I would like to add something about the "remediation" focus that many posters seem to have. Many of the embedded chips we are talking about are literally worth only a few dollars each. We are not talking about lines of software that have to be reprogramed. Many of the non-compliant embedded controllers that TAVA is looking at will simply be replaced, not by a engineer but by a service technician, preferably on the customers' payrolls, not TAVA's. Anybody can do it, the real edge that TAVA has is that they have the "Map" to find which chips need replacing, and the experience of setting up such systems. This is the ONLY distinction that TAVA has, but it may be enough to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Please take the time to go to the URL's and view the brief descriptions of the various bundles of service offered. Below I give the text of the main page and one breakout description of Method Y2k One. The strategy of the company is clear, they want to supply the tools and consultants (high margins) and let the customers own staff do the grunt work. The CD-ROM is a tool, but like all tools, the users must be trained. TAVA will do the whole job (Milleneum Y2K ONE) if you want, but they really don't want that business. Note that Milleneum Y2K ONE is on the list almost as an afterthought.
THE MAIN PAGE
planty2kone.com
PLANT Y2K ONE
Most plant floor systems are complex combinations of hardware and software from a variety of vendors. The only approach that guarantees a smooth transition into the next millennium is a component by component analysis of all micro-processor based functions.
Plant Y2kOne is a full-service suite of resources to support this major effort. You can license PlantY2kOne CD that includes:
Method Y2KOne (broken out below)
Inventory Y2KOne
Compliance Y2KOne
Manage Y2KOne
Search Y2KOne
We also offer Millennium Y2KOne, a service whereby our engineers use the Plant Y2kOne CD tools and complete the entire job for you.
TAVA Technologies is the nation's largest independent manufacturing computer systems integrator. We specialize in the development of information and automation systems that improve products, increase yields, reduce costs and accelerate time-to-market.
METHOD Y2K ONE
planty2kone.com
Method Y2kOne is the step-by-step methodology for identifying, prioritizing, and fixing Year 2000 compliance problems.
TAVA Technologies' systems engineers have developed this detailed methodology from their experience in guiding manufacturing plant employees through the task of assessing the Year 2000 risk in production systems and determining and planning corrective actions. The process is conducted in four major initiatives, or stages. Within each stage, the methodology organizes the work into phases to simplify project management and resource and staff allocation.
Stage One: Assessment
The Assessment stage begins by developing a project scope and determining the resources and staff requirements. TAVA Technologies can provide trained personnel to supplement a customer's engineering staff.
Next, a detailed profile of the production environment and a list of the systems and their components is developed, and the system architecture documentation is updated or created. With these guides in hand, every component in the system is inventoried, identifying all workstations, minicomputers, PCs and laptops, as well as microprocessor-based equipment such as controllers, control networks, operator interfaces and instrumentation. Utilizing the hardware list, technicians examine each component to inventory all operating systems, packaged software for operation and maintenance, and custom code.
Stage Two: Analysis
The Analysis stage compares every component on the inventory list with TAVA Technologies' Compliance Y2kOne database repository to determine which hardware, operating systems or application software are likely to fail when the Year 2000 arrives. At this phase, custom code and product specific scripts are inspected, tested and documented.
During Impact Analysis, which is the final phase in this stage, known failures are prioritized in terms of their impact on the systems being analyzed and on the plant operations that they support. With the vendor's analysis and recommended solutions from the TAVA database as background, the failures can also be prioritized in terms of the difficulty and estimated cost of conversion.
Stage Three: Conversion Planning
The third major initiative in the Year 2000 compliance methodology is Conversion Planning, which begins with the customer's technical staff and TAVA's engineers collaborating to develop a strategy for implementing the necessary systems corrections. Planning includes preparation of cost estimates and work schedules for the recommended projects based on the importance to the system, correction, cost and time requirements.
Stage Four: Implementation
The final initiative in bringing a plant's systems into compliance is implementation and testing of the various conversion projects. Project teams are formed, resource needs identified, testing plans prepared and materials and licenses purchased.
The hardware is upgraded first. Then, operating systems are upgraded or replaced. Next, packaged software fixes or upgrades are installed and custom code is updated. Testing and verifying upgraded systems is as important, and may be even more time consuming, than installing the upgrades themselves. Testing procedures have to be developed and then employed, system-by-system and component-by-component. Finally, training sessions on the new systems are scheduled for the operations and supervisory staffs.
In keeping with the goal of using this occasion to improve performance of production operations, systems that may be obsolete or need performance improvements are planned for retirement or replacement.
For more information, Call 1-800-825-2958.
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