and a 'little' more from Fortune:
One of the most imaginative and useful approaches comes from Tava
Technologies. Its Plant Y2kOne software includes a database on 10,000 microprocessors, related control devices, and software from more than 1,000 vendors that is used on the factory floor. Among other things, Plant Y2kOne can check out software in robots, PCs, and PLCs; operating systems such as Unix, DOS, and Windows NT; and embedded software such as a program used to guide automated vehicles. After compiling an inventory of microprocessors and software, a client company can access Tava's database to determine whether the maker of each item can supply a year 2000 update--or whether the equipment should be replaced.
Tava will train a client's technicians to look for noncompliant items or send in its own team. Vice president Martin Fallon describes how a
typical quest proceeds: "The team is on the plant floor. The team member with a headset says, 'I see an Allen-Bradley PLC.' His colleague, walking alongside with a laptop, scans down through the Tava list, finds Allen-Bradley and a list of PLCs, pulls it up, scrolls down to the particular model number and checks on it, and it's
added to the inventory of machines in this plant."
Back in the office, the technicians click on the Plant Y2kOne icon
and submit the inventoried items to Tava via the Internet. The client
can now see what's on a suspect list, vendors' statements, and Tava's own advice on the item. Tava's response on one device indicates that it can be kept: "Each intake node requires upgrade;
system upgrade will take you approximately two hours per node." A
different fate awaits a factory production monitor that Fallon brings up on his screen. The screen tells him it's a noncompliant product using the 00 date. Tava's advice: Contact the vendor and get a new model.
Software evaluation can be called up in the same way. In a demonstration, Fallon runs nearly 2,000 lines of code from a suspect program through a Tava "filter" and locates 22 examples of year dates. He looks at each line, and after finding the keywords related to date, lets the program determine if there's a year 2000 glitch and then changes the year digits from two to four. Tava also produces a printout for a client that shows noncompliant equipment in red, suspect in yellow, and "clean" equipment in green.
What the Plant Y2kOne program cannot do is calculate the relative risk inherent in all the interconnections among software in the machines. That still has to be done visually by skilled programmers. It typically takes three of them two weeks to sift through a million lines of code, which contain as many as 50,000 year dates. Tava's search tool has other limitations. Gartner Group's Dan Miklovic cautions that users should be "prepared for surprises," because such tools can't always read programs added on top of a PLC's ladder logic. |
