Y2K BUGGING SYSTEMS FOR PLANNING AND FORECASTING

DEENA AMATO-McCOY

DENVER -- Even retailers deep into the process of year-2000 corrections are starting to feel the effects from the millennium bug computer problem, especially in forward-looking systems such as order planning and forecasting, both of which are crucial to supermarket operations.

Montgomery Ward and Co., Chicago, experienced first-hand how year 2000 "caused a service interruption in our supply chain," said Morton Mease, director of planning and technology services for the retailer. Montgomery Ward was receiving forecasted and ordered product from its vendors, but merchandise was not being shipped to its stores.

The problem, encountered seven months ago, was detected "because we had a distribution center full of product," he explained. Mease spoke during the presentation "Retailing for the Year 2000," Oct. 19, at the Retail Information Systems Conference here, sponsored by the National Retail Federation, Washington.

"Retailers in the supermarket industry, or any class of retail using systems that plan for execution beyond Jan. 1, 2000, may see a crisis a lot sooner than late 1999," J. Bruce Ash, principal consultant for CFT Consulting, Sarasota, Fla., told SN. "This could include systems facilitating purchase orders, replenishment or forward buying."

Mease noted that many retailers have been working on year-2000 problems for more than two years. However, for those without a plan, "there is no [packaged] solution to solve this problem," he said. "Implementation time is gone."