Preparations made for the year-2000 changeover helped bus-inesses ranging from convenience stores to drugmakers keep shelves stocked after US flights were canceled last week.
Companies including 7-Eleven, Amgen Inc and drugstore-chain CVS Corp activated emergency plans after terrorist attacks halted air traffic, threatening to cut off supply channels for many goods nationwide. Those plans had been designed to address the effects of potential shutdowns in the year-2000 transition.
A concern prior to 2000 was the possibility that air transport would be paralyzed if computers didn't recognize the date change, and many companies set up alternative delivery and supply methods to ensure products could get to market. Though many of the steps proved unnecessary because the Y2K transition caused few disruptions, the changes helped companies quickly switch from air to ground transport during the current crisis.
"One of the big Y2K scenarios was a cascading infrastructure effect, where a company's ability to move people and goods was limited by shutdowns," said John McCarthy, director for critical infrastructure protection in KPMG LLP's Washington office. "We're seeing this in some form now, and it's heartening to see the changes pay off." Computer programmers and analysts had been concerned that the Y2K glitch would cause computers that use two-digit fields in dates to read 2000 as 1900, leading to machinery, plant and transportation shutdowns.
McCarthy, who was deputy director in the US government's National Y2K Information Coordination Center, a clearinghouse for Y2K-related information and activity, said the provisions set up among companies, their customers and their suppliers in preparation for the year 2000 have played a big role in keeping products moving.
7-Eleven said it worked with suppliers to ensure its 5,300 US stores remained stocked, spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said.
To coordinate its distribution efforts, the company set up a command center in Dallas as well as similar posts at its nine regional distribution centers, Chabris said. The plan originally was designed for the Year 2000 transition.
7-Eleven also has also been using more electronic mail and faxes to transmit important documents because overnight shippers such as FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc weren't able to move packages by air.
FedEx got approval to resume flights linking Asia and Europe to the US on Friday. UPS also resumed some US services, including US-bound jets that were diverted after the attacks.
"There may be some ripples because things aren't arriving in a timely manner," Chabris said. "We're focused on continuity, and we're doing everything we can to keep things moving."
"One of the greatest benefits to come out of the whole Y2K effort was that it forced executives at the highest levels to assess contingencies, and ask how they would keep their businesses moving," said KPMG's McCarthy.
Amgen Inc, the world's largest biotechnology company, said last week it would use trucks instead of airplanes to deliver its drugs, implementing an emergency measure it developed to address Y2K concerns.
Amgen said it would truck US shipments of its top-selling Epogen anemia treatment and Neupogen, a treatment to fortify the immune systems of chemotherapy patients, from its plants in California, Kentucky, and Colorado.
This was the first use of the company's Y2K plan, Amgen spokesman David Kaye said.
"Same scenario, different cause," Kaye said. "We need to keep the pipeline filled, so we executed (ground transportation)."
Todd Andrews, spokesman for CVS Corp, the No. 2 US drugstore chain, said contingency plans developed for the year 2000 served them well in this week's events.
"We have no supply-chain problems when it comes to medications," Andrews said. "The Y2K preparations raised the same questions."
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