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Almost all MANMAN sites have the original ASK FORTRAN source code, but a few have lost track of some of their mods. It seems hard to believe for some analysts, but source code for applications can go missing, too.

It's easier to believe while considering the age of this software. A 3000 which first booted up a manufacturing site for TE Connectivity in 1978 recently got powered down for the last time. The software had outlasted a half-dozen servers, until finally the need lapsed for a host of an application launched 40 years ago.

TE has its source code for every 3000 instance it continues to run to manage manufacturing across North America and Asia. You can imagine, though, how much care it takes to keep that corporate asset in good working order from the era before PCs until today.

Managing the modifications is the other essential piece of the lifetime-extending effort for MPE/iX ERP solutions. No app suite is as often customized as ERP; the term itself is an extension of the Manufacturing Resource Planning of the 1980s. What was once MRP is now ERP. The planning always needs custom code, tailored to the business processes.

Terry Floyd, the founder of MANMAN support resource The Support Group, said most MANMAN sites — and there are under 100 by now — own and manage their own source code for the main application set. His company deals with modifications for its clients, too. Without the mods, using such apps is a matter of being frozen in time for features. It's like trying to take out a pair of pants without enough material.