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Every day, you will see news feeds of economic recession across North America. From massive layoffs, lower business sales, unplanned system outages, and employment unions on strike. Many would think of a doomsday scenario and strive hard to let the business survive. Measuring how effective are your business disaster recovery plans can tell if it can keep up either with a planned or unplanned disruption.
What is Resiliency?
Resiliency is the capacity or capability to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties or situations. Think for example of a weather disaster such as flooding, earthquakes, extreme heat/cold, or wildfires. Is your business weather disaster proof, are critical data or assets securely stored to withstand these natural disasters getting more frequent. For man-made disruptions such as workforce strikes and supply-chain disruptions, how are these mitigated and controlled to restore service? Oftentimes, it entails a complete shutdown and no other course of action until services can be restored.
What is Redundancy?
Redundancy is a term in engineering for the inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to function, in case of failure in other components. Think of it as a backup or an immediate replacement when the primary component fails. In case of a weather disaster, this could be adding layers of security for your data or critical infrastructure, such as physical firewall, flood mitigation, or backup generators. For man-made disasters, it is thinking further of near-shore or off-shore outsourcing or activating a set of backup vendors. Implementing this will be quite costly if not effectively planned and managed, adding more operational overhead.
With these 2 Ideas in mind, which one works best for your business? There is NO single answer, but it entails business decisions on:
- How long can you withstand your business offline?
- What is the impact to your customers if your product/service are not available?
- Can your business brand/reputation recover after encountering these disruptions?
With the Toyota Way:
- Plan how to reduce your DOWNTIME
- Perform or do the modified activity/process
- Check or verify if it is working and repeatable
- Have corrective actions if it does not work.
Lean Six Sigma is a continuous improvement methodology that focuses on the elimination of waste or reducing DOWNTIME and can effectively be applied for Business Continuity Plans. Implementing Lean requires personal or corporate behavioral change, and it takes repetition, practice, and guidance from a certified Lean Six Sigma practitioner.
If you think your business or IT implementations need help addressing these challenges, feel free to contact me here at MoosePlex or leave a comment.
Jorge Gallardo
Senior IT Specialist / ITIL / Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt