Manufacturing Business Continuity Planning: Beyond Backup

Why backup alone isn't a continuity plan

A tested backup gets your ERP database and file server back. It doesn't tell your shift supervisor how to keep tracking jobs on paper for the six hours before that restore completes, and it doesn't tell your customer service team what to say to a customer asking why their shipment is late. Continuity planning fills that gap between an incident starting and full recovery being complete.

Start with recovery priorities

Not every system or process matters equally during an outage. A continuity plan should rank what needs to come back first, based on what actually keeps product moving, not what's easiest to restore first from a technical standpoint.

• Systems that directly affect shipping and customer commitments
• Production reporting and job tracking systems
• Payroll and time tracking for hourly staff
• Administrative systems that can reasonably wait a few days

Manual workarounds for critical processes

Every plant should have a documented fallback for its most critical processes if the primary system is down: paper job tickets if the ERP is unavailable, a manual sign-in sheet if the time clock terminal is offline, a phone tree if email is down. These workarounds should be written down and known to the people who'd actually use them, not improvised for the first time during an actual outage.

Communication during an incident

Confusion tends to cost as much time as the technical outage itself. A short communication plan naming who informs staff, who talks to customers, and who decides what gets said publicly keeps an incident from turning into a rumour mill on the shop floor while people wait for answers.

1. Name who has authority to declare an incident and activate the continuity plan
2. Name who communicates with staff, and how, if email or phone systems are affected
3. Name who contacts affected customers and what they're authorized to say
4. Keep an offline copy of key contact information that doesn't depend on the systems that might be down

Coordinating with equipment and software vendors

Recovery often depends on vendors your business doesn't fully control: an ERP vendor's support team, an equipment manufacturer's technician, or an internet provider's repair schedule. Keep current contact information and support-tier details for these vendors on hand, and understand in advance what response time each one actually commits to, rather than discovering it during the outage.

Testing the plan before you need it

A continuity plan that's never been walked through tends to fall apart under real pressure. A tabletop exercise, walking key staff through a simulated outage once a year, surfaces gaps far more cheaply than discovering them during an actual incident. This pairs naturally with the backup restore testing covered in our guide to backup and disaster recovery for manufacturing.

Where continuity planning meets cybersecurity

A ransomware incident is one of the most likely reasons a manufacturer would need to activate a continuity plan, which is why this planning should be built alongside the controls covered in our guide to cybersecurity for manufacturing companies. Our managed IT services approach includes helping clients build and periodically test this kind of plan as part of ongoing support.

Frequently asked questions