Riordan Manufacturing Benchmarking

Running Head: GENERIC BENCHMARKING RIORDAN MANUFACTURING

Generic Benchmarking Riordan Manufacturing

University of Phoenix

Human Capitol Development MBA530

Facilitator: James Pepitone

January 10, 2006

Benchmarking Paper

Gone are the days when manufacturers could count on price increases to help boost profit margins. Today, manufacturers are faced with pressures to decrease prices for their goods -- which mean profits must be achieved through improvement in the development, production, and delivery of manufactured products. It is not a matter of luck -- today's top companies must out manage and out manufacture their competition. Employees who are satisfied with their jobs are more likely to stay in them, thus increasing productivity and retention.
Riordan Manufacturing (RM) is a global plastics production company headquartered in San Jose, California with an annual income of $46 million.   The plastic production is divided among 3 plants: plastic and beverage containers in Albany, Georgia; custom plastic parts in Pontiac, Michigan; and plastic fan parts in Hangzhou, China.   The production plants service many vendors from diverse market areas. The company recently conducted an annual employee survey, which showed a decrease in overall job satisfaction, particularly in the areas of compensation and benefits.   The senior leadership of RM has been faced with a difficult task of examining the declining moral and work ethic throughout the company.  
In today's competitive marketplace, companies are seeking ways to improve their overall performance.   One such method of improvement, recently adopted by many companies, is benchmarking.   Benchmarking is a technique used to evaluate internal business processes.   In this analysis, managers determine the firm's critical processes and outputs, baseline those processes, then compare the performance of each process against a standard outside the industry.  
Approach
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