Manufacturers Come Up with Solutions to the Year 2000 Computer Problem
By Sallie Gaines, Chicago Tribune
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 9--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 as one of a national network, part of
the Department of Commerce, that works with small manufacturing companies on
consulting projects. The centers are making a major push to help companies
identify and solve Year 2000 computer issues.
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 are 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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