Riordan’s Supply Chain Design

Riordan’s Supply Chain Design

OPS/571

Team C

July 26, 2015

Jennifer Jensen

Riordan’s Supply Chain Design

 “Riordan manufacturing was founded by a chemistry professor in 1991 by the name of Dr. Riordan. The company became known as Riordan Plastics, Inc. ‘In 1992 Dr. Riordan obtained venture capital which he used to purchase a fan manufacturing plant in Pontiac, MI. At that time, the company's name was changed to Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. (University of Phoenix, 2013).” As the company continued to grow, more products were manufactured and more locations were opened. In 2000, Riordan Manufacturing expanded to China, which now manufactures the entire inventory of electric fans (University of Phoenix, 2013). Riordan manufactures fan parts from the plastics and then the parts are shipped to a manufacture to piece the fans together where then they are shipped out for sales. The company has been a success in manufacturing these parts and delegating the shipping out, this is in part to their constant evaluation of the companies strategies, processes, performance metrics,  the forecasting of sales, and the supply chain effectiveness as a whole.

Manufacturing Strategy

Riordan utilizes the level manufacturing strategy, because the company has a production that is set at a rate that is fixed (Hamlett, 2013). This is done so that the company can stay up with the demand of the products and still have inventory that will be used in variation to meet unexpected challenges, such as defects in the products being produced. The excess products comes from periods of low demand, where the overproduction of the materials can be kept on inventory and stored, for use in periods of high demand and for use in defects. The concept of the strategy for Riordan is to make sure that there is always enough stock on hand to continue production, in the event of plant issues, excess demand, or product defects (Hamlett, 2013). Riordan can also benefit from this strategy because it allows the company to continue keeping employees in the plant during low demands, because production continues at a constant rate. While the strategy has many benefits for the company, there are always downfalls, one downfall is that the stock may just pile up and sit on the shelves and sales will decrease, meaning that revenue and profits will decrease.

Fan Supply Chain Process Flow Diagram

Product is requested through fan vendors and retailors

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