with the finance and accounting systems as well as the human resources management team. It is through this that they would be able to efficiently review the policies and procedures of Riordan Manufacturing to ensure the legality of their working environment (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007b).

Sales and Marketing in Riordan Manufacturing: A Review

The Sales and Marketing Department

Just like the information coming from their finance and accounting department, the data pertaining to the sales and marketing are also unmanaged effectively. The operations department is said to have played a very important role in Riordan Manufacturing as this takes care of the activities of the company whether in Georgia, Michigan, China or at its headquarters in San Jose California.

According to the article entitled Riordan Manufacturing (2006), the databases of the marketing and sales department of Riordan manufacturing vary from one location to another. As a result, their historical sales records are dissimilar from one another. As a result, it becomes impossible for the company to project sales and at the same time, come up with projects that would cover future marketing plans. In the same manner, the records of the company with regard to figures concerning sales and marketing are not recorded electronically but are kept on paper and microfiche (Riordan Manufacturing, 2008). Simply put, the most important problem being experienced by the sales and marketing department of Riordan Manufacturing is related with their lack of technological support which researchers have considered as something essential in order to efficiently analyze past customer data in order to provide better services to current consumers (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007a).

In their hopes to give better services to their customers, Riordan Manufacturing aims to consolidate past customer information (Apollo Group, 2005). As a result, the company faces a necessity to improve the records that are coming from their sales and marketing departments in order to ensure that they are working in a certain manner that meets the demands of their customers (Riordan Manufacturing, 2006).

It is because of the aforementioned then that the company is working towards the improvement of recording data within their marketing and sales department in order to consolidate pieces of information coming from their plants in Michigan, Georgia and China. According Riordan Manufacturing (2008), one of the manners by which they consolidate their information is through the use of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The CRM system is defined as the system that manages customers and at the same time, used as a tool in order to track the activities of the company that is related to their customers (Riordan Manufacturing, 2008).

Operations in Riordan Manufacturing

Finally, this paper would look into the operations of Riordan Manufacturing, the problems they face and finally, the suggestions given by different researchers in order to effectively manage the said department. The article Riordan Manufacturing (2007b) notes that one of the problems that is being experienced by Riordan Manufacturing with their operations is the significant time that they devote to processes –receiving, shipping and inventory– which could be automated, thus speeding up the entire procedure being undergone by the company. Their process involves the following steps: first, the supervisor checks the shipping documents and compares them with the other files pertaining to the orders of their customers. Afterwards, the area supervisor then forwards this log of the received materials to the receiving clerk in order for the latter to update the system. As a result, there is a tendency for the information to be delayed, thus contributing to the inefficiency of the company.

In the same manner, it is said that the operations department is usually dependent upon humans and their interaction with one another, thus allowing more space for human error. As a result, the department becomes inefficient and is not that capable of providing the best services to their customers.

As a result, researchers then suggest the use of technology in order to speed up their operations and reduce the human error that usually accompanies their processes. It is through this then that the company would be able to deliver better services and products that are of quality to their customers (Riordan Manufacturing, 2007b).

References

  • Apollo Group. (2005). Riordan Manufacturing. PHX: Apollo Group Inc.
  • Berg, M. (2007). Riordan Manufacturing Inc. PHX: University of Phoenix.
  • Guntz, G. et al. (2007). Review of Riordan Manufacturing Business Systems. PHX: University of Phoenix.
  • Riordan Finance and Accounting (2008).
  • Riordan Manufacturing. (2006).
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