Fit in steel - information technology of the future

On 23(rd) and 24(th) November 1999 the German Iron and Steel Institute (VDEh), the technical journal "stahl und eisen", the BFI Betriebstechnik GmbH and the PSI AG in Dusseldorf organised a symposium, dealing with information technology in metallurgical industry, its products and systems, its aims and possibilities of application. Fit im St@hl concerned itself with the most important trends in development and use of information technology within steel industry. It was the aim of this event to present products and systems of information technology as well as their possible application within the special market segment "steel". Thus, the symposium mainly addressed itself to managing directors and decision makers in the fields of production and data processing. No business will survive competition in the world market in the long run without the right IT solution. The main objective of information technology is to improve internal production processes and the relationship between customer and supplier, to make the enormous data streams more transparent and finally to optimise all business processes. In a medium time range the instruments of information technology - especially of networks based on web technology - are to put businesses in e-commerce.