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Introduction

The team has received SR-rm-002 requesting an evaluation for the development of an MRP system that would track and manage raw materials and provide a finished product inventory. This is to help Riordan Manufacturing reduce the raw materials received at each plant, and control and reduce the finished good inventory costs, at all its plants. This is a high level comprehensive analysis, which will result in proposed changes to the system; however it does not include an all-inclusive schedule for implementation nor exhaustive scope by department. This paper will describe the system development life cycle process for developing a Material Requirement Planning (MRP) system in Riordan Manufacturing.

Statement of Scope and Goals

Scope management includes managing the original definition of the system requirements to be accomplished within the project's allotted budget and timeframe. The goal is to ascertain whether the acquisition or development of a MRP system would be feasible for Riordan Manufacturing Industry. There are many phases involved in this SDLC; the first of which is the analysis phase; which could also be viewed as background material.

Background Material

The executive sponsors of this request are Hugh McCauley, Chief of Operations and Mark Neitzel, Vice President of Operations. Under proposal is a manufacturing equipment upgrade, estimated to cost the company $1M. This was not accounted for in the fiscal year budget. The proposed solution will recognize a $250K savings for the next six years, saving $1.5M for entire project. Upgrading all hardware, software and manufacturing processes at one time introduces significant risk to each of the upgrades and to the customers and suppliers. With the risks involved in this process an accounting of the current business and technological systems are needed to document its inefficiencies.

Information Technology Systems Overview

Having a well-designed information technology infrastructure will help increase productivity, lower costs and, if well planned out, provide scalability for the future. Unfortunately, Riordan Manufacturing has many different infrastructures throughout their vast operations, some that are outdated and no longer supported by the vendor. The following is a brief outline of the current systems at the different locations and recommended changes.

Albany, Georgia and Pontiac, Michigan plants have antiquated hardware and operating systems (O/S). This is a security liability for the corporation and will incur excess cost in the future. Both sites use Windows 98 for the personal computers (PC's) and Microsoft Windows NT O/S for most of the servers, which stopped being supported by Microsoft in 2002 (Windows Life-Cycle Policy, 2006). Both sites use old hardware for PC's and network servers.

San Jose, California and Hangzhou, China - San Jose and Hangzhou's network diagrams show a robust and modern infrastructure in place and the ability for future growth and expansion. The only major difference is the Research and Development center in San Jose uses Apple Macintosh G5's and a separate gateway. China has a direct satellite link to San Jose, which is the corporate headquarters and main Network Operations Center of Riordan Manufacturing.

System Requirements

Recommendations include standardizing the entire network infrastructure using San Jose and China as a starting point of reference. With standardization across the entire network it would simplify administration and increase performance and efficiency; lowering management costs. There would be greater network flexibility and costs associated with support would decrease.

In the San Jose and China plants; the only recommendations are to upgrade the PC and Server Operating systems from Microsoft Windows 2000 to Microsoft Windows Vista and Server. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 2000 in 2004 (Windows Life-Cycle Policy, 2006) and per call incidents of support cost $99 an hour (Help and Support: Microsoft Windows 2000, 2006).

For the Georgia and Michigan plants, entire infrastructure changes must be made as soon as possible. The network infrastructure is outdated, and prone to failure, which costs time and money. The PC's are still running Windows 98, which has little to no security. All PC's should be replaced with more modern hardware, at least Pentium IV 2.6 GHz or higher with Windows Vista. The network servers should be replaced with at least dual processor 2 GHz Xeons utilizing Windows 2003 Exchange Server. The Nortel Network infrastructure should be replaced with Cisco Systems network infrastructure. Once the entire infrastructure is replaced, Active Directory should be implemented. Active Directory provides greater security, increased performance, increased dependability, single-logon capability, a central repository for information about the entire infrastructure and provides superior access to networked resources which lowers the total cost of ownership (What is new in active Directory, 2005).

A 150K budget should be set aside for information technology (IT) spending. Due to the disparate systems in multiple locations, there is a clear need to upgrade the Michigan and Georgia locations to the San Jose and China's standards. This entails purchasing 65 Dell Optiplex systems, 20 for the Georgia, and 45 for the Michigan location. A bulk quote would capitalize on consolidating purchases as well as Dell's drive to move product, and realize top-line revenue. An estimated savings would be $100 per system, realizing a total savings of $6,500. The MSRP for systems comparable to San Jose is approximately $600 per unit, lowering the per unit price to approximately $500, total cost is $32,500. Included in the cost are the new Vista O/S, and Microsoft Office 2007. To improve productivity and leverage the efficiencies of the operating system, the balance of the network would need an upgrade, 75 clients at San Jose and China. The cost for upgrading the O/S is anticipated to be approximately $200 per license for a total of $13,000. The total amount required for updating client hardware and operating systems would be roughly $35,000 but this could be negotiated to achieve best price.

Several key reasons to include the O/S upgrade at this time include:

* Security: user authentication and user account control.

* Data Protection layer - secures the network internally.

* New Backup features - increases productivity.

* Wireless access -Wireless is high priority for Riordan.