100 Stories1999 Addressing Y2K with Thorough Risk Management

In 1999, when the great prophecy of Nostradamus rumored that the human race would be destroyed, Asahi Kasei was preparing for Y2K. This was a problem that was believed to be caused by the fact that many computer systems only displayed the last two digits of the year and omitted the upper two digits when dealing with dates in the year 2000, which could cause computers to malfunction.

Asahi Kasei launched the Y2K Response Project in December 1996, and has been taking action to prevent system malfunctions in systems and devices that process dates. In January 1997, the Risk Management Office of the General Affairs Department was established to serve as a contact point for external crisis management for the entire group. The project began investigating instruments and equipment with embedded chips in 1998. Through a three-step process of sending questionnaires to manufacturers, conducting interviews based on the questionnaire responses, and evaluating the results, the project determined whether or not instruments and equipment were Y2K compliant or not, and notified each factory of the results.

Each business division formulated a crisis management plan, and each division selected “ensuring environmental safety” and “stable supply of products” as important items in response to the company-wide policy. For divisions with computer-embedded products sold externally, “Safety of products sold externally” was also added as an important item.

All information systems, production facilities, building facilities, related parties, business partners, etc. related to these important management items are identified and inspected to ascertain the status of their response to Y2K. A contingency plan was then formulated for any eventuality. In particular, with regard to the key management item of “ensuring environmental safety,” the company reaffirmed that all plants that will be in continuous operation during the year-end and New Year's holidays can be safely shut down in an emergency.

In February 1999, the Y2K Contingency Committee was also set up, and a full contingency plan was created to prepare for unexpected situations; the system for the New Year holidays for the year 2000 by the Gregorian calendar, was very rigorous. From December 1, 1999 to April 16, 2000, a high alert was in place, and especially from December 31 to January 1, an emergency response system was set up in advance to prepare for any eventuality.

The measures taken extended to every detail. For example, emergency bags were arranged for employees posted overseas from Japan for the number of family members.

As for the company-wide structure, the Emergency Response Headquarters was formed by integrating the Year 2000 Committee, the Risk Management Headquarters under the control of the General Affairs Department, and the Safety Management Headquarters under the control of the Environment, Safety, and Production Technology Headquarters, with Tetsuo Tokunaga, Vice President, serving as the general manager of the headquarters.

Up until that point, risk countermeasures had been taken by each district and business. It is hard to believe now, but this was the first time a company-wide risk countermeasure had been implemented. Although we took every precaution to prepare for Y2K, it did not cause the major disruption directly affecting people's lives that had been widely publicized. The awareness and know-how of risk countermeasures developed at that time became the basis of the Asahi Kasei Group's subsequent crisis management and risk management response, and has been carried over to the present day.