KONE Lifts

KONE Lifts
21 September 1998
Mr I D Pedley
Operations Director
South West Wales Publications Ltd
PO Box 14
Adelaide Street
Swansea
SA1 1QT
Your Refere e:letter dated r 5.8.98
Our Reference: ly2k595.doc
Dear Mr Pedley
R E: Year 2000 Compliance - Kone Equipment
Thank you for your enquiry regarding operation of our equipment beyond the year 2000 AS you will
probably be aware, there are a large number of such enquiries being handled by KONE Lift Group
Britain, which incorporates Kone Lifts Ltd. We have produced a factsheet on the “Millennium Bug”
which provides more information, a copy of which is included with this letter.
Over the past years much has been written and spoken about regarding computer system clocks and
the effect the Year 2000 might have on older computer systems To address .
any fears that you may
have about Kone provided lift controllers and management systems using computer technology, we
are pleased to offer the following assurances:
The lift machinery and software that operates you lift so r far as this has been produced b KONE y has
no component part(s) which are governed by computerised a clock, d or any other clock mechanism.
Accordingl Kone Lifts Ltd can confirm the functionality and safety of KONE manufactured lifts
within their normal operating limits.

KONE Lifts
0&18pI
A very small number of sites also have KONE-produced lift monitoring systems (KONE EMC and
MDE2000) for monitoring traffic activity or waiting times. As far as these systems are concerned,
units produced after October 23, 1996 are protected against problems caused by the date change. Any
units produced prior to 23 October 1996 will have a data storing problem, but this does not affect the
operation or safety of the lift. It will affect statistics generation, as no new data would be stored in
the database after 3 1 December 1999, so the statistics would become obsolete with time. The owners
of any buildings where this problem applies will be contacted no later than 30 June 1999, to arrange
for installation of the update to correct this data storage problem.
For some time the KONE Lift Group have been working on an internal Year 2000 Compliance
programme. Our IT department have evaluated our computer and communication systems that contain
date and time processors and expect all systems to be fully Year 2000 compliant by the end of
December 1998. Not only have we evaluated our own systems, but also we are reviewing our data
communication links with our own service providers, to ensure that they too are fully prepared for the
year 2000. In addition we are carrying out a full evaluation of all suppliers of goods and services to’
ensure that both their products and services are fully Year 2000 compliant.
Kone service and maintain a wide range of systems including those produced by KONE and other
manufacturers. Compliance for KONE equipment is as stated above.
Since lift and escalator control systems generally use relative time instead of calendar time, we do not
anticipate disruptions in KONE maintained lift equipment not of original KONE supply. We have
received statements of compliance from some other lift manufacturers, copies of which are available
on request.
If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact the Year 2000 Helpdesk
Yours faithfully
Andy Hedpes
Year 2000 Helpdesk Co-ordinator
Technical Support Group
Tel : 01817546248
Fax : 01817546285