Developing a Business Continuity Plan for a well-known food producer

A case study from the Food & Beverage sector

Background

Our client is a well-known food manufacturer. During the pre-renewal meeting, the Finance Director (FD) indicated interest in developing a business continuity plan, largely due to a number of significant capital expenditure projects, new ownership, customer demand and a general increase in turnover. The client had previously developed comprehensive emergency and product recall procedures, but not documented a Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

Business need

We held a scoping discussion with the FD and Group Health & Safety Manager (the nominated ‘project coordinator’), following which we were provided with existing relevant documentation (emergency procedures, product recall plan, organisation chart and IT Disaster Recovery procedures). This enabled us to prepare plans for the proposed business continuity project for the large, multi-building site.

Solution

Our proposal to the client consisted of building on the previous relevant work on risk management to develop a comprehensive BCP for the business. The various elements of the project were:

• Business Impact Analysis – office-based functions. A series of video interviews with representatives of each department to identify critical business activities, the relative priorities, the resources needed for continuity, and potential strategies and solutions for continuing these critical activities.
• Business Impact Analysis – Manufacturing. Three workshops were held via WebEx covering the three different product groups. These workshops looked at the overall production processes, key equipment used, reliance on key suppliers, and identified potential solutions for continuity of product supply.
• Business Continuity Plan development. With the information gathered from documentation review, interviews and workshops, the consultant documented a BCP for the client, which they then reviewed and completed.

Value and next steps

This project meant the client was able to prove to their various stakeholders that they could continue to run the business and supply products in the event of significant disruption. The client commented on the project being ‘great work’, and discussed conducting a ‘validation exercise’ for when travel restrictions are lifted and the BCP is more embedded within the management team.