Business Continuity Planning and Risk Management

It's been quite a time for the planet, hasn't it? The SARS-COV-2 pandemic is still causing major problems around the globe and, while things have certainly improved compared to 18 months ago, it's becoming quite hard to recall life before the crisis.

One of the main reasons things have improved now is due to the highly successful rollout out of the various approved vaccines. Pharmaceutical logistics providers have really shown their mettle in making sure as many life-saving vaccines as possible get where they are needed most.

It may feel like we will soon have this current crisis managed - but who knows when the next one will come around the block? Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 situation, scientists had been warning us for years that a global pandemic was a very real possibility and it seems almost inevitable this one will not be the last.

Resilience

For years businesses have indulged in business continuity planning and risk management, but recent events have really tested those preparatory measures to breaking point.

For the uninitiated, business continuity planning is a written and agreed upon policy a business puts in place which gives clear instructions on the steps to take in the event of a crisis to give the business the greatest possible chance to be able to continue operating - both during the crisis and beyond.

Risk management ties into business continuity planning and aims to predict potential issues and crises which may have a significant effect on an organization and, as far as is possible and practical, which steps can be taken to mitigate the possibility of those issues occurring.

Clearly, both of these preparatory steps have been brought into sharp focus over the last 18 months. Businesses the world over have faced significant challenges when it comes to continuing operations and it's been simple to spot the ones which had robust business continuity planning and risk management policies in place beforehand and which did not.

"Maintaining business operations in the face of [COVID related] supply-chain disruptions has become a major concern of most bio/pharmaceutical companies and their suppliers," a new study from DCAT reports. "More so than previous events, it has been especially difficult for supply-chain managers because of its global nature and the way it disrupted operations of manufacturing sites and the shipment of materials and finished products to and from those sites"

How to Prepare

A sensible approach to business continuity planning in pharmaceutical logistics is to break it down into steps. The main concerns which your organization needs to focus on to ensure continuation of business are establishing product priority, evaluating risk to supply, developing mitigation options and agility strategy, and implementing response plans.

Product Priority - This means deciding which of your organization's products are the most needed in the current climate and placing a production priority on those items. For example, we all heard about Tylenol shortages at Johnson & Johnson. Demand for this, and other symptom managing medications is bound to increase during a medical crisis, so this product would be assigned a higher priority.

Evaluate Risk to Supply - Next, we must look at all the potential factors which could prevent those prioritized products getting to where they need to be. Manufacturing capacity, changing regulations, geopolitical events (e.g., Brexit), and more can all have a negative impact on your business's ability to carry out a smooth logistics operation.

Mitigation Options and Agility Strategy - The next step is to come up with the strategies which will help mitigate the factors identified in the previous two steps. This may include plans such as restricting production of lower priority items in order to increase stocks of higher ones or ensuring customs forms are all in order in preparation for any change to regulations. However, your strategy must also be agile and open to change in a rapidly shifting environment. The situation can evolve from day to day and your operations need to be able to adapt alongside it.

Implement Response Plans - Now everything is in place it's time to put the plan into action. It may sound odd, but you need to have a strategy for implementing your strategy. What condition trigger the plan and who needs to sign off on its initiation are just two factors which need to be considered when creating these kinds of responses.

Final Thoughts

Remember, you need to make sure you have risk management and business continuity plans in place for any situation which could arise. There are no one size fits all approaches, and the risk management and business continuity strategy for a pandemic situation will likely be quite different for, say, an outbreak of war. Test and retest your strategy as, one of the worst things which can occur is for a crisis to arise and only them do you discover your plans don't pass muster.

"Most responding bio/pharma companies (90%) and suppliers (87%) had BCPs in place for their internal manufacturing operations when the pandemic hit," continues the DCAT study. "However, the plans were only somewhat effective: 46% of bio/pharma company respondents and 40% of supplier respondents said their BCPs addressed "most" of the problems they faced as a result of the pandemic, but over 50% of each group indicated that their plans addressed only "some" or "a few" of their challenges."

You can hear an esteemed panel of experts in pharmaceutical logistics talk on this topic and more at LogiPharma 2021, taking place in October at the Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.