Supply Chain Design

Riordan Supply Chain Design

OPS/571

July 29, 2013

Riordan Supply Chain Design

Riordan Manufacturing is a worldwide plastics manufacturing company that employs 550 people and has projected annual earnings of $46 million (Riordan Manufacturing, 2013). The company’s products include plastic beverage containers made in Georgia, custom plastic parts produced in Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced in China. The subject of this paper is to determine the company’s manufacturing strategy, create a process flow diagram for the electric fan supply chain, select two metrics to evaluate performance of the electric fan supply chain, and describe the supplier relationship. This paper will also include the description of lean production principles, a business forecasting technique for the electric fans, a sales forecast for electric fans, and an Aggregate Production Plan, Master Schedule, and Materials Requirement Plans for electric fans based off the sales forecast.

Riordan Manufacturing Strategy

Riordan Manufacturing employs 550 employees with the sales and production levels fluctuating slightly each month of the year (Riordan Manufacturing, 2013). One can assume that Riordan’s manufacturing strategy is a stable workforce-variable work hours strategy. The company varies the output by varying the number of hours worked with the help of flexible work schedules or overtime when needed (Jacobs & Chase, 2011). By varying the number of work hours the company matches production quantities to orders.

This strategy provides workforce continuity and avoids many of the tangible and intangible costs of hiring and laying off associated with the chase strategy. Employees feel more secure and are more motivated to work as opposed to employees working for companies that use chase strategy. The company using the stable workforce-variable work hours strategy has also fewer issues with labor unions.

A Process Flow Diagram for the Electric Fan Supply Chain

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