Assignment # 3

Can Information Systems Save U.S. Steel?

1- Summarize U.S Steel’s current competitive situation.
In capacity, U.S. Steel is the largest producer in North America and the largest in the United States with a total revenue in fiscal year 2003 of $9.3 Billion. U.S. Steel one of the largest customer is Ford Motor Company.

2- How are information system related to the way U.S. Steel runs its business? What role is played by supply chain management systems?
U.S. Steel did not have a centralized information system infrastructure, every processor had its own way of handling orders and shipments and some of them were even manually, creating a chaos on tracking orders and requiring waste money on man hours to update orders on U.S. Steel main system. Supply chain management system makes all the ordering, tracking and shipping easier, faster and efficient.

3- What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for USS’s inability to compete with other steel manufacturers?
U.S. Steel was not able to compete with other steel manufacturers because of its management team not being up to date with technology. U.S Steel did not have a centralized technology infrastructure. The investment in their information technology system has help the company by streamlining operations, consolidating purchasing and raw material outsourcing and support customers from its various facilities. Even though the company has become more efficient than its competitors, labor cost is what keeps the company from competing, especially its retiree health care cost. Also, the company is not close to a seaport, which cost money to ship steel overseas it has to first take it to a seaport close to the company consuming fuel in the process.

4- Describe how USS has responded to its global and American competition.
The USS responded to its Global and American competition fast and strong by investing in its technology, upgrading every plant it owns and even creating subsidiary called UEC Technologies saving money from spending on third party vendors for its supply chain technology and focusing on creating their own system.

5- How helpful were information systems in addressing USS problems?
Information systems made the company more efficient, increased productivity and saving money by using computers instead on man hours on their plants that needed workers to tend the blast furnaces and presses. Information system made the company more organized and fast on order taking from customers, benefiting the customer by forecasting delivery time of the customer’s order.