Business continuity, management processes

Business Continuity Management—Processes are provided to develop, communicate and implement plans for responding to incidents and unplanned events. It should include identifying qualified personnel and adequate resources required to manage potential adversities. 

Each adverse effect, e.g. fire in suppliers facilities or the bankruptcy of the main business partner, causes certain consequences and problems for other links in the supply chain. The effect of the consequences of risk along the supply chain is defined as disruption. Such a turn of events is commonly compared to the domino effect. One event triggers another, and the consequence of one event becomes the cause of another. Disruptions in supply chains are "unplanned events that may occur in the supply chain which might affect the normal or expected flow of materials and components" (Svensson 2000, pp. 731-749). An adverse effect that leads to a long gap in the flow of processes in the supply chain is a critical disruption of the supply chain. According to the concept of business continuity management a crisis is described as "any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant injuries to empioyees, customers or the public or that can shut down your... 

Grazyna Wieteska is Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Lodz. She has several years business experience in the area of B2B relationship management and risk management. Since 2007 she has been employed at the Unit of Operational Processes Excellence at her home university. She lectures on supply chain risk management, business continuity management and logistics audits at a variety of business schools in Poland and abroad. 

Many organisations today are addressing the issues of what has come to be termed business continuity . In practice, however, there tends to be a limited focus for much of business continuity management. There is a strong focus on IT and internal process management but often the wider supply risk dimension is not considered. This is... 

Many companies have adopted Total Quality Management as a way to promote continuous improvement in a broad range of business applications. TQM considers all business activities as processes, each one of which involves specific customer-supplier relationships. These relationships may be entirely internal, defined in terms of the process under study. For example, delivering efficient electronic mail service is a "process" in TQM terms. The "customers" for your company s electronic mail system are the employees who use it the "supplier" may office services, MIS, or other support personnel. 

Depending on the needs of the individual pharmacy, several different types of insurance policies may be required to provide adequate risk protection for the business. The geographic location, type of practice, and services offered will influence the types of insurance needed. The risk management process is a continuous process, and periodic evaluations are necessary to address new or emerging risk threats to the pharmacy. Emerging threats discussed later in this chapter exemplify how recent changes in health care practices (privacy issues) and technology create new and different risk threats to the pharmacy. 

Is there a managed process in place for developing and maintaining business continuity throughout the organization ... 

All LIMS functions (e.g., manual data entry, automated data entry, and report generation) should be assessed to evaluate the effect that they could have on the data that will support regulatory submissions and release of product to market. This approach must be methodical to ensure that relevant functionality is not overlooked. It is essential, for instance, that Business Continuity Plans are verified as being appropriate and workable. This testing should cover all aspects of the recovery process from the loss of individual components (e.g., an analytical instrument interface) to the full loss of LIMS (e.g., representing a catastrophic failure of the LIMS server). The criticality of the data associated with the management of Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures should also be a focal point. However, it must be accepted that these assessments can be subjective and therefore they rely heavily on the experience of the assessors. 

At the OQ stage there will be a need for the pharmaceutical manufacturer to ensure that the appropriate management systems in terms of procedures and Business Continuity (Contingency) Plans have been assessed and confirmed as suitable. In some cases it may be that as part of the OQ process draft versions of the procedures and Business Continuity (Contingency) Plans are developed with the revised documentation being issued following the completion of OQ. 

Ensuring business continuity was a significaut motivating factor for improving risk management procedures. This was described, for instance, in the context of communication and actions between the customer and company. Operations with customers have been developed based on experiences. It was extremely important to analyze the actual faults and mistakes, and then utilize the discovered information in practices and instructions throughout the entire company. For instance, the tender calculation process was supported by instructions and checklists made for specific process stages and situations. 

II A managed process is developed for business continuity throughout the organization that addresses the IS requirements needed for the organization s continuity. A B [8 7]... 

The NFPA 1600 standard was first published on April 1, 2004, and revised in 2007. NFPA issued the 2010 Edition in December 2009. The newly published standard reordered the content of the 2007 version. Chapter 4 was expanded to emphasize the importance of commitment and leadership. Chapter 5 was broken into four chapters dealing with planning, implementation, exercises, and improvement processes. In November 2009, the new NFPA 1600 received certification by the passage of The SAFETY Act. We can best describe the purpose of the standard as to help the disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity communities to cope with disasters and emergencies. 

Maturity level 5 focuses on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological improvements. Quantitative process-improvement objectives for the organization are established, continually revised to reflect changing business objectives, and used as criteria in managing... 

American business has rediscovered the concepts of quaUty and continuous improvement as promoted by Deming (1986), Juran (1992), and others. The point to be made here is that errors (of which accidents and incidents are a part) are a component of the management process. Preventing them through engineering, administration, and other means is also a part of the management process. 

Another popular business concept today is reengineering (see, for example. Hammer and Champy 1993). The business management process is a major element of this philosophy. A major difference between reengineering and the quahty philosophies is scale. Continuous improvement achieves change incrementally reengineering achieves change in large, comprehensive process modifications. 

While public perception of risk is sometimes frustrating to expert risk assessors, it can serve a useful purpose by focusing attention on catastrophic risks that impact whole communities, not just individuals. The risk of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant is small, but the consequences are huge Witness Chernobyl and the continuing effects of radioactive contamination. In the difficult political business of managing risks, risk perception can complement expert risk assessment and help drive the regulatory process forward. 

While most companies within the process industries recognize the importance of information technology in managing their businesses, this technology has been a source of considerable frustration and disappointment. Schedule delays, cost overruns, and failure of the final produc t to perform as expec ted have often eroded the credibility of information technology. However, immense potential remains for the technology, and process companies have no cnoice but to seek continuous improvement. 

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