Building business resilience in manufacturing

In the face of operational vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks, Martin Lewis at Daisy Corporate Services explores the need for manufacturers to have an effective operational resilience strategy

Digital advances have been key to the development of manufacturing. Indeed, recent shifts towards Industry 4.0 – characterised by smart factories and interconnected supply chains – have undoubtedly bolstered factory outputs, revolutionised production processes, and enhanced efficiencies.

However, the manufacturing industry continues to face various risks: operational vulnerabilities, supply chain disruptions, and advanced cyber threats, to name a few. More so than ever, having an operational resilience strategy is essential. Such a strategy not only aims to mitigate a critical event as it happens, but also ensures that products continue to reach customers.

So where should manufacturers start?

Assess the risk

Increasing operational resilience should start with carrying out a comprehensive risk assessment.

Assets in the manufacturing sector are diverse, spanning office buildings, warehouses, hardware, software or cloud-based systems, production lines and transportation. Conducting a risk assessment can help manufacturers to identify possible vulnerabilities across their vast infrastructure.

Risks can range from human errors (like operational mistakes or negligence) to hardware failure and software errors. Wider global challenges like cyber incidents, extreme weather or supply chain issues also mean manufacturers need to be prepared for disruption of any kind.

A risk assessment can be carried out through a business impact analysis (BIA), which identifies critical processes, their dependencies and assesses the duration a business can sustain operations if a critical process fails.

Performing a BIA can be hard work and time consuming, but it is a great fast-track tool for identifying operational risks that might not otherwise surface except at time of incident. If they have the resource, businesses can conduct a BIA internally, however, many choose to outsource this to operational resilience experts.

Plan ahead

The next stage in building business resilience is implementing long term plans – encompassing crisis management, business continuity, cyber incident response and disaster recovery plans. It’s important to know the difference between these plans and how they complement one another.

A crisis management plan provides critical information around communications to staff and key stakeholders, escalation, and a playbook for immediate action. This can enable a manufacturer to react quickly, in a structured way, to any unplanned or sudden incident.

A business continuity plan outlines how to restore critical operations to a predetermined level after any disruption, regardless of its duration or impact on business operations.

A cyber incident response plan should outline how to mitigate, respond and recover during a cyber incident. A disaster recovery plan focusses on the recovery of the business’ critical technology and provides procedures for managing the recovery of IT and communication services. A crisis management plan can be part of a business continuity plan if required.

Manufacturers may feel pressure to plan for just about every potential reality. But a good plan isn’t one that tells you what to do in a specific scenario – it’s one that supports businesses in making informed decisions for ‘any’ scenario.

When making these plans, manufacturers should consider what information is vital in making these decisions, preventing plans from becoming unwieldy and unusable.

No business is immune from cyber threats, operational risks and just plain bad luck. Manufacturers need to have plans in place to prepare for the worst. But implementing these plans can be complex – with gaps in expertise, resource constraints, and financial limitations – leaving in-house teams struggling to effectively prepare for diverse scenarios.

It’s not surprising that many companies look to outsourced solutions. This ensures that you get the benefit of people who are experienced in drawing up business continuity plans. It also means that you have access to best practice solutions.

In the face of a rapidly shifting operating environment, manufacturers need to effectively anticipate and prepare for disruption. Business continuity strategies, such as risk management and resilience planning, help manufacturers keep critical business processes up and running, even in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

It is through prioritising prevention and resilience, that manufacturers can safeguard their assets, ensure profitability, and improve competitiveness.

Martin Lewis is Cyber & Operational Sales Manager at Daisy Corporate Services

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Caner CIFTCI