Procter & Gamble and International Suppliers.

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Senate group will examine preparations

BY RANDY TUCKER The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's Procter & Gamble is among a number of multinational companies scheduled to testify today before a special Senate committee on the year 2000 technology problem.

"The feared Y2K bug could have a global impact on companies with worldwide operations by interrupting critical supply and distribution chains," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, chairman of the committee.

"Just as Y2K poses challenges in our own country, companies overseas may be at risk of electric and telecommunications failures," he said. The fates of these companies are linked in some fashion to the ever-changing state of international affairs.

Potential Y2K problems could undermine America's economic well-being, Mr. Bennett said. The Y2K bug could cause computers to malfunction if the machines read the ?00? in 2000 as 1900 instead.

Consequently, the federal government wants to know what actions such U.S.-based companies as P&G, Ford Motor Co., IBM and American Express have taken to prevent that from occurring.

For P&G, those actions have involved assessing the Y2K readiness of its supply partners outside the United States and implementing contingency plans based on those risk assessments.

Kevin Haukebo, P&G's Y2K program manager, who is to testify today before the Senate, said that based on P&G's evaluation of its external partners, Y2K preparedness varies widely by country.

"The data does indicate more severe problems with developing markets than in developed countries like the United States," he said.

In response, P&G sent letters to several suppliers asking them to sign contracts guaranteeing deliveries in case of Y2K problems.

If the suppliers can't honor their contracts, P&G would have the option of looking elsewhere for help.

"If one of our suppliers potentially goes through some problems, we could work through that period with them, or we may look at alternate suppliers," Mr. Haukebo said.

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And while were looking for alternate suppliers the production lines are silent and cold.

LM***Are we having fun yet?

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), July 23, 1999

Answers

If the suppliers can't honor their contracts, P&G would have the option of looking elsewhere for help.

No potential Y2K problems on the moon, eh?

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 23, 1999.


I foresee loooong cheese lines!

-- flb (fben4077@yahoo.com), July 23, 1999.

There are no guarantees....

How can a company guarantee anything with so much outside of their control? Professional puffery.

It doesn't seem like the people in charge of remediation REALLY understand the problem, do they?

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), July 23, 1999.


Read or heard somewhere that P&G had just had a big chemical or product spill or release of some type of product. Maybe they better worry about their own backyard.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), July 23, 1999.

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