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Riordan Manufacturing Paper

Riordan Manufacturing has grown from a small plastics research and development firm to a multinational plastics manufacturing power in the brief span of 14 years. This growth has seen Riordan expand their operation to multiple manufacturing and distribution points across North America and China. Riordan now services over 32 customers of varying size, including automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, appliance manufacturers, and beverage bottlers. This rapid growth, enabled through a series of acquisitions, an excellent product line, and aggressive sales, has enabled Riordan to increase market share while maintaining excellent customer relations and competitive pricing. However, this growth has presented the company with a variety of operational challenges that need to be addressed as Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. moves into 2005 and beyond.
In this proposal, the Operations Team is recommending a series of systemic changes that improve Riordan's manufacturing and inventory processes, utilizing computer systems to increase efficiency. This was created to answer the service request logged by Hugh McCauley, COO of Riordan. The directives of this service request were further detailed by Maria Trinh, CIO of Riordan. In a memo dated September 10, 2004, she stated:
The primary goals of the project are:
Document current environment
Forecast of business technology needs for the next five years
Recommendations on systems integration, acquisitions and consolidations
Based on these goals, the Operations department has identified areas of Riordan's business that will yield a significant cost advantage if altered and improved:
Not enough information being shared between customers, sales, finance, manufacturing, and management.
Customers cannot place orders direct without human interaction at Riordan's offices. Customers cannot order during non-business hours at this time.
No...