The Kraft Corporation has already felt the effects of the Year 2000 problem. Its warehouse destroyed several million dollars worth of food because the expiration date was after January 1, 2000. Because of the two-digit encoding of the dates, the warehouse processed the shipments as expired and destroyed them. The Year 2000 problem has implications for all types of organizations and their customers. Once a company has become aware of the problem and identified the systems that are affected, testing, remediation, and contingency planning follow.
Contingency planning answers the what if questions.
The purpose of remediation is the prevention of production and service disruptions. Service disruptions reduce the level of customer service. Therefore, a remediation plan is essentially a customer service plan. Production stoppages translate into lost sales and lost market share. A key element of customer service is service and product quality.