Disasters take on many guises: a flood, tornado, hurricane, fire, a key staff member takes ill, a high-powered salesperson leaves, or a power outage hits—not to mention some dreaded computer virus. The best way to move from disaster to recovery? Be Prepared.

Step 1: Form the committee. It may sound laughable, but don't have your first disaster before completing a recovery plan. In other words, do it now. As you read the steps below, write down the names of those staff members on your team who should handle any specific task(s). Advise those people of what you need and how soon you need it.

Step 2: Who ya gonna call? The cover page of your Disaster Recovery Plan should contain important contact telephone numbers. The owners, as well as the general manager, should have their home and cell phone numbers noted. Include the police and fire departments' emergency numbers (not just 911), hospital, ambulance, your insurance agent (include account information), and a list of your company's Emergency Response Team. These are your trusted and trained staff members who will take on specific roles in case of a disaster.

Step 3: Fire prevention. This section includes the location of all exits and fire extinguishers, a list of potential fire hazards and where they are located in the plant.

Step 4: Be location-specific. Here you note any special needs or action steps to recover from a disaster based on your location in the country (Tornadoes—just about anywhere; hurricanes—either coast; earthquakes—primarily the West Coast, etc).

Step 5: Business restoration. This portion consists of seven important subsections.

Emergency Action Plan: Covers emergency escape procedures, how you will account for all employees after an evacuation, a list of personnel responsible to assist in emergencies, the procedure for training new employees about the disaster plan, and the next review date required for the plan.

Damage Assessments: Determine the personnel qualified to assess the continued operations of your equipment, their specific role, how it is reported and to whom.

Clean-up and Salvage Operations: This part should list qualified companies for general clean-up, electrical work, water clean-up and salvage tasks.

Press Release: As soon as practical after a disaster occurs, a press release should be written and sent to the appropriate media. The company president, owner or spokesperson should be prepared to meet the media.

Customer and Supplier Information Process: Here you need to decide the best method for your company to get the information out to your customers. It's also a place where an updated customer list is invaluable. Keep it current. I suggest a monthly or quarterly update with a copy of the information kept off-site.

Emergency Production Process: Break this otherwise formidable task down into three sections: limited damage—where only a few pieces of equipment are involved; moderate damage—where a greater number of pieces of equipment are involved; and extensive damage... (You get the picture).

Insurance: List your agent's contacts, your account information, the person in charge of insurance claims, and most of all, remember to take pictures of everything before it's moved or cleaned up.

Next month, Part 2 covers Steps 6-10.

This article originally appeared in Converting (November 2003). GSI Technologies is a functional printer and industrial graphics converter.

630/325-8181, www.gsitech.com