OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

Operations Management Problems: Riordan

Operations Management

Introduction: Riordan Operation Management

Riordan Manufacturing, founded in 1991 by Dr. Michael Riordan, revealed expansion plans for a production facility to be located in the Hangzhou Province of China. Riordan chose the expansion to increase revenue by producing components in China. “Today, more firms than ever are earning some of their revenue from international operations” (Doh, Hodgetts & Luthans, 2005, pg. 6). The facility was proven to be in compliance with the local regulatory bodies and was prepared for operations.

This paper will provide the reader with an overview of the most important past events that led to the issues and opportunities Riordan could face while implementing the expansion plans. The various interests, rights, and values of the stakeholder and ethical dilemmas will be recognized and the end-state vision will be disclosed. Riordan's vision for the organisation in the future will be determined in a problem statement, leading up to a reflection of the desired end-state vision for Riordan. Alternative solutions will be developed and analyzed with risk assessment and mitigation techniques identified for the alternatives. Lastly, the solution for Riordan will be discussed with an implementation plan and measurement metrics identified.

Situation Analysis: Issue and Opportunity Identification

The exisitng facility that was purchased by Riordan Manufacturing had problems in the past with obtaining qualified personnel. “Too much competition in the local province has lead to a lack of available Chinese skilled labor; however, there is available foreign labor in the form of Pakistanis, Indians, and Koreans in Hangzhou and the nearby provinces” (University of Phoenix, 2009, para3). To compensate for the lack of skilled labor from the Chinese natives, the existing facility hired employees from the foreign labor market, resulting in management and production issues.

TQM and Operation Management

TQM is seen as consistent with open management styles, delegated responsibility and increased autonomy to staff. The second BQA definition defines TQM in terms of 'hard' aspects of quality management practices, as Wilkinson et al. (1998:14) put it, '"hard" production/operations management type of view'. Examples of such issues are: systematic measurement and control of work, setting standards of performance and using statistical procedures to assess quality.

Finally, the third definition covers both 'hard' and 'soft' practices, comprising three features (Wilkinson et al., 1992:14): (i) an obsession with quality, (ii) the need for a scientific approach, (iii) the review that all employees are to be involved in this process. Oakland (1998) takes a mixture of both hard and soft approaches and depicts TQM as a pyramid representing five distinct components including: (i) management commitment (apex of the model), (ii) customersupplier chain, (iii) quality systems, (iv) statistical process control (SPC) tools, and (v) teamwork.

In consequence, Oakland (1998:2-3) advocates a definition of this mode as follows:

TQM is an approach to improving the effectiveness and flexibility of business as a whole, meeting customer requirements both external and internal to the organisation. It is essentially a way of organising and involving the whole organisation, every department, every single person at every ...