Car makers spend $1.3 billion on Y2k

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Tuesday, November 9, 1999

Car makers spend $1.3 billion on Y2K GM pours $700 million into effort to make sure worldwide operations are glitch-free

Todd McInturf / The Detroit News

Hank Capro, right, and Don Costantio are part of GM's Y2K army to make sure its year 2000 operations run smoothly worldwide.

By David Welch / The Detroit News

WARREN -- Detroit's automakers are shelling out more than $1.3 billion and keeping swat teams of technical gurus on hand to make sure they aren't bitten by the Y2K millennium bug when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve. While they are confident that widespread disruption is unlikely, particularly in the United States, there is deep concern that computer glitches among suppliers abroad could cripple the car makers' global industrial archipelagos. "We believe internally we've done everything we can," said Don Constantino, director of corporate Year 2000 information systems and services for GM. "We're concerned about this primarily outside the U.S." While all businesses big and small are preparing their systems to cope with the Y2K problem, GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler are at the forefront and spending big bucks to make a smooth transition. They are taking little for granted. GM began preparations four years ago. It has since analyzed more than 6,100 software application systems and nearly 1.5 million manufacturing systems and components. The company has assessed all its vehicles back to 1985, thousands of suppliers and operations of 12,000 dealers worldwide. On Monday, the company for the first time showed off its Y2K war room at GM's Technical Center here. From this small, stuffy basement room, dozens of technical experts are monitoring how the Y2K effects GM's far-flung operations. The fear for several years has been that when the clock strikes midnight, computers that run anything from assembly lines to dealership order banks to electrical lines could malfunction or shut down when their two-digit internal date counters read 1900 instead of 2000. GM has been testing and tinkering with software and computer systems since 1996 in hopes of preventing a computer-related apocalypse. It has assigned more than 200 people to work around the clock at 15 to 20 control centers run by GM and Electronic Data Systems, the former GM unit that still runs its computer information systems. For global companies, the gravest concern is that suppliers could have breakdowns either internally or externally, such as a power failures. Russia, Eastern Europe, China and other parts of Asia are of concern because companies and governments addressed the problems later than western nations, said Roger Buck, manager of Year 2000 systems for DaimlerChrysler. Thousands of tests But internally, the automakers say they already have run thousands of tests in which they tricked their computer systems into thinking it was the year 2000 to see if everything will keep running. At assembly plants, GM has run cars and trucks down the lines 170 times to make sure all the computerized equipment that welds, rivets and assembles vehicles will run smoothly in January. Ford and DaimlerChrysler say they have run exhaustive tests as well. And it hasn't been cheap. From mid-1997 to present, GM and EDS together have paid between $580 million and $620 million to get systems Y2K ready. And the automakers expects to shell out another $80 million in 2000. Ford already has spent $280 million through June and expects to spend $400 million by the time everything is done. DaimlerChrysler has spent $231 million and expects to spend a total of $250 million. Vehicles checked, too The automakers also have tested their vehicles to make sure the computer chips that now do everything from controlling engine combustion to running the clock in the dashboard will not fail. Joe Majcher, director of engineering and production for GM's Y2K readiness unit, said the company has not found one example of a Y2K problem in any vehicle. At worst, he said, some in-vehicle calendars may need to be reset. Still, the automakers are taking no chances. Ford will have between 50 and 100 people on staff at a control center in Dearborn to monitor their operations over the New Year's weekend, and team will be inspecting manufacturing plants, said company spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes. DaimlerChrysler will have similar check-in operations with four global command centers -- three in Auburn Hills and one in Stuttgart -- to handle any problems. But at GM, whose global footprint is the biggest, the preparation seems to be the most grand. For example, behind the Central Command Center room in Warren is an oil-powered generator and a week's supply of oil that will keep electricity pumping to the control center. Still there is always the possibility that something, somewhere in GM's huge manufacturing system could fail. "We've tested and retested and everything should operate," Constantino said. "We believe we are in excellent shape. But when you're dealing with 50 countries and their utilities and and your suppliers are spread out, that's a lot to manage."

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 09, 1999

Answers

" ... there is deep concern that computer glitches among suppliers abroad could cripple the car makers' global industrial archipelagos ... "

But it sounds like they've really been diligent. Real-time testing is difficult.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 09, 1999.


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