Free Custom «Riordan Manufacturing» Essay Paper

Riordan Manufacturing is a global plastics manufacturer that employs approximately 550 people, with projected annual earnings of $46 million. Riordan Industries, a Fortune 1000 enterprise, wholly owns Riordan Manufacturing. The company has headquarters in San Jose, California, as well as three production plants located in Georgia, Michigan, and China. Riordan Manufacturing products include plastic beverage containers, customer plastic parts, and plastic fan parts. The authors will identify and analyze the strategic plan of Riordan Manufacturing and the role of total quality management in the company’s strategic plan. The authors will also explore key elements of the company’s strategic plan, such as the company’s mission statement, vision, and strategic objectives, including whether or not total quality management is a strategic level objective for the company. Lastly, the authors will explore how globalization has influenced Riordan Manufacturing’s total quality management position.

 

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Strategic planning is vital to the direction and ultimate success of a company. When a company creates its strategic plan, management is essentially documenting and defining the framework for all managerial decisions. The strategic plan will contain vital information and “reflects a company’s awareness of how, when, and where it should compete; against whom it should compete; and for what purposes it should compete” (Pearce & Robinson, 2004, p. 4). Therefore, in order for the company to be successful, Riordan Manufacturing needs to have a carefully planned business strategy that defines what Riordan Manufacturing is, and what the company will become as it grows.

The first step in designing a strategic plan is to develop a mission statement that identifies the purposes of the company. A mission statement embodies the “philosophy of the firm’s strategic decision makers, implies the image the firm seeks to project, reflects the firm’s self-concept, and indicates the firm’s principal product or service areas and the primary customer needs the firm will attempt to satisfy” (Pearce & Robinson 2004, p. 26). The next step is to identify a set of strategic objectives the company will implement to accomplish the goals defined mission statement. Each goal or objective will have a clearly defined approach, timeline and measurement for success.

Riordan Manufacturing has developed goals and strategies that encompass all of the important components of a worthy strategic plan. Riordan Manufacturing executives have outlined its current mission for the company, and identified the strategic direction for the company’s future. The mission statement is a living statement, meaning management will need to evaluate the statement routinely to ensure it reflects any changing needs of the company or its customers. Next, Riordan executives identified several overall goals for the company, and defined specific key measurements for success (University of Phoenix, 2009c).

TQM is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. Riordan Manufacturing has implemented a Scorecard Progress Report to measure the progress in meeting the company’s goals geared to customer satisfaction (University of Phoenix, 2009c).

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The progress report measures the progress in three main categories: current year initiatives, process improvement, and business results. The company has further detailed each category with subcategories. For instance, process improvement is broken down into the subcategories of leadership, strategic planning, information and analysis, human resources, and process management. By continually monitoring the progress of each category, the executives are able to identify areas that need further improvement to meet customer requirements.

Furthermore, Riordan Manufacturing will identify and analyze needs to produce quality products. Management will conduct evaluations to ensure Riordan’s products are the best on the market. Management does need to identify and monitor barriers to collaboration, and opportunities for collaboration. By using total quality management tools to implement the strategic plan, customers, employees and the company will benefit.