If your solution is to fix a 40 year legacy program to interact with modern systems recently built the truth is, you don’t actually have a solution.
Absolutely. Although I’d guess their desire is to spend as little as possible and “magically tweak” the existing system to handle the load better.
Good luck with that!
My place uses Acces 2003 as a core part of manufacturing.
Believe it or not.
Office politics is the main reason.
At some point, a workable replacement will have to come about.