Facilities Management Business Continuity Planning and FM BCP

Facilities Management Business Continuity Planning and FM

BCP events Events that can affect business Direct or collateral loss of production facilities – fire, explosion, bomb, flood, earthquake, insurrection Access – terrorism, bomb warning etc. Staff – strikes, death or headhunting of key personnel Financial implications – exchange rates, Hyundai in Fife Knowledge and information – personnel, records and IT Political, social, healthcare or financial crisis Supplier and customer collapse

BCP A systematic forethought to allow response during and immediately after an event to be based on pre -planned and optimized solutions that minimize the consequences for the business Protecting physical and informational assets should be a major issue for every company running a business Innocent events could greatly damage any business – vandalism, theft, sabotage, personal assault, criminal acts

BCP process Initiation of BCP and assessment of risks Business impact analysis Analysis of critical processes Creation of business continuity plan Testing of the BCP Updating of BCP

Initiation of BCP and assessment of risks ü What is the nature of the business and business process? ü What are the main activities within the business process? ü What are the types of work, and the types of risk exposure? ü Undertake a multi-faceted review of needs, consequences and relationships of each elements of the process/activity with respect to the business. ü What are the financial, HRM and facilities implications of discontinuity of provisions (singularly and as a system)?

Business impact analysis FM, the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the organizations’ people and work, requires integrating the principles of business administration, architecture and the behavioral and engineering services FM must continually research, evaluate and implement plans that meet the numerous demands and objectives of their business (Gregory, 1994)

Business impact analysis To analyze the impact of a possible “disaster” or accident, interruption of the business, the FM should look at: Who and what are directly affected (internally and externally)? And who and what are not affected? Who and what are indirectly affected? What is the time scale of disruption and consequences? (supply chain interruption? ) Analyze the business process and identify the critical components. What are the constraints and resource implications, what vulnerabilities do the critical components depend upon? Immediate impact analysis (post crisis plan) and long term effects (recovery plan)? Back-up systems: hot and cold sites: duplicate IT, facilities, staff expertise, suppliers and strategic design of work in progress, stockpiling and retention of expertise

Analysis of the critical FM processes What facilities are core and cannot be contracted out temporarily? Which are non-core or could be substituted? What facilities can operate temporarily with minimal attention, thereby allowing diversions to the critical? Space management and allocation is also an important issue and under the FM control: what space is core and how is it used? Could alternatives be created temporarily or sourced elsewhere? Where are you space-critical? Could an IT/IS back-up allow remote working of a significant portion of the process and allow re-shuffling to support the site critical? Communication is another aspect under the control of the FM: assess the critical and core communication routes? How is the remainder of communications achieved? Could alternatives be created temporarily or sourced elsewhere? Think about temporary outsourcing some of the IT system? How site/IT? HRM critical is the visible product/image of the company?

Analysis of the critical FM processes Look at the FM itself as the possible victim of an event, since the indirect impact on the core of FM disruption will be unacceptable. What aspect of the process (and people) is the memory of the FM department Who and what are the highly critical facility/communications and HRM issues?

Critical HRM and business aspects Who is critical to the process and cannot be substituted or temporarily contracted out? Who can be safely ignored temporarily (location or processwise)? What supplies or suppliers cannot be substituted? Bear in mind that the loss of a monopolistic key supplier could be very damaging and at the same time applies to your customers! What sub-processes are on the critical business process path? Which are safe and not safe? Do you have a list of contingency suppliers? Who in the company is irreplaceable – MD, designers or icon for the company?

Key points in BCP The safety of personnel: evacuation, shelter Alert mechanism: establish contact points and communication routes within the company and to the outside Communication and control: co-ordination meetings are essential to implement and operate the BCP Cordons and access: planning for operation within the cordon is a priority. Access to your building to assess the damages and losses, recover core data and information to recover normal activities, start to rebuild your property and your business activity Transition: establishing a transition management team is an option considered by many companies Parallel BCP and DRP: a series of immediate measures following a disaster Recovery on access

Key points in BCP Emergency services roles: liaison is critical to allow them to help you BCP contracts: if you make prior arrangements with a specialist salvage firm to operate a BCP, will they be over extended? How do you get priority?

Creation of BCP – aims and criteria Characteristics of a BCP are very specific to the organisation and business activity The aims of the creation of a BCP following a disaster are to recover the business to reoccupy the premises within a given period of time to ensure the continuity of the business activity throughout the recovery period The BCP must Be flexible Be realistic Be a process Plan for recovery of the full activities of the business Establish a path Analyse the chain of consequences

Creation of BCP - creation The BCP is a “live” document. The following are needed: A budget A BCP team with MD, FM, financial director, marketing, engineers/technicians and any other person representing and having knowledge of any part of the core business Specialist knowledge and expertise Strategy and a process Risk analysis Value assessment

Creation of BCP - creation Think who, what, where, when, why, how? And how much (rationalize your provision across the risks and knowing where the domain of FM finishes)? Be careful to avoid over-providing for the controllable and ignoring the highly critical/unstable. Therefore focus on instability. Plan your real time communication chains (with backup) Set your BCP targets – time recovery Create a detailed (chronological) hypothetical scenario

Creation of BCP - operation How and who decides and then activates the BCP (with back-up)? How and to whom is this to be interpreted in an event? Do they know? What can be left until after the event and planned live? Within the BCP reserve the resources and create the space to allow this to be done properly under stress. Assess the likely consequences of an event: staff, work in progress, access to equipment, materials, records, documents, stok What happens if communication links are lost? Hot site/cold site not operational Impact of the media

Testing and updating of the BCP The BCP is a “live” document and as such it must be tested and updated regularly. The needs and resources of any organization or business will change, be improved or maybe decrease It is also an excellent way to assess the strengths and weakness of the plan, allow for a higher safety factor and test the company and resources