The supply chain flow of Riordan Mfg is not fully centralized around the headquarters office in San Jose, where the company’s R&D department is located. Three production plants are located in states Georgia, Michigan and abroad in China. The production cycle starts from raw materials and every facility always has sufficient amount of polymers to produce plastic parts quickly. Supply chain at the moment is broken to three plants with the same flow: raw materials – production plant – shipment company – customers.
Every facility specializes in a narrow field of plastic production: Albany – plastic beverage containers, Pontiac – custom plastic parts, Hangzhou – plastic. “Riordan's major customers are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers.”
Overall, Riordan values customers and provides excellent shipment deals to them worldwide. Albany plant in Georgia co-operates with Huffman Trucking Company to deliver ordered products to their customers. It is more convenient to ship cargo in larger loads to prevent damage and cover all fuel costs.
Pontiac facility in Michigan has the lowest production volume among all, because they are producing customized parts according to the specifications given by the customer.
Supply chain of Hangzhou plant in China is more complicated, because it produces plastic appliances, such as fans. Apart from commercial customers, Riordan in China ships products to individual customers worldwide using FedEx or local Chinese shipment company services.
Riordan Mfg has relatively good supply chain system, though it needs to be centralized, planned and reflected in a web intranet to track resources, orders and shipments.
Reference
Apollo Group, Inc. (2004). Riordan Manufacturing. Retrieved from ISCOM/424 End-to-End course website.
