3 WAYS MANUFACTURING

COMPANIES CAN IMPROVE

COMMUNICATION DURING A
CRISIS
By Chris Britton | November 17, 2016 | Crisis Management

If an emergency struck your manufacturing company tomorrow, would

your crisis management teamand the business as a wholebe
equipped to respond? How effective would your crisis communications be
in enabling a quick, streamlined recovery?
These questions arent merely conjecture; the threat of the next big crisis
is always there. In fact, in a recent survey, 62 percent of respondents said
their organization had activated its emergency communications plan at
least once in the previous year.
In the manufacturing industry, effective crisis communications is
particularly important, since your market is exposed to such a wide range
of threats. Consider how Hurricane Sandy affected the New York and
New Jersey manufacturing industry in 2013. According to a U.S.
Department of Commerce study, manufacturing was one of the hardesthit markets, with an estimated 10,000 separate facilities hurt by the storm.
Those industrial organizations hit the hardest reported a variety of
problems:

Structural damage

Loss of phone and internet

Loss of power

Standing flood water

Excessive debris

In fact, the very nature of manufacturing makes your facilities and

employees susceptible to various emergencies, due to factors that
include the following:

Facilities, assets and stakeholders located in disparate cities or

even countries, each of which face different potential threats, such as
severe weather, fire, political instability, crime and more

A range of risks that are unique to manufacturing, such as chemical

spills, equipment malfunction or certain employee injuries

Difficulty in effectively reaching all employees during an emergency

particularly if they frequently move throughout the manufacturing facility
A single crisis can have an enormous impact on your organization, pose a
threat to employees and, in some cases, even lead to closure. Thats why
its important that manufacturers adopt effective crisis communication
techniques. Here, we count down three ways to improve manufacturing
crisis communications throughout your organization:

1. DONT RELY ON VULNERABLE

SYSTEMS FOR MANUFACTURING
CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS.
As Hurricane Sandy demonstrated, many manufacturers experience a
loss of power and internet during a crisis. Rather than relying on manual
call trees, website announcements or other ineffective tactics, consider
bringing your crisis communication into the 21st century by using a mobile
app.
A crisis app provides employees with real-time alerts and notifications as
an emergency occurs, even when the power is out. Workers can even
access a secure link to relevant contact details, so they are never left
wondering whom they should contact during the chaos of a crisis. In
addition, they can download relevant information directly to their
smartphone so it is accessible at all times, even if cellular networks fail.
As a result, communication is streamlined at every level. Employees are
better equipped to respond appropriately, which can help to mitigate
damage and even save lives. As the emergency evolves, your crisis team

can also leverage the app to keep all stakeholders up-to-date, helping
ensure an effective response. Make sure to have communication plans for
the different stakeholders your organization caters to. For example, at a
consumer products manufacturing plant, how the executive team is
notified will probably look different than how the general public is notified
of a crisis.

2. DIGITIZE BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND

INCIDENT RESPONSE PLANS.
Fluidmaster provides a good example of how improved access to
planning documents can optimize crisis communication in the
manufacturing field. The wireless networking manufacturer digitized its
business continuity and incident response plans, moving away from using
large binders and flash drives.
Now, the companys incident response team has anytime, anywhere
access to their BC and incident response files via a mobile app. Since the
crisis team has immediate, real-time access to these important
documents, they are better equipped to communicate relevant emergency
details, instructions, contact information and other updates throughout the
organization. They also save a significant amount of time by being able to
reference documents right in the palm of their hands.

3. GAIN PRE-APPROVAL ON DRAFT

STATEMENTS.
When a crisis hits a manufacturing organization, its important to quickly
communicate information to the outside worldincluding the media, your
customers and partners, and other important stakeholders. This is
especially true when an emergency has the potential to disrupt the supply
chain, as was the case following Hurricane Sandy.
When an emergency hits, you want to feel confident that your crisis
communications are already approved by the necessary stakeholders,
such as your legal department, executives and the public relations team.
Whenever possible, draft your communications ahead of time, and gain
approval from all the relevant departments and individuals.

This is another area in which digitized plans are helpful. Using a mobile
app, you can easily distribute draft statements to the necessary
stakeholders. If the statements require updating, the app automatically
pushes all updates to each stakeholders device. That way, when an
emergency strikes, your crisis team can be confident that the most up-todate versions of the approved statements are being used, which helps to
ensure a consistent, on-brand response.
How would you rate your organizations current crisis communication
methods? Do you feel that the techniques your company uses to
communicate during an emergency are a help or a hindrance?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Britton is the Chief Operating Officer for RockDove Solutions,
the developer of the In Case of Crisis solution. Mr. Britton oversees the
revenue growth, client success and operations of the business. Mr. Britton
brings to this effort a track record of creating high growth and successful
organizations with a focus on solving real-life problems with creative and
intuitive technology solutions. He leads a team of professionals who align
the In Case of Crisis mobile solutions to client needs. Mr. Britton has had
great success working with corporations, schools, NGOs and government
institutions. Mr. Brittons management successes span; IPOs, global
expansions, new products, accelerated growth and profitability with public
and private companies including; AT&T, Rosetta Stone, Interfolio and
Vocus. Mr. Britton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business
Administration with a minor in Computer Science from the University of
Dayton.