Just curious....

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All we hear about is 'mission critical'systems. I'm curious about all the other systems not considered critical. For example, let's say a factory produces chromium plated,acid-etched gyro balanced widgets. All of their assembly lines hum smoothly, widgets are carried along and receive their plating, etching and insertion of a gyro. In other words all systems that are needed to manufacture widgets are working properly. Now, somewhere in the widget offices are other computers that keep track of how many r2d2 gyros and how many 2dr2 gyros are to be shipped and which shipping company to use. And which acid compound to order from which chemical company...and in what order should they be packaged and which language is to be used on which shipment labels. The mechanics of the factory process may work just fine, but how will production be affected by 'non-critical' systems?

-- citizen (lost@sea.com), September 28, 1999

Answers

"how will production be affected by 'non-critical' systems?"

That is one of the $64 dollar questions. A guess could be 20% to 40%+ of production - or the key to survival of company.

Love to see a digital world map with red dots blinking failures in 2000 - 2001

-- dw (y2k@outhere.com), September 28, 1999.


One way of thinking about this is to ask the question, "How long could we live without this system, without having to shut down the business, and without suffering a severe impact on revenues, reputation, etc.?"

A lot of companies started off by assuming, for example, that their payroll system was mission-critical. And for some companies, it is: if the workers don't get their paycheck at the appointed hour on the appointed day, they drop their tools and walk out. But in many white- collar professions, the reality is the people will grumble and whine and complain -- but they'll keep on working. (Look at Russia for a particularly amazing example of this.) So, if you can live without your payroll system for, say, a month or two, then it's not quite so mission-critical after all....

Of course, this assumes that mission-criticality is an all-or-nothing proposition. Obviously, that's not true, either -- most companies have three or four "levels" of criticality, e.g., "mission-critical," "business-essential", "moderately important," and "nice, but not necessary."

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (HumptyDumptyY2K@yourdon.com), September 28, 1999.


If they're lucky somewhere is a little old manual of procedures for setting up those acid baths for plating those widgets, and maybe they still have someone working who remembers the days when they didn't order the chemical compound but instead created one, and tested the solutions to get them balanced.

I used to do this work for an aircraft sub-contract company who did all kinds of plating of widgets.

This is why I laugh loudly at the very idea that the water systems of this country can just overnight go to manual. I seriously doubt that anyone is around who knows how to do the chemistry without killing us.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), September 29, 1999.


Three drops of chlorax per gallon of water.......

-- Sam Mcgee (weissacre@gwtc.net), September 29, 1999.

Then you need someone who can actually do the math! How many drops are in a gallon and how many gallons of water are you trying to purify for a city of 100,000?

-- winna (??@??.com), September 29, 1999.


You can forget the basic chemistry formulas used in manufacturing. It's the additives to the basic brew that make it work. Without them, most processes are inoperative or inefficient. Goes to the supply chain, again. As an old plater of many years, I seem to remember that chromium comes from two major suppliers: Russia and South Africa. Think the Russian will be able to supply us if the systems crash? How about nickel? Supplied mainly by Canada, Mexico and Australia. Another industry that goes down would be steel. Lots of chromium and nickel are use in manufacturing numerous grades of steel, like stainless steel, etc. The chain reaction begins...

-- Sparky (gungazo@execpc.com), September 29, 1999.

There are two definitions of a "critical" system.

First, which systems did we DECIDE are critical after looking at them and how they seem to interact with others. That's the "critical" count that is being reported today. Some of them are probably NOT critical, but we just made a mistake in evaluating it, and so we are wasting time fixing that system instead of some other that is actually more important.

Second, which systems, when they break, will destroy the company or function? That's a system that REALITY would label "critical". Some of them are not on OUR list of "critical" systems, because we erred in our evaluation. Some systems which are genuinely critical might not break, since we correctly remediated them at least enough to keep them functioning.

The big Y2k question will be: did we correctly identify enough of the ACTUALLY critical systems, such that the company or process can remain functioning?

If it stopped production, it was critical. You'll know next year.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), September 29, 1999.


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