What Kinds Of Disaster Roles Should My Company’s Supply Chain Professionals Be Prepared For? And How Much Preparedness Is Actually Reasonable?
After seeing how things went during the recent winter storms, it looks like our organization’s supply chain disaster readiness could use a serious tune-up. But we’re not quite sure where to start or how to get our employees engaged. Help us out.
We’re not surprised. Significant weather events like Fern and Gianna remind us that logistics disaster readiness truly is a four-season sport – and that most of us could stand to do a better job of getting our organizations better prepared for game day.
So how do organizations like ALAN define “ready”? And what’s a reasonable level of readiness to aim for?
Generally speaking, a business or facility that’s “reasonably” prepared should be able to continue operating without external utilities or supply chain support for at least three days.
If a location doesn’t think it could keep the lights on or maintain product and data flow for at least 72 hours, its disaster plan is probably incomplete.
Sounds like a simple enough baseline. Are there any others?
For logistics professionals, we’d suggest following NFPA 1660. It’s a newly updated standard that serves as a single, comprehensive resource for emergency management and continuity planning across the board. And it does a great job of spelling out what businesses absolutely should do if things go wrong.
Based on these criteria, we feel pretty good about the disaster preparedness plans we have in place. However we’re less confident about our employees’ ability to carry these plans out. How can we change this?
It starts with definitive job assignments. When a disaster hits, there are several specific crisis management tasks that need to be managed and/or performed ASAP, and your personnel need to be 100% certain about which Key People are responsible for each.
Sample Disaster Roles and Tasks
| Role Title | Primary Responsibility | Critical Task |
|---|---|---|
| Continuity Coordinator | Supply Chain Flow | Manage the shift from primary to secondary operations and resources. |
| Facility Manager | Physical Assets | Execute “Safe Shutdown” procedures (gas/power) and secure inventory racks. |
| Personnel Lead | Workforce Safety | Maintain a live “Rally Point” check-in list and manage emergency contact data. |
| External Liaison | Communication | Designate one person to be the liaison to local emergency responders and the community. |
| Resource Manager | Logistics Support | Inventory and deploy on-site “Survival Staples” (water, generators, flashlights). |
| IT/Data Recovery | Digital Resilience | Ensure cloud backups are synced and satellite/LTE backup internet is functional. |
It continues with designating equally proficient back-ups and teams for each of these tasks, because there’s always a possibility that things like blocked roads or widespread power outages could impair at least one Key Person’s ability to get to work or carry out their assignments.
And of course, it involves lots of task-specific training. For example, warehouse personnel or facility staff should be taught how to safely secure assets, including switching to generator power, shutting off gas lines and verifying the structural integrity of racks.
What it doesn’t involve is expecting employees to perform tasks that are outside their scope of expertise.
What kinds of tasks are you thinking of?
Things like advanced search and rescue, and medical procedures immediately come to mind, as does handling certain kinds of hazardous materials. Unless team members are professionally certified to perform these tasks, it’s unrealistic and potentially dangerous to expect them to do so.
Wherever possible, each of your team members’ disaster jobs should be a natural extension of their professional skills. Just as important, all of their job descriptions should be firmly grounded in reality.
Define “grounded in reality.”
Expecting 100% operational continuity and zero supply lapses during most disasters is a recipe for burnout and failure. And truly reasonable disaster preparedness plans acknowledge this.
They include critical trigger points like specific wind speeds or flood levels that will be the tipping point between Go and No-Go for activities like shipping and receiving (or even keeping a facility open). And they always put employees’ safety first.
Any additional thoughts?
We’ll have a lot more to say about this subject – including discussing the value of scheduling quarterly tabletop exercises, the importance of maintaining relationships with alternate carriers, and supporting your workforce in future issues of this newsletter as well as ALAN blogs, so watch this space.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested in picking up more disaster preparedness tips, check out this recent ALAN article about the ABCs Of Disaster Preparation.