I work for a smallish ($6mil per annum) manufacturing business. Our MRP software (For the uninitiated, this runs the whole enterprise, orders materials, tracks labor costs, etc.) seems to be going nutz.

A month ago (first of the year), our physical inventory was within $3500 of our actuals on a base of $1.2mil. Pretty good accuracy, especially in the raw materials stockroom, which is cage secured. NOW, a few short weeks later, we have $150K in overages and $83K in shortages. All of a sudden like. No one can discern why this has happened.

The numbers are all over the board. We somehow have 1000 feet more of a particular wire that we haven't ordered for years. We have negative quantities of stuff we can see with our own eyes. The whole thing is crazy-going-nutz right in front of us and no one can figure out why.

We don't know if Y2-u-know-what is to blame, but it's an awful convenient coinky-dink.

Anyways, I gotta work today on recounts. I suspect that it won't be worth the trouble.

Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), February 06, 2000

Answers

HAHAHAHAHA BUSTED! It's all your fault Kook, now we know! Your assignment today, after repairing all the coinky dinks, is to come up with the spin phrase that will out RPM any of the spin phrases out there currently. Not y2k related contains the e-vile buzzacronym, can't use it. Century Date change related is too lame. How about something like "digitally Date challenged"? That's sorta pc sounding. Maybe you can get a governmental art grant, present your companies data as "performance art" to show...well, it doesn't matter WHAT you show or call it, just get the NEA grant!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 06, 2000.

Zog, you're an idiot!

-- snuffy (snuffy@aol.com), February 06, 2000.

--well, snuffy, why am I an idiot when I was having some fun with my good friend Kook? You need to narrow it down a bit. I can't make a tongue in cheek comment, or what?

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 06, 2000.

Sounds like a lot 'o fun, Kook. Of course, DBs go berzerk for a variety of reasons. So many, in fact, that we all have made a good living at fixing them (over and over again) for years. But this one is obviously and immediately suspicious because of it's recent demise (unless you went and did a radical upgrade recently also.)

In the case some, "fixes" were thrown into the mix, they may be either date related or not. Most likely they were thrown into the mix because of date problems (maybe). Which leads us in the circle of trying to define what is a date related problem and what isn't.

I say it is if it's bad code that was supposed to fix a date problem.

Where's the DBA - on vacation to Alaska?

-- paul leblanc (bronyaur@gis.net), February 06, 2000.

Foist off, me and Zoggo go way back, he can kid me all he likes. I do likewise sometimes!

Second, we're a small company, so we don't have a resident DBA. We call some consultants that work for the software company. They come in, fiddle with keyboards, and hand us a bill, every two months or so. The latest probs are a complete mystery to them so far. In June of '99, we had the software completely Y2K immunized by them, or so we thought. A few weeks later, we entered an order with a double- ought delivery date, and the whole she-bang when crappers. Locked up like those FBI files in Hillary's office.

Anywho, Evelyn Wood version: We lost two weeks of data, had to go manual (Hell on earth, lemme' tell'ya) for two weeks, had to reenter ALL data manually, couldn't restore from backup. High priced consultant dudes just scratched their collective heads and handed us a bill. We still don't know what happened, but we're holding our breath for the duration this year. NOW we've got this collection of inventory and transaction / backflush / shipping errors that's killing us. And we don't know for sure what the source is!

Hamasaki said the systems would fail in 'srtange and wonderful ways'. I'm beginning to believe it!

Frazzled Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), February 06, 2000.

Excellent grassroots report, thanks Kook

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 06, 2000.

Yep, Kook and Zog, I go way back with you guys as well, but you probably don't recognize me since I have morphed into this current on- line personna.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), February 06, 2000.

Geeeezzz, B-Nugg, couldn't you morph into something a little more sanitary?

Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), February 06, 2000.

Good luck, Kook--sounds frusterating.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 06, 2000.

--feline anal artifact (sory, couldn't resist there), ok, it's a mystery! lemme see, you have always been a 1-2 on the doomer scale, and are a long time survivalist. am I hot, warm, cool or cold?

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 06, 2000.

Kook,

May want to try this company:

http://www.cyberp.com/

They have a program called N-Sync that address the type of problem you are talking about.

Some big name companys, General Electric, Gates Rubber,(check their PR Page) use their software. I understand that CyberPoint's N-Sync software is reasonable priced.

Good Luck

-- KT (kwtuttle@yahoo.com), February 06, 2000.

Sounds like a corrupt database to me. You might want to load last week's backup (assuming you have one) and see what it looks like. If it's good, then just update it and go with it. Will be better than what you've got now!

-- Y2kObserver (Y2kObserver@nowhere.com), February 06, 2000.

Zog, I'm shocked. Despite all of your posts in which you have eloquently expounded about the flaws of government, your conscience permits you to encourage the Kookster to seek a handout. The humanity! (It was a brilliant suggestion, I'll give you that.)

Y2Kook, since Hawk has not graced this thread with another of his trademark speculations, I shall indulge. Supposing that your application keeps a history of additions to and deletions from inventory, what if the application suddenly decided that some date in the past were now the current date, and proceeded to process the transactions from that old date against the current view of inventory.

I am so confident of this theory that I'll guarantee it, provided that the problem statement was adequate.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), February 06, 2000.

---thanks! I DID think the performance art grant angle was rather inpired! Was a beautiful dawn I was gazing it when it hit me!

--remember the 600$ gummint hammer? thinking of the booming economy. Announcing;

zog's 6 THOUSAND dollar DefensehammerDot Com!

only a prospectus, not to be construed as a stock offering, unless you really want to give me the loot, in which case I'll print up some really nifty looking shares, honest. I do hereby swear to A-never manufacture a hammer and B-never pay any dividends

Please remit at yesterdays close level all monies in precious metals to

Banco du zog, ltd, Turks and Caicos

-- zog (alltheloot@offshore.smilingrichguys.401K), February 06, 2000.

Zoggo, you never cease to amaze me. Need a partner?

Subsidized Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), February 07, 2000.

You guys need a decent business model. Want me to write it?? I work CHEAP (a small percentage of the operation, and a small pittance to cover the neccessities [like a spell checker])

CHuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 07, 2000.

Kook,
Has the cause of those wacky inventory counts been determined? If so, could you share that with us.

The perpetually curious...

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), February 12, 2000.