How to future-proof your business continuity plans in food and beverage

Until recently, business continuity had not always been at the top of the food and beverage agenda. That changed as events such as the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine tested many organizations’ resources and supply chains.

How is the risk landscape changing?

Extreme weather events have become more frequent and intense, while global conflicts and changes in climate threaten harvests and production of essential commodities.

High energy costs, environmental concerns, geopolitical tensions, and trade disputes have become common, posing risks at all stages of the food and drink supply chain. The risk of another pandemic is also very real, potentially affecting people and animals.

This contributes to increasing uncertainty and raises the possibility of a break in operational continuity should a major stress event occur.

What can you do to get ahead of emerging challenges?

1. 01

   Assess your risks and analyze the impact

   Understand which processes, activities, and services are most critical to your operation and assess the main threats to those functions. Are there any that can be addressed quickly to avoid risks to business continuity in future? For example, installing a generator in a plant to keep production going if the power goes down.

2. 02

   Strengthen your supply chain

   Consider measures such as nearshoring some supplies, sourcing critical supplies from multiple providers, establishing alert systems for emerging threats (such as tropical storms), and holding joint exercises and business continuity reviews with key suppliers.

3. 03

   Develop a detailed business continuity management plan

   This is more than just a fire evacuation plan or crisis management plan; it should be a detailed plan for recovering your critical business operations or processes. Make sure it includes detail such as: what needs to be done, by whom, expected recovery times and objectives; incident response roles, responsibilities and actions; which functions need to be recovered in what order; how to communicate about a temporary loss of service or production.

   Key questions to ask

   • When was your business continuity plan last tested? If that was years ago, it’s unlikely to work to best effect today.
   • Have the people listed in the plan been trained in the last two years? People come and go, so you need to ensure the team members identified in the plan are up to speed.
   • When was it last updated? The plan should be updated at least once a year, and the key contacts every six months.
   • Are you clear which processes and activities are business critical and how quickly they need to be recovered?
   • Do your key suppliers and customers have business continuity plans? How do they align to your plan? How do you rank in their recovery priorities and what do they expect of you?
   • Has your plan ever been audited against a recognized standard, such as ISO 22301?

4. 04

   Train your team and test your response

   Make sure relevant employees know about the business continuity plan and what their role is. Test the plan regularly, either through a desktop or live exercise, so employees can practice their roles and you can see if anything needs to be refined.

5. 05

   Review and audit the plan regularly

   Review and audit the business continuity plan annually to check that it is being updated, people are being trained, and it is still fit for purpose. Feed the audit results back to top management so they can review what’s working well and identify any shortfalls that need to be addressed.

Authors

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Frederick Gentile

Director of Risk Engagement
WTW

email Email phone +44 203 124 6000

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Simon Lusher

Global Food and Beverage Leader

email Email phone +44 7436 049588

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