[FOOD] Embedded software problems in food plant floors
news.foodonline.com
' Year 2000: Where will you be standing
when the lights go out?
Year 2000: Where will you be standing
when the lights go out?
Okay, you read the Year 2000
coverage in Newsweek magazine a
few months ago and you've taken
measures to head off what could
have been the Fright Night of the
century Dec. 31, 1999. But have you
taken your concerns to the plant
floor? If not, you may still be in for
quite a hangover on Jan. 1, 2000.
"A lot of companies are working on
Year 2000 concerns at the MIS level,
but when you get to the
manufacturing level, there is truly a
black hole," noted Bill Gruber at the
recent FOOD PLANTS '97
conference in Orlando, FL.
The problem, as you probably have
heard, is that many computers, chips,
embedded systems, work systems,
plant equipment and many other
business components and systems
will be discombobulated when their
internal calendars change from 1999
to 2000. Blame the binary system or
the lack of long-term thinking or just
plain habit, if you will, but what we
could have here, in the immortal
words of Cool Hand Luke, is a
"failure to communicate" come New
Year's Day, 2000.
Gruber, who is Manager Control and
Automation at Nestle USA, Glendale,
Calif., and David Hurst of Data
Dimensions, a consulting firm
focused on Year 2000 issues, noted
that Nestle's Y2K efforts are out of
balance. Three full-time people are
addressing the issue at the corporate
MIS level, but work remains to be
done for their 43 production facilities.
"At the manufacturing level, there
are two of us working part time," said
Gruber, "and we have come to the
realization that we have a real issue!"
And if parent Nestle S.A., the largest
food marketer in the world feels that
it is behind, where does the rest of
the industry stand?
Hundreds of web sites are
disseminating Y2K information about
embedded systems and computers.
But Y2K will affect card readers,
plant servers, PCs, mainframes,
telecommunication systems,
microprocessor chips...and the list
goes on.
On the plant floor, be prepared to
address SCADA networks, process
systems, PLCs, and plant equipment.
Making the issue even trickier is the
fact that you may discover how
individual pieces of the puzzle may
react on New Years 2000 but have
no idea of overall systems reaction.
Failure may come from combinations
rather than weak links. Data
Dimension's David Hurst cited one
instance of a Y2K test in which one
piece of equipment powered up to
Year 2000 and another piece reset
itself to the year of its manufacture,
1980. Both pieces of equipment were
ready to run, but the computer
interpreted the discrepancies in dates
as a major problem and shut the
entire system down.
What should you do? Ideas culled
from the expert suggest the
following:
Build awareness. The experts
say that building awareness is
the first step. Make sure that
management understands that
the corporation's ability to
manufacture - and sell -
product is at stake. Make sure
that your suppliers and
customers realize that their
livelihood will be affected as
well.
Take inventory. Take
inventory of everything in your
plant that might be affected.
Make a checklist of all of your
systems.
Plan. After you have
determined which systems
make you most vulnerable,
develop a strategy to deal with
them.
Get help. Contact all of the
suppliers of the systems,
equipment, software, etc. to
see who can help and how.
Know we are all in this
together. Co-packers,
suppliers, and customers are
all essential to your business
as you are to theirs.
This awareness should lead to a spirit
of mutual cooperation to get through
the Y2K challenge. Spearhead the
movement.
Indeed, 1997 is not too early to wish
one a Happy Millennium. After all,
it's later than you think!
By: Mike Pehanich |
