Riordan Strategic Plan, Research Paper Example

What assessment and feedback controls should be used to determine the direction to take Riordan? If the strategy of Riordan does not go according to plan, at what point would you consider altering the strategic plan you have suggested?

Division and organization level type of planning should be placed into the strategic plan. This process could be attributed under the application of the manufacturing readiness assessment tool or the MRAT. This would impose in the need of the plane being incorporated with several competitive advantages such as innovation, sustainability, ethics, social and cultural leadership and feedback control. The plan could facilitate the focus of the company to remain an industry leader in polymer materials, as well as provide solutions to the customer problems and challenges. Through the MRAT evaluation application, the manufacturing procedures of the business would be best understood and improved wherever needed; this could better improve the competitive procedures that the organization embraces to make sure that they remain as pioneers to modern innovations in producing and creating better polymer products that respond to current market demands.

The mission of the company is to remain a leading company by providing research and development that exceeds the ISO 9000 standards and be recognized as a leader in manufacturing. This could be assured through the utilization of the Lean Assessment Tool which is used to assure that the final products released by the company reaches the required standard based on an international rating scale for polymer products (Riordan Manufacturing, 2013). In order to achieve this mission, a strategic plan would play an integral role. Strategic plans help outline a company’s intended approach for achieving their mission statement. There are different ways in which strategic planning can result in a set of plans that lay out the organizations goals and strategy for reaching them. (Gates, 2010) Riordan is divided into two different divisions in regard to their business structure. The company focuses on a management and function. In addition, Riordan Manufacturing currently operates in more than one industry, as well as more than one country; therefore, it would beneficial to manipulate a strategic plan.

There are several different approaches a company can make in regard to strategic planning. Strategic planning should involve an investigation of the company’s current environment and capabilities. For instance, how the company wants to grow or change in the future, as well as their intentions. As mentioned previously, Riordan wants to remain a top competitor in the business and they are currently a Fortune 1000 enterprise. Riordan wants to remain at this level and wants to increase their accountability to exceeding the standards. One part of this standard is providing environmental awareness. Environmental issues are of major concern in today’s society and carbon emissions arean important topic for awareness that Riordan carefully considers. Riordan is involved with international shipping and therefore implementing a strong environmental awareness program can help decrease carbon emissions. This can be conducted through maintaining the current energy efficient trucks at harbors at all locations worldwide, as well as the participating in recycling at every location and bringing awareness to all employees.

Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. should also implement innovation strategies for their products. Introducing new and innovative technique to their products, as well as new and innovative products can help maintain their level of competition with competitors. Riordan Manufacturing currently reduces prices in their operations through their partnerships in China. The cost is reduced through both shipping and manufacturing, which reduces cost in comparison to competitors in both foreign and domestic countries. Riordan also refers to their company as an industry leader in R&D and their goal is to remain an industry leader. Therefore, product innovation is important for an advantage over competitors, as well as for an improved in efficiency. The company currently conducts business aspect for the research and development in San Jose, CA with their major clientele in the automotive and aircraft manufacturers, parts manufacturers, and bottlers, as well as the Department of Defense.

The need for quality and feedback control is indeed an essential component to the strategy. Focusing on increasing the quality of the organization as a whole can lead to an improvement in all processes mentioned above. The quality can be measured through an innovation in the customer service relations. The timeliness and effective manner for all customer related issues should be evaluated for accuracy and efficiency. In order for Riordan to maintain its status as a top leader in the industry, strategic planning is necessary with focus on innovation, environmental awareness, ethics, and social and cultural leadership. The focal areas should also be evaluated for quality, cost and efficiency. Implementing a strategic plan with the outlined processes, the strategic measures can be used as indicators for success.

In case particular unforeseen occurrences happen, it could be expected that the company would take another alternate route which would be directed towards the employees and motivating them to perform better. This could be assumed through the application of the employee assessment tool which empowers the people in developing new aspects of production practices and cultures. Notably, such condition of transition of focus in relation to company operation would affect the overall outcome of the organization’s performance in the industry.

References

Evans, A. and McKinley, M. (2010). Paradigm and Paradox: Knowledge Management and Business World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 42.

Epstien, M. and Roy, M. (2001). Sustainability in Action:Identifying and Measuring theKey Performance Drivers. Long Range Planning 34 (2001) 585–604.

Gates, L.P. (2010). Strategic Planning with Critical SuccessFactors and Future Scenarios: An Integrated Strategic Planning Framework. Software Engineering Institute. technical reportcmu/SEI-2010-TR-037.

Riordan Manufacturing. (2013) Home Page. Retrieved from: www.riordan.com.