Mike, GIGO. Somewhere along the line a bad date will cause problems. The worst kind of bugs are the latent ones, the ones that don't have an immediate severe (or read, noticiable) effect. I worked on a health maintenance program a few years ago that did preventative scheduling based on the data that was being fed into it, it scheduled doctor appointments based on standard Diagnosis and Prognosis codes coupled with date calculations. If the dates screw up a person might not get the preventative care or regular check-ups necessary. These formula's were based on real statistics. Calculations based on age, frequency of checkups, etc were the key pieces of data.
Could you imagine the liability issues involved if poor calculations resulted in bad scheduling. You see, in some embedded cases were the date calculations have a direct effect on the product being produced or being monitored, it is obvious were the remediation work needs to be done. But in other cases, the date problem could have an effect in a related system down the line. The problem is not as simple as you suggest. It is typical for a specialist to have his blinders on to focus on his area. But, we are talking about system wide issues as well as component issues that are a result of embedded systems non-compliance.
TPRO has a Supply-Chain expertise that allows them to look at the Inter-Plant and Inter-Systems issues as well. No one is saying that the problem is in 100% of embedded systems. Nor do they have to be to be a major concern. If only 5 to 10% of the systems were affected then we are still talking about a huge market for TPRO's services and tools. The severity from plant to plant will be different and I'm sure many plant functions will be immune to the problem. But, it has already been demonstrated that no embedded system is an island and that it takes only one controlling system to stop an entire operation.
From a upper level managers point of view, risk assesment and identification weigh heavy on their decision making. That is the impetus behind TPRO's current marketing success. They have demonstrated that the problem is real through pilot programs and are landing the larger sales. This is proof that the extent of the embedded systems problem is large enough to be a concern. With the current skeptism among managers, the fact that TPRO has already announced 5 Contract's by name and referred to others including 20 Pilots of which BMY was one is overwhelming evidence to the legitimacy of TPRO's market.
Sincerely,
Jack Zahran
P.S. Mike, why is it that B-Tree has no record or history of you working with them? The reason why I ask is because it calls into question your legitimacy. I for one am puzzled, since you claimed to have such an intimate knowledge of their systems. |
