Week of August 2, 1999 Industry Report Poll Shows Manufacturers Optimistic About Overcoming Y2K Bug A new survey of American manufacturers reveals that the nation's largest industrial firms are confident about their ability to weather any Y2K storm that might ensue as the year ends, according to National Association of Manufacturers president Jerry Jasinowski and Dr. Ed Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell who conducted the poll on his Web site. Slightly more than 80 percent of the respondents said their firms' Y2K projects were more than 75 percent complete, and 13 percent reported their Y2K preparations are finished. "Although this survey offers ground for optimism, American industry is still in a race to complete preparations for the Y2K phenomenon," said Jasinowski. "The survey shows that many of our leading manufacturers are confident about their ability to cope with potential Y2K problems. While that's welcome news to all who care about a possible downturn due to the Y2K computer issue, we're clearly not out of the woods yet." Ninety-six members of the National Association of Manufacturers responded to the anonymous poll, nearly 65 percent of which represent large firms with 1,000 or more employees and 73 percent of which operate on a global basis. About one-third of the respondents are top managers, including CEOs and CFOs, and almost six in 10 are either CIOs or information technology managers. Among the poll's most significant findings: More than one-third said that between 1-5 percent of their mission-critical systems might still fail or malfunction and one-fifth are still waiting for Y2K-compliant versions of mission-critical software to be delivered from third-party vendors. More than half of survey respondents said they receive materials, parts, goods and services from 500 or more vendors, but 60 percent of the respondents said they expect that all their suppliers would be ready for Y2K on time. Roughly 25 percent anticipated that some of their vendors in Asia, Latin America and Europe might fail to deliver, but they expect to have other reliable sources. One-third stated that they have not been able to assess more than half of their third-party vendors for Y2K readiness. While nearly five in 10 respondents said they have no plans to build extra inventories of suppliers, materials and product by year-end, nearly four in 10 expect to have as much as four weeks of extra stock in-hand. Significantly, more than one-third said their customers are asking them to increase stockpiles. Ninety-seven percent said that the millennium bug will have zero or very minor impact (at most, a few days) on their companies. Eighty-nine percent characterized themselves as remaining optimistic or even more optimistic than three months ago. At the same time, 37 percent said they are required to be at work during the weekend of Jan. 1, 2000. The Manufacturing Report © Copyright 1999 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. E-mail Editorial Dept: tmr-editorial@lionhrtpub.com Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com Web Design by Premier Web Designs E-mail: lionwebmaster@preweb.com