[CPI] Chemical Process Industry
Article of July 1997
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'Left unchecked, the Year 2000 problem -- called Y2K,
for short -- could be catastrophic for the chemical process
industries (CPI). The date glitch could cause innumerable shutdowns and horrific
accidents. Indeed, a manufacturer's process-control system could be stymied by "00" and shut down altogether on New
Year's Eve.
....
Although many firms are well on the way towards Y2K compliance for their applications and mainframes, process control
is another matter. At one large CPI company ($5 billion in sales), says the IT manager, "A lot the DCSs, PLCs, lab
instruments and so on may have problems." At his firm, as well as at Shell, the Y2K team is working with plant managers
to inventory equipment with embedded chips. "We have to see what we have, and address the vendors for each," says
Quiggins.
"We simply don't know how big this problem is yet," says de Jager, pointing out that embedded chips have only surfaced
as a problem in the past six months to a year. A large number of instruments don't care about the date at all, of course;
but for those that do, "We're nearly having to go in and test each and every one," says another IT manager for a large
CPI multinational.
che.com |
