From Risks
 
From: jane@stratus.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman)
 
I've been meaning to post this for a while, as it is a perfect illustration
of the hazards of a system that gets too dependant on computer programs.
 
In 1989, Mongomery Ward had a sale of "discontinued, one-of-a-kind, and out-
of-date merchandise."  A fellow I was dating, who was a Wards employee, told
me the story of where it had come from.  Around 1985, Wards had reprogrammed
their master inventory program.  Somehow, the entry for the major distribution
warehouse in Redding, California, was left out.  One day, the trucks simply
stopped coming.  Nothing was brought into the warehouse, and nothing left.
Paychecks for the employees, however, which were on a different system, kept
coming.  While this was baffling to the employees, they figured it was better
not to make waves.  (Rumor has it that they were afraid the warehouse had
been phased out, and they had "forgotten" to lay them off, and figured it was
better to stay employed.)  They went to work every day, and moved boxes
around the warehouse, and submitted timecards, for three years, until someone
doing an audit finally wondered why major amounts of merchandise had simply
disappeared.  Tracing things back, the missing warehouse was finally re-found.
They were then stuck with an entire warehouse full of white elephants---
merchandise that was three years out of date.  Thus, Wards stores throughout
California ended up with major amounts of discontinued merchandise to sell at
deep discounts.  Wards, being majorly embarrassed, tried to downplay how the
merchandise was "found."  Or, more specifically, why it had become lost in
the first place.
 
The store employees got a big chuckle over the warehouse employees being
afraid to mention this oversight to the higher-ups, for fear of becoming
unemployed.  Many references to "like jobs with the government."
 
Of course, the question is: is this the only case like this?  Are there more
places where an operator entry glitch has caused some function to simply
disappear?  Things like this happen when live people are accidentally classed
as "dead," etc.  What happens if someone types the wrong thing, and the local
branch of your bank, or MacDonalds, or whatever, simply ceases to exist, to
the central computer?
 
   Jane Beckman  [jane@swdc.stratus.com]
 
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