Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Crisis Management
Reducing Business Risks and Preventing the Recurrence of Incidents
Goals and Achievements of Major Initiatives
Ensure the continuity of DIC Group businesses.
| Fiscal year | Goals | Achievements | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Promote BCM |
|
★★★ |
| Strengthen efforts to create a global crisis management configuration. |
|
★ | |
| 2025 | Promote BCM | ― | ― |
| Strengthen the crisis management configuration. | ― | ― |
- Evaluations are based on self-evaluations of current progress.
Key: ★★★ = Excellent; ★★ = Satisfactory; ★ = Still needs work
Basic Approach to BCM and Crisis Management
The DIC Group considers all risks with the potential to interrupt business continuity—including those related to natural disasters such as major earthquakes, typhoons and floods, new infectious diseases, and facility accidents such as explosions, fires and leaks—as targets for BCM. The Group comprehensively estimates the probability of critical events arising from these risks and the impact thereof on management, and prioritizes response measures for more significant risks. The Group has also established a task force framework encompassing the headquarters task force, business task forces and on-site task forces, and is working to formulate and improve BCM and crisis management countermeasures, including formulating and revising BCPs for key products and updating information.
BCM
Framework for Promoting BCPs
DIC has compiled crisis management rules into a manual for use across the DIC Group in the event of a major disaster and formulates BCPs to serve as subordinate manuals. Specifically, the Company selects key products in each product division, prioritizing the formulation of measures for important related resources used therein, which it uses as the basis for BCPs. As in Japan, overseas DIC Group companies promote BCM in a manner that aligns with product division strategies.
BCM in Fiscal Year 2024
Responding effectively to accidents and disasters depends on employees having a correct understanding of BCM and of how to properly execute the DIC Group’s BCPs. This in turn requires education and training. Accordingly, the Company provides instruction and raising awareness for those assigned to related roles. In fiscal year 2024, guidance to enhance understanding of and the ability to formulate BCPs to improve the effectiveness of BCPs and avoid mere formalities. Annual training involving workshops and map-based simulation exercises for senior management was also provided by headquarters task force members under the supervision and guidance of experts. Fiscal year 2024 training involved a BCP-focused drill based on the premise of a Nankai megathrust earthquake that simultaneously affected multiple production facilities and was conducted by the headquarters task force and two on-site task forces. The drill included using online meetings involving the headquarters task force, product divisions and production facilities in combination with the DIC BC Portal—a web-based system facilitating the collection and sharing of information when a disaster occurs—to promptly report and discuss responses.
DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd has developed a crisis management plan as a step toward formulating its own BCPs, subordinate manuals to the manual outlining DIC’s crisis management rules. This plan sets forth clear steps for implementation by the Group companies it oversees. Group companies overseen by DIC (China) Co., Ltd., have formulated BCPs for key high-priority products, while Sun Chemical Corporation has formulated emergency response rule- and systems-related BCPs.
Improving the Effectiveness of BCPs and Avoiding Mere Formalities
DIC works to refine its BCP templates to avoid mere formalities. Key measures include conducting annual status update meetings, attended by relevant executives, to verify that product division BCPs are up-to-date and relevant. The fiscal year 2024 status update meeting involved examining the content of product division BCPs, confirming the update status, as well as identifying improvement and issues to be addressed, based on which measures will be implemented in fiscal year 2025 and beyond.
Crisis Management
Conducting Emergency Response Drills
In addition to annual headquarters task force–led training, DIC has developed and works to maintain a system designed to ensure its ability to minimize damage in the event of a disaster, as well as to facilitate the swift restoration of operations. This system includes employee safety confirmation, site-to-site emergency radio warning, site-specific comprehensive disaster and other drills. With the establishment of site training environments for the aforementioned DIC BC Portal, use of the system in the sharing of information among sites during emergency response drills expanded significantly.
Administration of the DIC Portal Web-Based Disaster Information System
In fiscal year 2024, DIC sought to address issues with the DIC BC Portal that emerged during the period, to maintain and gradually improve the effectiveness and usefulness of this system. Of note, the Company prepared a simplified manual on initial steps to ensure the swift and accurate sharing of information, as well as modified the names used on operational menus to prevent reporting errors by disaster-impacted sites. The Company also expanded deployment of the system to additional domestic DIC Group companies.
Community Efforts to Cope with Major Disasters
Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. As a consequence, ensuring earthquake readiness, that is, the ability to prevent and mitigate the impact of earthquakes, is recognized as a critical challenge for society as a whole. The DIC Building, which houses DIC’s corporate headquarters, is located in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. This area, noted for its tightly clustered large commercial complexes and office buildings, conducts a comprehensive neighborhood disaster drill annually on an empty lot near the DIC Building. The building] itself, designed with state-of-the-art earthquake-resistant technologies, has been designated as a temporary shelter for people stranded in Chuo-ku, the ward in which Nihonbashi is located. As a member of Chuo-ku’s management council for emergency shelters for stranded individuals, DIC also promotes a variety of initiatives aimed at assisting people stranded in the wake of a major disaster. In line with a national- and local government–led effort to discourage crowds of disaster-stranded individuals from endeavoring to return home simultaneously once doing so becomes possible, overwhelming public transportation , in fiscal year 2024 the Company compiled a policy and guidelines for its implementation by all DIC Group sites and companies and promoted awareness thereof among employees.
