building flashing across the screen is not a manufacturing facility. It’s your IT building—a building where you and almost every business system server reside, along with associated disk drives that house operating system and business application system software, corporate databases, and more. In addition, the company’s communications hubs for telephone, e-mail, Internet, and Intranet services reside there. The chemical gas that caused nine deaths and the evacuation of thousands has resulted in the worse imaginable scenario for disaster recovery for your company. All computers in the IT building are inoperable by the gas; all telephone lines to the company plant sites are down. You want wake up from what must be a nightmare, but it’s impossible because it’s not a dream, it’s true.
The main question you have to ask is would you be able to respond proactively to the disaster? On top of that, would you have an executable disaster recovery or contingency plan in place to respond to such disaster IT? While the U.S. is in the midst of hurricane season on the East Coast, tornados prevalent in the Midwest, and heavy earthquake potential on the West Coast, and while flooding or other natural disaster could happen anywhere in the world, every manufacturer should have some type of disaster recovery plan on file.
That scenario sound like something that would never happen in a million years, right? It happened at Avondale Mills in Graniteville, S.C. on 6 January 2005. A northbound train hit a parked train at 2: 39 a.m. causing 14 cars, including three tankers that held 90 tons of liquid chlorine, to derail from the track near the IT building.
At atmospheric temperature, the liquid chlorine became a deadly gas that was heavier than air; the chlorine gas permeated every building within a 1- mile radius of the crash, destroying shrubbery, trees, and any metallic surfaces it encountered along the way. Cars that were once running stalled in the middle of nearby streets, fish in a local creek died, electrical switch gears and boxes corroded, motors and electrical components on machinery at the various plants suffered damage, electrical outlets sparked spontaneously, and computers in the company’s IT building came to a silent but immediately discernible halt. No one at the company had ever imagined such devastation could occur, and none of us were ready for the effect this accident would have—especially relative to IT.
Let’s face it: There isn’t one manufacturer that is not affected by IT. We define IT as an information system that is the combination of computers and
SYSTEM INTEGRATION
people used to provide information to aid in making decisions and managing a firm. You could also define IT as an acronym used to inculcate in the minds of every level of corporate and middle management the concept that all of the computers or information systems in a company, whether used on the plant floor or in the board room, are a part of the company’s investment in technology.
At the most rudimentary level, we can assume any computer that malfunctions as a result of a disaster is included in disaster IT.
For example, a computer controlled drive system on a machine that suddenly fails due to corrosion of the drive system computer or the drive system electronics is a part of disaster IT. A multifunction processor in the plant’s process control system, used to control the machine’s steady state processing, that suddenly fails due to corrosion of the boards is a part of disaster IT. Whether it’s the computers located in an IT building, or the computers at the plant floor, in a control room, on a machine, or on a desk top, when computers and information systems are affected, the end result is disaster IT.
FAST FORWARD
When a company attempts to recover from disaster, the first step usually includes assessing the damage to its infrastructure, which is at the core of its operations. The next steps include identifying the key people required to get the company’s operations back up and running, developing a strategy for restoration/recovery, and implementing the plan. The IT infrastructure will define the key people and resources required to support the IT organization, hence, the IT director or manager must take a similar approach toward systems recovery.
The IT organization is an IS strategy that includes all computer systems in a company, all transfer media, all software products, all databases, and all technology providers. The old expression, “the network is the computer” applies when a company implements this strategy. And when disaster strikes IT, it affects every aspect of the operations—from payroll to customer service, to benefits, to plant floor production, to orders and sales, to inventory and shipments, to decision support, and executive information. A tightly integrated IT organization/strategy is critical to the survival of today’s companies; however; such a strategy can increase IT vulnerability during disaster.
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