Why would a company take the efforts and develop and establish a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS)? What are the ADVAntages, how will this ever pay back?
The company ADVA SE way, which provides a good example how this can be done, successfully, and implemented in a fairly short time.
Typically, it is the customer requesting their suppliers to provide and maintain a fully integrated BCMS process in compliance to ISO 22301 standard. In ADVA SE’s case this request was from British Telecom asking it to go for such certification within the context of their “Sustainability” program.
After a short evaluation phase and feasibility study also considering the financial and organizational benefits for the company, ADVA SE Management decided to go ahead on the project, which was then kicked-off in January 2015. The project goal was to develop and establish a BCMS at their three Distribution Center locations; York (UK), Meiningen (EU/APAC) and Atlanta (US).
The fact that ADVA SE had implemented a Risk Management System based on ISO 31000 (not certified yet) was a highly appreciated precondition easing its efforts for identifying the risk areas relevant to BCMS. Consequently and as targeted, ADVA SE was able to complete the project in only 9 months. In October 2015 ADVA SE passed the initial certification audits with outstanding results: 0(zero) major/minor deviations, though ADVA SE received several recommendations for further improvements to be implemented in 2016.
It is worthwhile to mention that Quality Austria, ADVA SE’s certification partner, also received their official accreditation as a certification partner for ISO 22301 by performing ADVA SE’s audit. As a matter of fact, the audits were accompanied and observed by a witness auditor, and as a result, Quality Austria also received an excellent result for its own first accreditation as a certifier as well.
Summary
With this expansion of its certification portfolio (TL9000/ISO9001 – QMS, ISO14001 – EMS, ISO22301 – BCMS and in progress: ISO50001 – Energy Management), ADVA SE has significantly increased the satisfaction of one of its most important customer, who as a consequence, awarded ADVA SE as being the “best supplier of the year” with a silver ranking in his Sustainability program. Furthermore ADVA SE has received similar requests from its other customers as well, who are pleasantly surprised recognizing ADVA SE as being a leader, in this context, in the market place.
ADVAntages and benefits of ISO22301 based BCMS to ADVA SE:
- Improved, more stable processes with regards to control of changing demands and optimization and reduction of inventories
- Synchronization and harmonization of our global Supply Chain
- Enhanced transparency and planning for „Make or Buy“ decisions
(own production versus outsourcing to contract manufacturing partners) - Improved control of critical lead Times with Supply Chain and as a consequence improvement of our Lead Time reliability towards our customers
- Competitive ADVAntage; ability to demonstrate proven plans, should we have supply disruption.
- ISO22301 compliance; part of marketing package.
- ISO22301 BCMS along with Sustainability will become a strategic initiative for QuEST Forum to be part of TL9000 standard – ADVA SE is ahead of this.
- Identifies potential impacts that could threaten our business.
- Liability Insurance for business interruption; reduced premiums.
- Allows good Corporate Governance.
- Securing reputation and protecting our brand.
