Resilience checklist for manufacturers

07/01/26 Wavenet
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Your practical guide to identifying gaps and strengthening business continuity across your manufacturing organisation.

Manufacturers face mounting risks, from equipment breakdowns and supply-chain delays to cyber incidents, labour shortages, and compliance pressures. In today’s climate of just-in-time production and globalised supply chains, resilience isn’t optional. The resilience checklist for manufacturers helps you assess your current state of readiness, identify weaknesses, and align your strategy with modern expectations for operational continuity and resilience.

You’ll assess six key areas:

  • Production and operational resilience planning.
  • Multi-site response co-ordination.
  • Supply chain and vendor continuity.
  • Workforce readiness.
  • Scenario testing and compliance.
  • BCM software capabilities to support execution.

Download manufacturing resilience checklist

 

Each section includes key questions and actionable insights to evaluate your preparedness and helps you understand what is required in planning for resilience. In addition to this, each point explains where modern business continuity management (BCM) software can help. This approach means that the following guide also serves a secondary purpose. It provides useful information on what to look for when selecting BCM planning software.

Whether you run a single site or a multi-national manufacturer, this checklist helps you shift from reactive crisis management to proactive operational resilience.

Production and operational resilience planning

  • Have you defined your minimum viable operation (MVO)?
    These are the critical production lines, systems, or processes that must stay online to maintain customer commitments?
  • Are your continuity plans regularly tested and reviewed?
    Look for software that supports version control, audit trails, and automated plan testing to ensure readiness against disruptions such as machinery breakdowns, cyber incidents, or power outages.
  • Have you mapped key operational dependencies (e.g., ERP/MES systems, specialist machinery, energy supply)?
    Dependency mapping helps visualise how disruptions cascade across plants, production lines, and supporting services.
  • Can plant and operations teams access plans instantly?

    Plans must be accessible across shifts, departments, and sites, with mobile-ready formats for fast decision-making during emergencies.

Multi-site response co-ordination

  • Can you manage continuity planning across all facilities from a central dashboard?

    Your software should allow for real-time oversight and local plan customisation across multiple facilities.

  • Are plans standardised but facility-specific?

    Choose a system that allows templated master plans with flexibility for local risks, equipment, and regulatory requirements.

  • Do on-site teams have clear roles and ready-to-go playbooks?

    Your platform should support site-specific workflows and auto-trigger responses based on incident type or severity.

Supply chain and vendor resilience

  • Can you track vendor dependencies and alternate sourcing routes?

    Effective software should capture supplier details, flag high-risk vendors, and support contingency planning.

  • Have you simulated scenarios like raw material shortages, logistics delays, or trade disruptions?
    The platform should support impact analysis and what-if scenarios to stress-test your readiness.
  • Are escalation and alerting workflows built-in?

    Look for automated notifications to procurement, logistics, and production managers when supply chain issues arise.

Workforce readiness

  • Are staff aware of their continuity roles and responsibilities?
    Assign tasks and maintain training records within the BCM system to ensure clarity and accountability.
  • Do you have emergency communication channels in place?

    Built-in SMS, email, and push notifications ensure rapid communication across shifts and sites.

  • Have you identified essential production, maintenance, and quality roles for critical scenarios?
    The ability to tag critical personnel supports prioritisation and response planning when operating under constraints.

Scenario testing and compliance

  • Are you running regular simulations and tabletop exercises?
    Your platform should support scenario configuration, testing logs, and learning loop improvements.
  • Are continuity plans aligned with industry standards such as ISO 22301, ISO 9001, or sector specific safety regulations?
    Compliance features help track alignment with key manufacturing regulations and governance frameworks.
  • Can you provide audit-ready records for regulators, insurers, or customers?
    Ensure your platform automatically logs updates, changes, and response actions for full traceability.

What to look for in manufacturing BCM software:

Choose a solution that includes:

  • Centralised visibility across plants, warehouses, and supply networks.
  • Dependency mapping of machinery, systems, and suppliers.
  • Mobile access for site managers and shift leaders.
  • Integrated communication and escalation workflows.
  • Automated testing, training, and reporting.
  • Role-specific dashboards for production, operations, and compliance teams.

Why Shadow-Planner?

Shadow-Planner is designed for complex, high-dependency environments like manufacturing. It provides structure, speed, and visibility, helping you maintain production, protect supply chains, and meet compliance requirements.

With Shadow-Planner, you get:

  • Instant alerting and mobile tasking for plant and shift managers.
  • Visual, site-specific playbooks tailored to production environments.
  • Full audit trail for compliance with ISO and customer requirements.
  • Seamless integration with ERP, MES, and other operational systems.
  • Proven results in large, multi-site manufacturing organisations.

Shadow-Planner keeps production moving, even when disruption strikes.

 

Download manufacturing resilience checklist
 

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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. 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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. 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