Executive SummaryRiordan Manufacturing is moving their plastic bottle manufacturing from Albany, Georgia to China. This move is similar in scope and purpose to the recent move of fan production that Riordan completed in 2002. The primary driver is cost reduction and the secondary one is production capacity in the US for high-margin, low-volume custom orders. The Albany plant will be retooled for rapid development of custom runs, and during this time the workforce at the plant will be reduced by 25%.
The primary publics affected by this change are the employees at the Albany plant and the plastic bottle customers. Existing issues with employee job satisfaction will need to be addressed in addition to the potential for morale problems caused by workforce reduction. These problems tie into customer satisfaction measures of quality and on-time delivery.
The PR campaign will cover both publics with conventional tools including employee meetings led by Dr.
Riordan and additional promotional volume purchasing incentives the sales force can offer to customers. In addition to direct involvement with the employees, sponsorship at local events will be used to demonstrate long-term commitment to the community.
The crisis management plan will be updated to include potential for risk associated with manufacturing plastic bottles in China.
Global and ethical issues must be considered when jobs are moved off shore. The PR campaign will address all issues and monitor results with surveys, quality reports, and feedback from customers.
Riordan Manufacturing China Move CampaignIntroductionRiordan Manufacturing (Riordan) is a global plastics manufacturer. When Riordan Manufacturing was first established in 1992 by Dr. Riordan, the company's main focus was research and development for processing "polymers into high tensile strength plastic substrates (Riordan Manufacturing 2004)." Since that time, the focus of the company has been split between manufacturing fans, plastic beverage containers, and customer plastic...