Abstract
M. Ing.
Purchasing/procurement, materials management, supply chain management and logistics are
strategic elements linking customer requirements with the possibilities of the market. Purchasing is
establishing itself as a center of competence for the strategic alliances and development
partnerships with suppliers, for the continual process of improvement and for strategic cost
management in product development.
Materials Management within the Steel Industry is primarily concerned with the planning,
acquisition, conversion, flow, and distribution of raw materials to finished goods. Through the use of
Materials Management techniques, a company can initiate cost reduction programs. These can
include lower stock levels, reduction in number of vendors used, better quality of goods used,
integration of supply chain into company's own value chain, etc.
As such, it is important to have an integrated, supporting information system, which can supply
valid, up-to-date information as and when required. This thesis investigates whether it is necessary
or more advantageous to buy a ready-to-use system, or to write a custom system, to fulfil the before
mentioned requirement.
New technologies create the opportunity to do business more effectively. Managers must however,
take responsibility for participating in the planning and design of the information systems. Many
computer-generated reports are designed to enable managers to keep track of day-to-day
operations and to monitor the use of resources. Through effective design these reports can help
manage not only the use of resources, but also the total cost of ownership.
Decision support systems are designed to support semi-structured and unstructured decisions in
situations in which information is incomplete. They are developed to support decisions that are so
different each time that it would be hard to develop a standard set of procedures for programming
them. Such decisions may be specific and may relate to a one-time-only situation. A decision
support system should enable the decision-maker to apply the right decision rule to a problem,
rather than using standard rules that may not apply because of changing conditions.After a sample group tested the custom software system and completed the questionnaires, the
information was summarised. The most important conclusion is that while the smaller, custom
written system is not ideally suited for every application within a larger company, it will be ideal for a
smaller company. Ease of adaptation and the financial impact also influences the final decision,
where the easier to adapt, 'cheaper' custom system is more suitable to a small company.