Riordan Manufacturing

Riordan Production Plan

Kim Bradley, Andre Cosley, Jamie Costner, Jamie Rhodes & Michael Yost

OPS 571/ Operations Management

14 September 2010

Theodore Curry

Riordan Production Plan

Riordan Manufacturing, owned by Riordan Industries, is a Fortune 1000 enterprise which produces domestically and internationally. Riordan offers a variety of products, including plastic beverage containers, custom plastic parts, and plastic fan parts. The focus at the Hangzhou, China plant focuses on producing electric fan parts (University of Phoenix, 2010). The goal of Riordan is to continue its Six Sigma production and top of the industry Research and Development philosophy. Riordan plans to implement Lean Production and Strategic Capacity Planning at the Hangzhou, China plant.

Current Production

Riordan has decided to follow a Lean Production philosophy and will scrutinize the production process at the Hangzhou plant. According to Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano (2006), lean production is the goal of accomplishing high-volume production by using minimal resources and input and keeping minimal inventories. In order to identify which resources might be eliminated, the process must be examined. In effort to identify Riordan’s need to accomplish its goals of lean manufacturing we will examine what bottlenecks they may have, and the current use of their supply chain.

Hangzhou Plant Process

Riordan Manufacturing’s intranet outlines in detail the process followed by the Hangzhou plant. There are a total of eleven materials listed as input by Riordan: HDPE plastic pellets, cardboard, plastic film, packing straw, adhesives, ink, assorted electric fan motors, solvent cleaners, lubricating oils, mold release agents, and electricity (University of Phoenix, 2010). Some of these resources are used in several of the steps, such as the adhesives, which helps to eliminate the use of excess materials. There are a total of six departments in the Hangzhou plant. The resources move from the...