Leap Year of Faith

After some dire predictions about the consequences of the so called millennium bug, some sort of sanity is emerging in the form of concrete statistics, action plans and supplier support.

According to a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) survey, 54 per cent of CIMAH sites have no documented procedures addressing the actual date discontinuity although 94 per cent have some kind of overall strategy in place. In a working environment where 20 per cent of failed systems cause personal injury, the HSE statistics suggest there is a good deal of vital prioritising still to be done. Yet in 53 per cent of systems identified as not Y2K compliant, the source of the actual problem could not be found. And this is the problem; knowing you have non-compliance but being unable to source it.

Andy Nurse, embedded systems manager for Action 2000, the government-sponsored support group, says the problem is `a minefield with maybe just one mine in it'. Much of the work to date is concentrated on IT issues rather than less obvious embedded systems. Ian Bowman, Y2K manager at Siemens Automation and Drives, recommends a strategy of risk management. The alternative is to compile an equipment inventory which sends untrained staff on a paper trail with suppliers that all have a different idea of what compliance is, explains Bowman. Andy Nurse has experienced suppliers taking up to four months responding to a product compliance enquiry.

Testing for compliance is not just a matter of winding the date forward. A flawed system may operate perfectly with the wrong date after Y2K, but the wrong date is then acquired by a second system causing its shutdown. A risk management strategy assumes you cannot be 100 per cent sure and instead prioritises the problem in terms of risk to life, risk to production and risk to long term business.

Pledge 2000 has been launched to encourage an open environment where Y2K information can be shared between organisations without fear of being pursued through the courts in the event of a problem. But Pledge 2000 is not legally binding, and companies must still protect themselves from a chain of legal liability that mirrors the supply chain.

Liability does not only lie with equipment suppliers that fail to guarantee their goods, but with companies that fail contractually to deliver on time, at agreed quality. Companies should review contracts which they acquire or supply in view of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1982. Also, a company's failure to exercise reasonable care and consequent loss to a customer may result in a negligence ruling. A hazardous event caused by the Y2K may bring Regulation 18 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 to rule, regarding employer's responsibility for control systems not posing a risk to health or safety.

Help is at hand. Action 2000 supplies a strategy to smoke out Y2K bugs and has all the appropriate contacts. Siemens says the first source of information is the internet where it has an on-line support web site and Denton Hall provides expert legal advice to industry.

A positive approach will turn the Y2K to your advantage. It provides an opportunity to consolidate, standardise and unify process control, and a chance to rid your plant of those costly legacy systems. PE

{{Check list for clock compliance

* Millennium roll over without malfunction?* Date change to 2000 successful?* 2000 registered as leap year? (it should)* 2001 not registered as a leap year?* 2004 registered as a leap year?* Correct roll over for 9/9/99 without malfunction?* Are the first two century digits active?* If no battery back up, will clock survive power off?}}