SQUARE D is BUSY!
Manufacturers must also deal with embedded chips. Some are joining forces for a fix, others opt for new systems
By Sallie Gaines
Tribune Staff Writer
June 08, 1998
As manufacturers face the Year 2000 computer problem, they're coming up with solutions as varied as the products they make.
In the Peoria area, a dozen small manufacturers realized that a software system they all used would stop working Jan. 1, 2000. The companies--some of them competitors--joined forces to find, and pay for, a way to update the software.
Navistar International Corp. knew the computer system that operated the factory floor of its Melrose Park engine plant had the same problem. Rather than update the system, Navistar is replacing it with the latest technology.
But manufacturers must also solve problems that most businesses don't have to worry about: embedded chips. These chips, or microprocessors, are an integral part of most manufacturing equipment, and they're not always easy to find, let alone fix.
"Ninety percent of the problems in industry are not in your hardware and software; they're in embedded systems," said Jerry Kilpatrick, project manager of the Central Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center at Bradley University in Peoria. The center works with small manufacturing companies on consulting projects.
Embedded systems--microchips that are part of a piece of machinery itself--regulate the core function of the machine. Just as a microchip in your VCR won't record future programs if you program a date it doesn't recognize, a robot on an assembly line will shut down unless it recognizes a dated order. The order may have arrived at the factory electronically via software, but an embedded chip in the robot must "read" that order.
Most computer systems and embedded processors installed more than a year or two ago were designed to read a year as a two-digit number. This year, for example, is simply "98" to the computer; a "19" is assumed to precede every two-digit year. So, many computers will read "00" as 1900, not 2000.
Result: Machinery won't operate, bills won't go out (or will go out demanding interest and fees because payment is 100 years late), and time clocks may malfunction.
Not all embedded chips and computer applications have dates built in, of course. But it's not always obvious which ones do, so companies say they have to check out every system they use to make sure all are Year 2000, or Y2K, compliant.
A common methodology seems to be emerging: First, inventory every system in use, from machinery and computers that run the shop floor to the software packages used by clerks. Then determine if the systems are Y2K compliant; this often involves tracking down suppliers and hoping they can answer the question.
Once the problems are identified, manufacturers must decide whether to fix the system or replace it. This is where companies are showing some creativity and long-range thinking.
Illinois Machine and Tool Works, for example, joined forces with 11 other companies--some of them competitors--to upgrade a software package they all use. Kilpatrick, who helped bring the companies together under the auspices of the extension center, said more than 20 companies originally were involved.
A handful dropped out after determining they'd be better off scrapping the system and starting anew, he said.
Other industries are working together, too. The Automotive Industry Action Group, for example, has standards for transferring data electronically. The group was able to help Navistar bring the electronic order system, used by suppliers of the Melrose Park plant, into Y2K compliance, said Jim Schlusemann, director of business and technical systems.
But not all systems are clear-cut. Meter readers for Commonwealth Edison Co., for example, use technology that combines software, hardware and embedded chips. Daily route information is downloaded from a central mainframe to a regional workstation; this process uses software. A handheld reader, the size of a large calculator, downloads that same information from the workstation.
A meter reader takes the handheld device along on the daily route and manually enters data from residential meters. Embedded chips allow the device to store the data correctly. At shift's end, the reader returns the handheld device to the workstation site and data is uploaded to the workstation, then to the mainframe. Then the mainframe downloads the next day's route, and the cycle repeats itself.
ComEd's job is to identify all the dates in the hardware, software and embedded chips and make sure they're Year 2000 compliant; otherwise, customers will get incorrect bills--and Edison will get grief.
To track down embedded systems, "we work with our supply base," said Alan Ho, manager of Y2K for Unicom Corp., parent of ComEd. "I think most of them have a pretty good grasp of what it is that we need to find out."
Fixing the meter-reading system is fairly simple, Ho said, because most of the technology was developed by ComEd or by outside vendors specifically for the vendor. So tracking down the author of software and learning the location of embedded chips was simple.
Steve Stewart, executive vice president of Illinois Machine and Tool Works, near Peoria, wishes it had been that easy for his company. The company bought software from a small, local vendor in 1996. But by the time the company realized it needed to update the software for Year 2000, the vendor was bankrupt.
It was the lack of a clear-cut solution that prompted the company to help form the coalition with other local manufacturers. The coalition found a computer expert who worked at one of the companies and knew the software at issue; that expert used this "fix project" as the impetus to start his own software-services company, said Duane Baker, controller and system administrator for Illinois Machine and Tool Works.
Understandably, companies are focusing first on major systems integral to filling orders. "Our job is to make sure that we can take an order, we can build the order and we can ship the order," said Joellyn Willis, vice president of operations for Square D Co., the huge Palatine-based electronics-parts manufacturer that's part of France's Groupe Schneider.
ComEd, for example, is looking first at computer systems that keep its nuclear plants running safely.
"We start with our safe-shutdown systems and the ability to keep our system, our plants, operating safely," Ho said.
Lower-priority items are systems that might cause a computer screen to show an incorrect date, but which would not actually interfere with a process, he said.
That approach is logical, the extension center's Kilpatrick said. "Your time clock's not going to shut you down," he said. "Just have your people fill out time sheets manually for a few weeks. That's a manageable problem."
But ignoring secondary systems may be a big mistake, said Square D's Willis. "When people think about the Year 2000 problem, they think about the main systems," she said. "I don't think they think about, Is the security system going to unlock the doors at 6 in the morning? Will the air conditioning work? Will the elevators work?
"You have to make sure that the facility itself is compliant," Willis said.
Those aren't frivolous issues. Kilpatrick said one client discovered that his company's fire-sprinkler system would have gone off when the date "00" clicked in.
In some cases, just fixing the date isn't the best solution.
Consider the actual manufacturing system at Navistar's Melrose Park engine plant. This system looks at orders and automatically lines up the necessary materials, Schlusemann said. It determines what parts of the production line will be used, and for how long; it schedules manpower and tracks costs.
"It's the heart and soul of our operation," he said. "That's the system that has given us heartburn. It's the equivalent of changing spark plugs while you're driving down the road."
But since the system had to be overhauled, Navistar decided the timing was right to replace it entirely with newer technology. "It's not just a Y2K fix," said plant manager Ed Anesi.
Navistar saw the Y2K issue as an opportunity, Anesi said. But some companies may opt to replace equipment because it's easier; maybe the original supplier is gone or no longer supporting the system, said Nabil Nasr, head of the remanufacturing center at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Even if the goal is merely to fix the date glitch, companies likely will see some spillover. Illinois Machine and Tool Works, for example, had to buy upgraded computers to handle its upgraded software, Baker said.
And going through the Y2K exercise may teach some companies cost-cutting lessons. Willis said Square D may not be spending as much as some competitors because the company already had a policy of standardizing equipment and software as much as possible; that has reduced the number of systems that need upgrading, she said.
That "reduced" number of computer systems Square D has identified so far is about 2,000.
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