(News from Taipei) Winbond Electronics Company Ltd., today announced preliminary results from the Company's Year 2000 efforts. The Company is reporting that all internal company operations, including: facilities, production equipment, information operation application system and administration resource systems, are functioning normally. The news is the result of an extensive Y2K readiness plan the Company prepared to address all possible scenarios. The plan also included responsive measures to minimize the impact of any external factors that might affect the Company's business.
Winbond first began its Year 2000 planning back in April, 1995. In September 1997, the Company delegated financial resources and set up a special team tasked with testing software, hardware and network facilities and evaluating the possible outcome of any disruptions up and downstream in Winbond's supply chain. The overall objective of the team was to avoid interruption in business operations caused by computer systems, many of which are used to access business-critical databases. Under the supervision and leadership of C.C. Chang, President of Winbond Electronics, and the combined efforts of the task force composed of individuals from each department, Winbond completed its evaluation of crisis scenarios and comprehensive testing by September, 1999. It was during this time that Winbond developed a series of crisis simulations and emergency business schemes. From December 31, 1999, 6 p.m. to January, 1, 2000, 6 p.m., all Winbond fab facilities and departments throughout the company will continue to have a number of command centers up and running; all managers and responsible personnel will remain on duty during that time.
Winbond's emergency Y2K plan, aside from overall testing, material preparation and production reduction during the roll over period, also included the following:
Facilities containing enough standby power, fuel and water stable gas supply to prevent possible raw material and workshop pollution.
Use of Run Card procedures to avoid equipment damage during production while ensuring that all crucial data is saved.
Increased inventory of main products for a two week period and a two month's supply of raw materials to ensure normal delivery of products to customers.
Use of workaround schedules, in order to avoid the sensitive Y2K timeframe, for all financial operations. This included currency exchange, check operations and accounts payable.
Use of extensive education, investigation, testing and practice runs of various scenarios designed to avert various crisis associated with different levels of internal operation.
Successful completion of numerous visits to both up-stream and down-stream supply chain factories to confirm that all operations external to the company would not adversely impact Winbond.
Winbond's company-wide effort ensured that the new millennium had no negative impact on product supply, service quality, employee and equipment safety, and overall company operation. The success of this plan is a positive reflection of the Company's continued ability to plan and successfully manage crisis situations.
Spokesperson
Wilson Wen
Vice President of Administrative Center
Tel:03-5792755
News Liaison
Mike Liu
Deputy Director
Tel:03-5792516
Email:ckliu@winbond.com