as i've posted before, i work for a second-tier automotive supplier. our systems run on an as/400, which seems to be running okay, but our programs are starting to break down.

i work in customer service, and our shipping and work order programs are beginning to sprout glitches. if it's not fixed by tomorrow (and that doesn't look likely right now) we'll have to go manual ops. this may not look like a big deal to you pollies, but i've got more than 200 part numbers i've got to keep track of, and i'm not sure our system is relieving inventory accurately, which means we're not going to be ordering raw material accurately within a very short time frame.

this is first hand, not rumor, folks. if it gets bad i'll try to post by the end of the week.

luck, everybody.

-- Cowardly Lion (cl0001@hotmail.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

man i worked for a heat treating and electroplating company a couple of years ago...No y2k bug then. BUT, we shut down Saturn for at least a day because we had problems processing a tiny little part for their second tier supplier...HANG ON to your hats!!!

-- Kyle (midtnbuddy@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

Appreciate the grassroots info. Its going to be survival of the fittest for small businesses.

The media isn't going to say squat about small business problems but you can be sure the cumulative affect is substantial.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 04, 2000.

Cowardly Lion,

There was this problem called Y2K. I think you were supposed to remediate your computers.

-- (I'm@pol.ly), January 04, 2000.

What county and area did this happen in? Does your automitive supplier supply for a major company? Was the shipping and work order programs that is now breaking down compliant? Was the computer itself compliant?

-- Brent Nichols (b-nichol@ihug.co.nz), January 04, 2000.

CL keep us informed. I expect that as my bride gets home tonight I will find out how her company is fairing in FOF mode. They better do well. they rebuild Pistons and cylinders for locomotives. Their 20 largest customers are in 12 countries. My bride is the HR mgr and Purchasing Mgr (as well as Safety officer and Office Mgr).

Chuck

PS we're talking LARGE pieces of metal that need chroming, EB welding etc. the pieces won't fit through the frame on the monitor you are using unless you are using a home theater for a monitor.

c

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 04, 2000.

Cowardly Lion,

There is also another Greenspun LUSENET Forum run by the Coalition 2000 group http:// www.coalition2000.org/ and Steve Davis, et. al., and they are collecting incident reports and working on verifying Y2K glitch incidents, with a team of grassroots analysts from various organizations, such as those participants listed here... http:// www.coalition2000.org/participants.htm.

Could you please either crosspost there, with a real e-mail address (no anonymous posters accepted), or e-mail me and Ill flag the GICC analysts to work directly on the story.

BTW, I happen to know for a fact, that many business organizations and government command centers are watching both TimeBomb 2000 and the GICC for reports of glitch incidents.

Thanks Much,

Diane

Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC)

http:// greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic= Grassroots%20Information%20Coordination%20Center%20%28GICC%29

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

One branch at my credit union was also operating on manual yesterday. I'm not posting the name because I have friends working there. The teller said it was a communication problem between the main office and the branch and was NOT Y2K. Okie doke. BTW, they are small enough that they can post transactions and clear checks by hand. However there will be a lot of OT once the computers are restored, and daily balancing is a time consuming pain. If this keeps up, my account statement may be typed on an old Selectric! :-) It's OK, I usually don't have much in checking for them to balance, anyway.

You can believe me or not - I understand because I am not supplying details other than I'm in northern California. This is just another warning to me that our society is going to be a lot less efficient for some time to come.

-- Margaret J (janssm@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

Not BPCS, Lion?

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), January 04, 2000.

diane, this is a real e-mail address, but i prefer anonymity.

no, lisa, not bcps. (ow was it bpcs?)

we sell to the people who sell to the big three and toyota, and we're not a small company, and, yes, i was told everything *was* remediated.

we have two classes of problems right now: the first, which started the week before Christmas shutdown, is causing the most problems, but the second, which *is* a y2k glitch, is making it even more difficult to manually work around the first problem.

the second class is a number of programs which are not accepting a time frame *from* 'anywhere in 99' *to* 'anywhere in 00.' i don't know what fix our dp dept used, but the programs are not buying it.

i don't know if the first class of problems are typical generic type, or y2k, or caused by y2k remediation, since i don't know what's causing the screwup. i *do* know the y2k glitch is tying us in knots trying to figure out what the first problem is even doing to us.

i'll keep you posted.

-- Cowardly Lion (cl0001@hotmail.com), January 04, 2000.

sorry, addendum to my previous answer, and should have been in the original post. i've gotten queries to my e-mail addy, and should have been clearer earlier:

the as/400 appears to be working fine. the programs which are having problems were, i believe, written in-house. i do *not* consider this an as/400 y2k problem, so the as/400 users can start breathing again. sorry sorry.

-- Cowardly Lion (cl0001@hotmail.com), January 04, 2000.