The COVID-19 pandemic destabilized global chains , putting business continuity at risk, which made evident the lack of a contingency plan for events beyond the control of companies.
Within the framework of the third binational convention organized by the {American Society of Mexico (AMSOC) , Honeywell held the Connecting the Future Summit forum , which aimed to analyze the current panorama of the industry in Mexico, its challenges and opportunities, to plan the best strategies to prepare companies to face a better future and thus attract greater investment to Mexico.
In this regard, during the panel Ensuring business continuity: The imperative of uninterrupted operations , Samuel Campos, executive director for Latin America at Newmark , highlighted that according to a study, only 2% of companies were prepared for an event of the magnitude of what happened with the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this event brought some lessons and advantages such as the push to relocate companies, so Newmark, as a company that helps companies establish themselves in the best and most efficient place, pointed out that one of the factors that companies determine as their keys to success is business continuity .
“In terms of business continuity, we had issues such as natural disasters and the incidence of crime, infrastructure, availability of the workforce, issues of paperwork and ease of doing business, and the rule of law,” he explained.
He added that this became important in 2019, as companies moved from just in time to just in case , meaning they protected themselves by having additional inventories.
In addition, Campos indicated that continuity has even more aspects if analyzed from the point of view of insecurity , for example, as well as industrial infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, road infrastructure, port infrastructure , among others.
In light of the country’s energy issue, a headache that is constantly mentioned as a challenge in industrial facilities, the Newmark executive indicated that it must be addressed, especially because it is a major challenge for business continuity.
One of the issues mentioned as a solution to the problem, which also addresses another important point in business, which is sustainability, is to install solar panels in industrial buildings.
“Yes, it is a great solution, but the problem is that solar panels work through bidirectional systems, that is, during the day I inject the energy that I am not using, at night I take it, but if I do not have energy transmission that I inject into the national grid, I am generating a bigger problem if I generate a lot of energy, that is why they only allow us .5 megas of generation, there is a proposal to increase it to one mega but we have not solved the transmission problem,” explained Samuel Campos.
For his part, Francisco González, executive president of the National Auto Parts Industry (INA) , stressed that the continuity of operations in the auto parts sector is essential for the Mexican economy and explained that, in addition to the threats explained above, there is also the technological part.
“A few months ago, information was released that there was a cyber attack on a car distribution company in the United States and that the information of customers who bought cars had been compromised and brought about a series of important consequences, first of all, the closure of the company’s operations and the relationship between the companies. It is important to have technology, but with an adequate level of cybersecurity,” he said.
Hugo Sánchez, sales manager for Mexico and Colombia for Vertiv , added that certain types of regulations must be met to protect data, both from the company, clients and suppliers , which is why a cybersecurity plan is necessary.
On the other hand, Hugo Sánchez added that there are also internal issues that could affect the continuity of the business, such as inventory planning .
Finally, Juan Carlos Pérez, Audi plant security planner, said that the first link in business continuity is physical security , which is why Audi has a security plan.
“It all starts at home, who do I let in and how do I let them in; what devices do I allow you to access and which ones do I not allow you to access; we have strict control from the entrance,” he said.
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