Here Iverson participates in New Steel 's roundtable on improving operating efficiencies in the mill. In these excerpts from the first two chapters of the book, Iverson contrasts Nucor's work culture with those of other companies inside and outside the steel industry.
Molten metal is a wild and restless force.
Engineers, supervisors, and production workers will gather around a new caster like kids at the lighting of a bonfire, staring in silent expectation while the maiden melt of steel spits and hisses its way through the apparatus. If the caster works, the long rectangular shells of cooling steel will secure the still-molten core, glowing in its persistent fury, and the onlookers, having caged the beast, will clap one another on the back, celebrating their collective triumph over a power not one of them could hope to master alone. To my eyes, two of the most fascinating sights to behold are hot metal in motion and a group of people in headlong pursuit of a shared purpose. Those images are the essence of Nucor. They convey how we turned a confused, tired old company on the brink of bankruptcy into a star player in the resurgence of American steel.