4 critical strategies for ensuring business continuity in the manufacturing industry
The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a significant transformation with the advent of Industry 4.0. In order to optimise this transformation, manufacturers must prioritise operational resilience. Safeguarding production output and mitigating risks arising from cybercrime and supply chain disruptions are paramount.
In today’s environment, manufacturers frequently encounter disruptions within their supply chains. It’s essential to have a robust business continuity and disaster recovery plan for addressing critical events and ensuring uninterrupted product delivery to customers.
Considering these challenges, let’s explore some of the key strategies that manufacturers should adopt to secure their long-term success, even in the face of business-impacting events.
1. Assess the risks your business may encounter
To begin, identify the critical aspects of your business, their dependencies, and how long you can operate without them. Understand the recovery capabilities of these dependencies to spot potential risks to your business and its recovery. Conducting a thorough Business Impact Analysis (BIA) will help uncover this valuable information. In manufacturing, typical disruptions include hardware and software issues, power failures, cybercrime, human error, natural disasters, and fires.
Performing a BIA can be labour-intensive and time-consuming, but it swiftly reveals operational risks that might otherwise remain hidden until an incident occurs. While conducting a BIA internally is an option if you have the necessary resources, many businesses choose to outsource this task to external experts. Wavenet is here if you need us.
2. Establish your business-critical resources
Manufacturers rely on vital assets, including office buildings, warehouses, production lines, and transportation hubs. These assets face many threats and disruptions. Therefore, your business continuity and disaster recovery team should work with senior leadership to identify the most important resources. Creating a simple list of these business-critical assets, without the need for extensive documentation, will suffice.
Use that list to prioritise which function must be restored first to protect those assets. Whether it’s equipment, IT systems, or production lines, focus on what matters most. Then develop targeted comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plans around those priorities.
3. Develop your business continuity and disaster recovery plans
Now it’s time to construct your business continuity, crisis management, and disaster recovery plans. It is crucial to understand the distinctions between these plans and how they can complement one another.
A crisis management plan enables your business to respond swiftly and in an organised manner to unforeseen or sudden incidents. It includes vital information regarding communication protocols with staff and key stakeholders, escalation and de-escalation procedures, as well as immediate actions to be taken. On the other hand, a business continuity plan outlines the steps necessary to recover and resume critical operations at a predefined level after any disruption that affects the business’s functioning, regardless of its duration. A disaster recovery plan primarily focuses on restoring the business’s critical technology infrastructure. It also encompasses procedures for managing the recovery of IT and communication services to support the business after a service disruption. If needed, a crisis management plan can be integrated into the broader business continuity plan.
Top tip – prioritise smart planning over excessive planning!
Throughout our experience, we have observed numerous organisations attempting to prepare for every conceivable situation. However, the truth is that it’s impossible to anticipate every single thing that “might” happen. Therefore, it is crucial not to burden yourself with that expectation.
A successful plan isn’t one that dictates actions for specific scenarios, but one that empowers you to make well-informed decisions in any situation. A useful plan is one that is actually utilised because it provides assistance. When creating your plan(s), consider what essential information is necessary for guiding your decision-making process. Anything beyond that is likely unnecessary, as it only complicates the plan and renders it impractical. If you find it necessary to have a plan tailored to a specific scenario, ensure that it focuses solely on that particular situation. Most importantly, make sure that everyone understands the purpose of the plan.
4. Harness external resources
No business is impervious to cyber threats, operational risks, and the unpredictable nature of life! When faced with adversity, having a well-tested business continuity plan and reliable business continuity services can make a substantial difference for manufacturers. At Wavenet, we excel in both of these areas, and we are here to offer our assistance.
Given the intricate nature of business continuity and operational resilience, it is understandable that many companies seek outsourced solutions. This approach ensures that you benefit from the expertise of professionals experienced in crafting comprehensive business continuity plans. It also grants you access to cutting-edge solutions based on industry best practices.
Our team of BCM/OR consultants is equipped to oversee your entire business continuity management program, relieving you of the challenges associated with in-house management.
Our ultimate goal is to help manufacturers optimise efficiency, streamline costs, and address present and future industry challenges, while safeguarding customers and infrastructure in today’s ever-expanding online marketplace.