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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ForYourEyesOnly who wrote (1728)	5/9/1998 9:31:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9818

SPIKE DATES: January 1, 1999 will DEFINITELY be a BIG Problem ================================================================== Here's one "Real World" example. I had incorrectly assumed that big problems would not be occurring on plant floors until late 99. Apparently problems will happen MUCH sooner. V.P. Kraft Foods said "massive" problems will start occurring January 1, 1999 ... because of date codes. They've already encountered problems. From the time a raw material is ordered/delivered from an outside supplier ... until finished product is on grocery shelf ... a future date is assigned that travels back & forth and thru 10 different stages and departments - most within the company, but some also with outside suppliers: - Product Safety - Applied Nutrition - Corporate Purchasing - Finance - Quality Assurance - Marketing - Manufacturing - Logistics - Product Management - Product Research - Corporate Microbiology - Transportation/Distribution - Consumer Center Many of these dates are 1 year into the future. So, in January '99 ... the 2000 future date will be used extensively. This is when he expects the "massive" problems to start occurring. Some 2000 future dates have already been introduced into the system. Not many. But, they've already run into some of the problems which will occur in full force later. C.K. HOUSTON Message 4312353 Interesting actual example at this link, where hospital had to postpone operation because of a "use by date problem". The product date is crucial to the entire chain, from manufacture to warehousing. Since time is already short, Kraft will track the few products with 1.5 year expiration dates BY HAND. Jeff Mitchell Message 4248437 There was a very dramatic and impactful presentation by Don Butte, V.P., Kraft Foods. Kraft has some key suppliers who don't have the money nor the expertise for the Y2K fix ... particularly on the plant floor. In some instances Kraft will be funding the supplier fix. In other instances they will be providing personnel to oversee and manage supplier fix. Some suppliers will be cut-off. Kraft will be discontinuing some product lines. What was particularly interesting to me is that Don has both computer science and electrical engineering degrees. A rare combination. He was aware of the embedded system problem back in the early 80's and tried to minimize dependency on embedded systems as plants were being built or re-vamped since that time. He openly admitted they would not be ready in time. I admired his honesty. And yet, Kraft is far ahead of most companies. If they've been aware of this, and have been trying to minimize the problem, since the 80's, and they're running into these types of problems ... how about the manufacturing and process control companies, who realized only recently that there were problems on the plant floor ... theirs and their suppliers??? C.K. HOUSTON Message 4288687 Cheryl