The Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a preparation process that attempts to minimise confusion and potential panic by having thought true plan ready in case of an emergency situation. It should support more rational and effective decisions to be taken since it has been in thought advance, in a less hurried and stressful environment. The Business Continuity Management - BCM could be divided into three major scenarios (see Figure 3):  

• Emergency Response (minutes/hours …) 

• Crisis Management & Communication (hours/days…) 

• Business Recovery (days/weeks/months…) 

The objective of BCM is not to cover all areas in detail or all risks but the key business risks for the company. The objective of having a Business Recovery plan is to minimise the direct consequential loss and safeguard the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating values.

BCM needs to be developed by the site/location responsible, often encouraged from group level, but the work must involve input and work by the Local Loss Prevention Responsible (LLPR).  

An appointed employee (LLPR or other) should maintain ownership of the Emergency Plan and should continuously update the plan when needed. Management should, at least once every second year, perform a training of emergency procedures and plans. Emergency Plan should be communicated and well known by all employees on the locations. 

Emergency Plan should include, but not be limited to, the following topics/issues; 

• Potential hazards and emergency scenarios (fire, bomb threats, natural hazards, workplace accidents, chemical hazards, etc.) 

• Emergency organisation and management  

• Emergency response procedures 

• Emergency Response Team (ERT) (see Chapter 3.2.2) 

• Emergency evacuation routines, including assembly points, head count procedure and alarm routines. 

• Contact list, internal and external, with contact numbers. Plan from communication 

• Pre-fire plans (see section 2.1.2) 

• Routines for salvage operations (see section 2.1.3) 

Emergency plans need to be developed specifically for each location since every location is unique. The scope of the Emergency Plan will be determined depending on the complexity of the company. A template for an Emergency Plan can be found in Appendix B.

Pre-fire plan should preferably be developed in close cooperation with the public fire department. The pre-fire plan should preferably be kept with management, with guards and at the public fire department. Pre-fire plan should consist of a location drawing where key issues are indicated. Pre-fire plan should include, but not be limited to, the following topics/issues:  

• Main accesses to the location  

• Fire hydrant locations (fire water supply)  

• Emergency evacuation routes and assembly points  

• Main fire separations 

• Location of main fire alarm panel 

• Sprinkled areas denoted and location of main sprinkler central  

• Main electrical installations and isolation points  

• Location of main gas valves 

• Location of flammable gases and hazardous chemicals storages  

• Smoke evacuation system (coverage and activation panels)  

• Prioritised sensitive areas like tool storage, key machinery etc., that should preferably be protected by the fire brigade. 

• Other main hazards/risks

It is important that the public fire department is informed about critical areas, such as machines, goods, tools etc., that can be destroyed if contaminated by water or other extinguishing medium. 

A written agreement should be in place with suppliers of critical replacement parts for delivering within a given period in order to minimise the production stop at the site. 

Crisis Management training/drill should be arranged at least biannually.  

More information about Crisis Management can be found in Appendix C. 

Management team should yearly, or whenever there is a major change, perform a review of the Business Continuity Plans. Preferable reviewed in conjunction with the regular 3^rd party quality audit. 

BCP plans should be developed using a team approach including key individuals and/or department (facilities, finance, health and safety, production, purchasing, information technology/systems, etc.) throughout the facility to ensure complete and accurate plans. Business continuity plan should include, but not be limited to, the following five steps: 

1. Project initiation and establishment of a Business Continuity Management (BCM) team: 

• General organisation and responsibilities 

2. Business Impact Analysis – Set Tolerance Criteria:  

• Documentation of main products, inventory, utilisation of key machinery, internal dependencies, backup possibilities within the group, critical suppliers, and customers.  

• Identify potential interruption scenarios (fire, machinery breakdown, loss of key supplier, loss of key utilities, loss of IS/IT, etc.) to establish which business processes/activities really are critical. 

• Evaluate the impact (short-term and long-term) of each identified interruption scenario with regard to replacement cost, outage time exposure and loss of profit. 

• Decide on tolerance criteria (revenue, outage time, upstream/downstream dependencies, length of time operations can continue in reduced capacity, etc.). 

• Evaluate the criticality of each interruption scenario based on tolerance criteria. 

3. Determining Recovery/BCM Options:  

• Determination of recovery targets and recovery time objectives. 

• Identify and evaluate recovery options, i.e., alternative resources and locations for each identified scenario, internal and external. 

• Apply decision criteria (time, cost, feasibility, etc.) to evaluate how well each recovery option performs in meeting the requirements. 

• Plan for priority of customers. 

4. Documentation and implementation of actions: 

• Recovery and action plans. 

• Assign actions so that mitigation or recovery options can be implemented (planning of logistics, transportation, reorganisation). 

• Checklists and documentation of process. 

5. Test & Training:  

• Yearly review, evaluation and update of the plan. 

Note that this is an example and the specific BCP process for DOVISTA should be evaluated and adjusted based on their operation. This is an ongoing project, and the chapter will be updated. (CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION) 

Supplier evaluations should be conducted whenever needed, especially in case of single supplier. Single source suppliers need to be managed by thorough continuity plans to be able to handle the crisis if key supplier is lost. 

Information regarding supplier dependencies can be used as input in the Business Continuity Plan. 

The following should be considered:  

• Manual activation for emergency evacuation alarm and/or fire alarm should be available throughout buildings and/or at a central point on the locations (e.g., guardhouse or similar). 

• Manual activation for emergency evacuation alarm and/or fire alarm should be clearly marked. 

• Manual activation for emergency evacuation alarm and/or fire alarm should activate evacuation alarm without delay. 

• Alarm notification should consist of at least an acoustic alarm. Optical signal should be used if necessary due to noise level. 

• Alarms should be audible in all areas on the locations, regardless of machine noise level, this should preferably be tested during annual drills. 

• Function of evacuation relay/connection should be tested monthly while the whole evacuation alarm (including sirens, bell, evacuation drill, etc.) should be tested yearly.

The following should be adhered to concerning emergency exits/routes: 

• Large gates and sliding fire doors should be complemented with a separate evacuation door, either in the sliding door or beside it.  

• Door locks with a removable key are strictly forbidden in evacuation doors in the direction of the evacuation. If an emergency door is locked, it should be connected to a vital function in the building e.g., the light in the building cannot be turned on if all emergency exits are not unlocked. 

• Emergency light should be provided in correlation with current legislation in all areas/rooms where people stay more than temporarily. Power backup should last at least 30 minutes and start immediately at a power outage. Emergency light should be at least 1 lux in main evacuation routes. Emergency light system should be tested at least twice a year. 

• Emergency doors opening to the free should be marked on the outside to avoid obstruction. 

Maximum distance* to an emergency exit door from any point in a building should be: 

• In accordance with local legislation.  

• Generally – maximum 45 meters 

• Sprinkled areas – maximum 60 meters 

*Distance means actual walking distance, taking into account machines, racks etc.

Information regarding location of handheld firefighting equipment and main emergency evacuation routes and exits should be incorporated in the evacuation plan. 

Evacuation plans should be revised yearly or when major changes to location and building layout occur. 

Clear headcount procedures should be established to ensure evacuation of all employees, contractors and visitors on site. 

Evacuation leaders should be appointed in each shift and department, in order to perform a safe and efficient emergency evacuation. Evacuation leaders should have relevant training, updated yearly. 

All locations should have at least one dedicated evacuation assembly point.  

The ERT should consist of dedicated number of employees per shift. 

ERT members should at least once per year undergo extensive theoretical and practical training, including emergency evacuation procedures, first aid, use of fire extinguishers, hose reels, external hydrants, etc.  

There should be a written documentation in regard to responsibilities and training required for the ERT. 

Ideal constitution and number of trained members in the ERT should correspond to location complexity, total number of employees, location area, shift hours, etc., (minimum 2-3, while ideally the number should be 5-6 members per shift). Emergency Response Team should be available during all operating hours. 

Following tasks and responsibilities should, as a minimum, be included in the responsibilities for the ERT: 

• Assist in emergency evacuation routines and procedures. 

• Assist with first aid. 

• Rescue and/or warn directly affected persons. 

• Assist in environmental incidents and accidents, including chemical spill and leakage containment, etc. 

• Evacuate hazardous substances (liquids/gases) from affected areas in an emergency. 

• Assist in emergency actions in preparation for potential natural hazards (windstorms, rain, flooding, etc.). 

• First basic firefighting and operation of external fire water hydrants. 

• Isolate electricity, ventilation and chemicals/gases in an emergency. 

• Assist in internal fire inspections (for example ensure that fire separations are closed/functional, and that sprinkler pump and valves are working properly). 

• Secure affected areas from unauthorised people entering. 

• Inform, assist and guide public fire department about evacuation, potential hazards, drawings, sprinkler central, etc. 

All employees on all shifts should at least annually be subjected to an emergency evacuation drill. Emergency evacuation drill should include documented test and trials of the following key elements of a successful emergency evacuation: 

• Emergency evacuation leaders: roles and responsibilities. 

• Written procedure to establish if all employees, visitors, contractors, etc., have been evacuated and accounted for. 

• Assembly point location/function. 

• Emergency response team and their tasks, responsibilities, and actions. 

• Facility/maintenance team’s emergency shutdown of key utilities (electricity, gas supply, etc.) where possible. 

• Follow-up meeting to address deficiencies found during the drill with resulting corrective and preventative actions. 

Prioritised and/or extra training should be given to employees working in areas or with processes with a high risk, for example areas with flammable liquids/substances or high fire load and in high bay storages. 

Locations with large number of fixed employees (>100 employees) may find alternative solutions to ensure adequate number of employees, departments, groups fire safety trained in order to ensure presence of fire safety trained employees in all areas.