Essay Preview: MrsReport this essayIntroductionThe 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 GoalsScope management includes managing the original definition of the system requirements to be accomplished within the projects 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 MaterialThe 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 OverviewHaving 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Unfortunately, Riordan Manufacturing has many different infrastructures throughout their vast operations, some that are outdated and no longer supported by the vendor.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 (PCs) 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 PCs and network servers.
San Jose, California and Hangzhou, China – San Jose and Hangzhous 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 G5s 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 RequirementsRecommendations 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 PCs are still running Windows 98, which has little to no security. All PCs 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).
This software may work for many different user groups, but it only has one main goal of being able to provide seamless access to information on all computers. Active Directory, like your Windows, Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Office 365, Windows Server 2008 and others, provides a broad set of tools for a comprehensive set of tools to ensure that your computer can access all information from all servers. These technologies are integrated into the system as part of your system’s management or system administration. This information does not need a user interface or the Internet to access, but it does need to be stored. The software automatically generates a list of the Internet addresses to help you use the information. These address blocks can be any name you want, so for example, you could create a list of 8 different Internet addresses with the same character and the same letter. The software runs the correct Windows versions and users on both your system and over the Internet. Use the correct version of the software to create a list of the users using your computer. The Windows version that you are using will be kept in your computer, although new and updated versions may get used for later use (new software and updates are also supported for Windows 2000, 2008, 2012, 2013). Your system will not know when computers in a different computer network type might have different addresses. If you want to use these address blocks to generate a list of the addresses to include, use the Microsoft Windows 2000 Management Framework. This framework provides multiple tools that allow you to specify the user computers, their configuration, and how computers are configured. For example, your PC might use DHCP with the nameserver and password, and then use the username and password to connect to the system. You can use the system’s configuration tool to configure and enable this configuration. By using this tool, you can provide automatic access to the information on your computers, so to give your system more flexibility to manage. The system will recognize that these new machines are in the same network and not one computer, so you can connect and connect them and they will be configured to share network access. An example network is the Internet that you use to connect to or to receive services at a given time.
The software is made to run smoothly on all Internet interfaces. The only major security limitation is that it cannot recognize that you are using Outlook or Skype. If you have an Exchange Active Directory account, you can continue using Outlook’s network services while using their network connection. In this case, only Outlook and Skype clients will be allowed to use Outlook Outlook in Windows 2000 or later computers. This limitation is not to prevent non-Microsoft Windows 2000 users or Exchange Online users from using the software. Outlook does not have any other security mechanisms.
This software may perform poorly. It will perform poorly if it is disabled (e.g., it will fail to use Internet Service Providers when you enable it on your Internet service provider’s server), it is not enabled in certain situations, or it will not enable when you have configured that information in your Active Directory account. However, you can run programs that run in Active Directory or other other types of Active Directory, including the Active Directory Management Console or others. By using this software, your Active Directory account does not require the management of this information by the service provider of your service or by you. You do not have to run applications that modify the information on your Windows computer. This can be a good place to use the software if you do not want any user information to be placed on your computer. We recommend you use the Microsoft Windows Management Framework to run programs that do not use Active Directory. Use the WinForms.NET Framework (available for Windows 2000, 2008, 2012, 2013) to configure and manage Active Directory documents.
The main applications that use The Windows Server 2003 Control Center to do a common task are the Internet and applications. The basic steps of the system-based Active Directory system and services are:
Manage Microsoft’s
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 Chinas 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 Dells 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.