Riordan Manufacturing
Maurice A Murphy Sr, Calvin Baker, Steven Riddle, Latisha McCown
CIS/205
August 31, 2011
David Martin

Riordan Manufacturing Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. is a Fortune 1000 enterprise based in San Jose, California. The major exports of the corporation are plastics and containers. Currently, their Inventory tracking systems, Network, communications line, and Green Initiatives are the only areas of improvement we currently track for Riordan Manufacturing. As a whole, their operation is in complete working order, although certain enhancements will smooth the flow of information and the ability to track parts and raw materials. Network enhancements will be required to accept the new systems. Communications lines will be enhanced to offer VTC (Video Teleconferencing) in order to prevent the need for physical travel between manufacturing plants. These enhancements will cut down on the need for personnel and travel compensation. Our overall goal is to provide Riordan with a system not only capable of making a series of tedious operations easier and faster to accomplish, but enhance communication ability for management between work sites. Currently Riordan has a decent setup for their day to day operations. Our proposed enhancements will only require an additional server to act as a permanent database operator, bar code scanners and printers to keep track of incoming and outgoing inventories. The barcode scanners we have chosen come with tracking software for inventory management (WASP). It also has the capability of communicating with our database software in order to make reports available from VPN anywhere in the world. Understandably, the systems will need enhanced security with the large amounts of information now being opened from the business, but we have proposed to purchase information restricting software (Cisco) and massive anti-virus software (Norton). While the costs of this new system may seem stifling in the beginning, upkeep is rather easy and replacement parts are easily accessible. As well as inventory enhancements, we have also added a Video Tele-Conferencing System (VTC) for management and training purposes. How do these modifications improve or help Riordan Manufacturing, Riordan Industries? I’m glad you asked. What we are providing to Riordan in the way of Inventory Management will not only cut down on the amount of errors processed by staff, but the amount of time it actually takes in order to do a full inventory log. Tracking systems will be emplaced to track incoming materials, and a small conversion system will track how much inventory was used by dividing out product/materials. The rate at which we can now track incoming materials and outgoing materials, new delivery schedules can be produced in order to prevent overstocking of certain materials. The inventory management system will not only provide detailed information in spreadsheet form, it will also produce a database entry for further enhanced information gathering. While this requires the addition of a server to keep track of database and inventory management (Virtual Server since it will be used in sequence and not overlapping), the upgrade will provide a stronger organized structure. The Inventory Management will receive its information from skilled users utilizing a barcode scanner. The barcode system will be utilized in three different capacities. First, incoming raw materials will be scanned into the system for proper tracking of incoming elements. Bi-weekly, an inventory assessment will be made in order to verify what’s on hand and what is running low. While the database will be able to provide this information as well, a visual inspection is never a bad route to take. And the third capacity is to provide detailed information about what products have been shipped from our facilities. The redundancies provided in these three steps will prove to be important in the event of lost or stolen inventory, records keeping, and inventory auditing. Since everything is neatly organized and tracked by computers, the only cause of human error would be the overlooking of incoming materials, which will be utilized by the manager on site. Since many of these components are wireless in capacity, and there is currently no information about how well the systems are secured. We have also added a Cisco management system to keep track of information in the form of firewalls, information blockers and VPN capacities. Also anti-virus/malware/Trojan software will be utilized to provide an even further level of systems security. Norton’s cloud software will be utilized as it will provide an incentive for employees to be able to utilize anti-virus on their personal home computers thru VPN secure downloads. On the same note, Employees will now have to be screened based upon their access rights on company computers. Background checks and written contract agreements should be made in order to prevent doors being opened from the inside. With the enhancement to the server structure already, we are going to get an outside company to access our systems and let us know what will be needed in order to enhance our VOIP network to a full-fledged VTC network. VTC will not only cutback on travel expenses for conferences, but also can be used in order to train individuals and offer real time help desk type operations for day to day questions and issues. This is only an option as it is not truly required, but the operability of VTC was something we wanted to address for the benefit of the company. Riordan had established procedures for handling raw materials, tracking products and keep track of finished inventory for all their factories. While reviewing the Riordan Inventory, we found several areas that could be improved. At present Riordan processes their delivery of raw materials manually, as the material comes in the driver of the truck gives the shipping documents to the shipping area supervisor. The supervisor will then compare the shipping invoice to the scheduled receiving invoice. The shipping invoice is prepared a week in advance and is put together by date. This could cause incorrect information due to individual errors.
Once the shipment has been authorized, the receiving team empties the truck moving the raw materials into their assigned area in the factory. At the conclusion of the all shifts, the Receiving Area Supervisor, hands over the shipping invoices to the Inventory Receiving Clerk. The Inventory Clerk enters the information from the shipment the next day sometimes longer that can lead to differences in the inventory or raw materials. This could cause the unavoidable request for materials not needed or over-shipped. The information system changes will enhance processes because it will cut down the actual man hours that are needed to keep the operation going. The enhancements are consisting of the handheld scanners that are used for the raw materials, incoming stock, and the inventory of outgoing products. The changes in our information system will also keep track of our accounting to the extent of our monthly costs to operate our establishment. It will generate a monthly chart to show any fluctuation in costs for each month, which will then inform us of other areas that we need to focus on to save money. For example, electricity, sewage, employee wages, importing of goods, and exporting of goods. The system will also monitor our profits each month so that a cost-to-profit ratio will be generated. We will also have a chart which will show us our profits also which we will then be able to determine and better meet the needs of our organization for the future.