The first activities in developing business continuity plans are identifying the risks
and assessing their probability and impact – the steps are hence identical to risk
management. Part of this is to understand what will be affected (damage potential
analysis). Then, strategies and recovery plans should be developed that could be
implemented both before the incident (similar to risk management strategies) and after
the incident. Post-incident strategies are implemented to maintain partial or total
product supply and could for manufacturing and logistics include (Musson, 2001):
. use of spare capacity within the organization;
. shutdown of marginal product lines and transfer of key products to those
production facilities;
. assistance from competition;
. outsourcing to sub-contractors, job shops, etc.;
. re-labeling of competitors’ products (after consideration of all legal implications);
and
. establishment of temporary facilities when production capabilities can be
established with “off-the-shelf” or second-hand equipment.