We’ve all been on the receiving end of that dreaded phone call at 3am: your most important asset has suffered a major failure. It could be the primary feed conveyor, the largest digging unit, or the main substation that feeds the essential services.

We all know how that goes. Nobody is 100% sure what the failure is at first. Once you work out what’s failed, nobody knows where the spare is, or where the drawings or manuals are to help plan the repairs. It’s hard to get hold of contractors and cranes for extra labour. The GM is screaming for answers on what’s happened and how long before things are back up and running.

In cases like these, the decisions we make in the initial “fog of war” are never optimal. We end up costing ourselves time and money – not to mention a whole lot of stress – because of these poor decisions. Major failures are often followed by a debrief to identify future improvements to prevent it happening again, but the recommendations often fall to the wayside.

Business Continuity Planning is about making these decisions, then planning, testing and preparing for these scenarios, before they happen.

These scenarios by their nature rarely happen, but when they do, managers need to:

• Act decisively
• Avoid unnecessary mistakes and oversights
• Communicate clearly to everyone involved in a project sense of competence
• Minimise the stress that arises in these situations.

Business Continuity Plans help maintenance and commercial managers identify potential business interruption scenarios, prepare response and recovery plans, document control the plans for future reference, and verify that the plans will work when they are needed.

Bluefield’s approach to Business Continuity Planning is designed to produce material that site maintenance, operations, and commercial teams can call upon instantly.