Current Business Practices Audit
Manuel Oliver, Christopher Nieto Veronica Martinez, Angelica Rubio Shanna Guillen MGT/360
June 19 2014
Fernando Bernal

Abstract
Vice president of operations in Riordan Manufacturing, Mark Netizal, contracted Team B a sustainability company to develop and implement a sustainability plan. He decided to assess the company’s current business practices and allow Team B full access to perform their sustainability audit. Team B ventured and completed the audit finding some new practices that can help Riordan Manufacturing and also identified that Riordan Manufacturing was already leading the industry with some current practices.

Current Business Practices Audit
Riordan Manufacturing is a manufacturing company that produces plastic products, plastic injection moldings, medical products and fan blades and fan housing products. Riordan has three locations inside the United States and a manufacturing plant in the Republic of China. The company by the name Team B has performed a sustainability plan for Riordan Manufacturing in which will provided access to their company’s current business practices. Riordan Manufacturing’s vice president of operations contracted Team B to develop efficient sustainable practices to help promote more environmentally friendly company that can lead its industry to new levels of sustainability.
Team B’s audit inspected the following stages of Riordan Manufacturing’s: California’s receiving and mixing stages, Georgia’s molding and mold fabrication stages, Michigan’s trimming and labeling stages and the Republic of China’s assembly, packaging and shipping plants. Team B (T.B.) performed their audit of the nine stages involved and her eis what they found. Starting with the assembly stage in California, they found that the manufacturer was in compliance with the state and regulatory code. The stage of production used seventeen input materails causing four output materials. The receiving stage would return off spec raw materials back to the vendor and recycle other unused or waste materials.
The team (TB) audited the Michigan plant’s mixing, trimming and labeling stages. Starting with the mixing stage the team (TB) found that the stage uses six input materials which caused 5 output materials. The off spec and spilled products were thrown away. Solvents did follow manufacturer’s recommendations but excess solvents were just rinsed off with water draining into water supply but the used oils were collected by a third party hazardous waste disposal company. The trimming stage used four input materials in which caused five output materials. They would collect the scrap plastic or any off spec and reused them. Again the solvents were apply as recommended by the manufacturer and all excess solvent was rinsed off with into water drain. Again all used oils were collected by a third party company.
The labeling stage in Michigan used only six input materials causing two output materials. The off spec products were collected and thrown away. Just as the previous mixing and trimming stage, the Michigan plant used the same process with the manufactures’ recommendation for machine maintenance. They would rinse excess solvent with water and had used oils collected by a third party company.
Team B travelled to the peach state of Georgia where they audited the molding and mold fabrication stages. In the molding stage they found that they used six input materials that caused seven output materials. The molding fabrication stage used eight input materials which caused eight output materials. Again just like the Michigan plant, both the molding and molding fabrication stages, the machines were maintained as the manufacturer recommended and the oils were collected by a third party company.
The Georgia plant caused a red flag according to the Team B audit. Both stages of the plant would throw away scrap plastic, off spec product, purge materials, metal shavings, slag material, and worn equipment were thrown in the trash. This where Team B is going to recommend some change and recommend other environmentally sound practices later on the paper.
The team travelled to the Republic of China to complete their Riordan Manufacturing’s audit where they audited the assembly, packaging and shipping stages. Although Riordan Manufacturing is located in the Republic of China and has other guidelines that not as strict as the United States codes Riordan still enforces the Riordan Manufacturing American code standards. As a surprise the Chinese plant meet the codes exceptionally well. They went above and beyond of what was expected.
The Chinese did practice the same actions towards the machines recommended maintenance and disposed of the used oils with a third party vendor. What separated the Chinses is that they trained there staff how to application and cleaning of solvents. This means they were not just rinsing the solvents into the water supply, they used proper and environmentally compliant techniques to dispose or wash away excess solvent. Examinations and Recommendations Non-sustainable Business Practices
The business practice audits brought to light three non-sustainable practices. The three practices highlighted by the audit include wasted energy from the plants, the use of toxic cleaning solvents, and spilled ink. These three business practices can be very harmful to the environment. Burning fossil fuels for energy creates gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compounds. These gases cause air pollution. They can cause several kinds of air pollution, particular matter, smog, and ozone (New Energy Alternative, 2008). Air pollution can travel thousands of miles and can harm areas that burn fossil fuels sparingly.
The next non-sustainable practice is the use of toxic cleaning solvents. The release of toxic chemicals from the spent cleaners can cause damage to the ozone layer. This contributes to the greenhouse effect that causes global warming. Global warming raises the earth’s temperature and can cause many environmental problems. Some of those are polar ice caps melting, fires, wild fires, increased hurricanes, and tsunamis are common environmental problems (Environmental Graffiti, 2011). The pollution affects life forms dependent on the land and water resources for life. Water pollution is harmful to the fish that inhabit it creating failing populations and inedible fish stock.
As with the other stages, Riordan Manufacturing, must do all it can to ensure that this process and product are as sustainable as possible. DesJardins (2007) stated, “We could say that sustainable products are those goods and services that meet the real needs of human beings without decreasing the capacity of the biosphere to continue producing goods and services needed by others” (p. 3). The audit shows that there are several non-sustainable aspects. The organization uses electricity, natural gas, adhesives and oils to complete the assembly of the fans. The adhesives used by Riordan Manufacturing that cause air pollution. The organization must move away from any type of adhesives that can damage the biosphere through pollution. Through the assembly process the organization also creates several types of waste that are managed in different ways. Minimizing the waste and pollution created in this process should be a priority for the organization. In the packaging stage this process the organizations uses cardboard boxes, adhesives, ink, oils, electricity, plastic, and straw to package the completed product. Unfortunately the audit also revealed several non-sustainable aspects of this stage. Unfortunately the ink that is used can spill and cause pollution. The adhesives used continue to cause air pollution. There is a waste of energy from the shrink-wrapping process and from the lighting in the building. The ultimate goal would be to operate a completely sustainable operation. However, that is not a completely realistic expectation. This should not discourage the organization to look at this stage in the production process and see what can be done to reduce the non-sustainable aspects. Throughout Riordan Manufacturing Team B has seen efforts in the company trying to become more environments friendly. In the United States there has to be one process throughout California, Georgia and the Michigan plants there has been repetition of how the company rinses possibly harmful chemicals down the drain. As our prior recommendations they should use environmentally safe and tested chemicals, plastic, solvents and dispose of waste wisely not carelessly. They should consider if not enforce new draining techniques with help from third party companies that can help shed some of the cost.
Riordan Manufacturing can enforce regulations throughout the company on how it disposes overall waste. For example in the break rooms, all employees must recycle all metals, plastics and paper used for eating and drinking. Office supplies must be ergonomic, such as paper, pencils, pens and etcetera. Custodial services must use environmentally safe cleaning chemicals that do not contaminate the water or air supply.
All employees should be motivated to comply with the company’s change of direction. There should be corrective consequences when the company ergonomic policies are not meet. These consequences could possibly effect the transition to be accepted and followed sooner than later. Overall Riordan Manufacturing could become the role model and the leader to its industry and cause a chain reaction throughout its industry.

References

New Energy Alternative, 2008. Air Pollution. Retrieved from http://newenergyalternative.com/fossil-fuels/air-pollution-as-fossil-fuels-impacts-on-environment

DesJardins, J.R. (2007). Business, Ethics, and the Environment. Imagining a Sustainable Future. (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.