ILMA Compoundings – November 2018 - 31

Unfortunately, said John Watkins,
vice president and chief information
officer of inRsite, an end-to-end technology services firm based in Brandon,
Florida, few manufacturing firms
have documented, up-to-date crisis or
disaster plans.
"I have worked with hundreds of
businesses in the Southeast U.S.,
many of them in the industrial and
manufacturing market, and I have
only had a single client present a
written DR [disaster response] plan
during our onboarding meeting,"
Watkins said. "The rest of the clients
either didn't know that there was a
plan in place or never had a plan put
in place to begin with."
In some cases, he said, companies
might have plans in place for their
staff, "but no plans on how to restore
their IT infrastructure."
It's likely that companies have plans
focused on staff because, as Moore
indicated, "employers have a general
duty to furnish employees with a place
of employment that's free from hazards that cause, or could likely cause,
death or serious harm." But, echoing
Watkins, she added: "The question
becomes to what extent are those plans
adequate and effective?"
Dr. Chris Reynolds is dean and
vice president, academic outreach and
program development with American
Military University (AMU), where he
also serves on the faculty of AMU's
Emergency & Disaster Management
program and is a certified emergency
manager (CEM) through the International Association of Emergency
Managers (IAEM).
"In my experience, the more successful the business, the more likely it is to
have a disaster management plan -
what I would call a business continuity
plan - in place," said Reynolds. "That
said, every business, regardless of
size - but especially manufacturing
businesses - should have in place,

How Can Manufacturers 'Give Back'
After a Disaster?
When disaster strikes, manufacturers aren't worried just
about the viability of their own companies - they're also
concerned about the impact on staff, customers and
the community. Often the need is so great that it can be
challenging to determine who, or how, to help. In an
era of increasing, and increasingly severe, disasters,
manufacturers need to think strategically - and proactively - about their response.
Causecast, a company that helps organizations structure
ways to give back, suggests that companies "remember
three key points as they formulate a disaster strategy that
doesn't kick in after disasters, but before disaster strikes."
From a community standpoint, those points include:
* Invest in risk reduction. "Disaster-resilient infrastructure, early warning systems
and risk mapping are examples that the research shows could save lives," the
company said.
* Foster locally driven solutions. Coca-Cola is cited as an example based on its
strategic response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
* Include more stakeholders, including employees, in disaster decision-making.
Just as when planning your own company's response to a disaster and how you can
quickly be up and running and ready to serve customers as soon as possible, a proactive,
collaborative approach to helping the community should be considered well in advance
to ensure maximum impact.

and regularly test and stress, a business
continuity plan."
Powell agreed. "We were fortunate
in that we determined Florence was
not likely to have much impact on us
directly," he explained. "We made an
assessment whether the storm might
affect any customer shipments -
inbound or outbound - but that is
standard procedure" when focusing on
disaster preparedness.

Impact on Manufacturing
Typically, said Moore, manufacturing companies will have multiple
facilities involved in production
across geographic areas. Because it
only takes one disaster at one location

to cause production delays, a facility
shutdown or the like, the lack of
adequate disaster preparedness can
be detrimental to the welfare of the
organization as a whole.
"Business continuity is a major
concern in terms of disaster preparedness," Moore said. "While
acknowledging that employee and
workplace safety should be the primary focus, avoiding massive loss and
quickly resuming normal operations
after a disaster is also going to be a
significant point of interest."
Moore also noted that manufacturing is very interdependent and that
companies need to be thinking about
the impacts that suppliers and business

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ILMA Compoundings – November 2018

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