In the manufacturing sectory

Normal Can Information Systems Save U.S. Steel? In capacity U.S. Steel (USS) is the largest integrated steel producer in North America and the largest in the United States. Its largest customer is the Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer that requires an immense amount of steel. In 1996, Ford viewed USS as the worst in performance amongst its leading suppliers, and it threatened to turn elsewhere for its steel supplies despite their 70-year relationship. "We were in danger of losing Ford's business," explained Gene Trudell, USS's cIo. "It was that serious." Ford's biggest complaint, among many, was that it was not notified when its steel shipments would arrive, leaving Ford unable to operate efficiently. To USS, Ford's threat was a wakeup call causing it to examine its whole production cycle. USS's major problems were reflected in its order-taking process. Orders were often manual, very imprecise, and filled with errors. Moreover, once an order arrived, USS was unable to track it during processing. USS was unable to follow each order as it was processed and delivered. USS replaced its order fulfillment system with 12 Technologies' Factory Planner forecasting software, which the programmers connected to their order system. They also connected three homegrown systems, including Trac, which tracks orders as they go to processors or customers and an automatic order generation system for repeat customers called MIGS (Mechanical Item Generation System). MIGS reduced inventory by improving the forecasting of demand for finished goods at the customer's location. When MIGS was first used, it reduced inventories from 33,500 to 24,000 tons. The system has been upgraded and is now called MOGS (Mechanical Order Generation System). U.S. Steel now keeps only 20 days of inventory on hand to meet demand, while it required 33 days of inventory on hand in five years ago. Q1: Who was US Steel's CIO? and what was his objective? Q2: Why was USS known to have the worst performance amongst its suppliers? Q3: What is the difference between MIGS and MOGS