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The Client: Otis Technology, Inc. Otis Technology is the largest manufacturer of gun-cleaning systems in the United States. Otis has 35 patents and 14 trademarks and sells gun-cleaning systems worldwide to the military and law enforcement agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army. Otis products are also available through large retailers such as L.L. Bean, Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Wal-Mart. In 10 years Otis grew from a 6-person operation in a family barn into a $20 million a year international enterprise operating out of a new 43,000 square foot state-of-the-art plant currently undergoing a 20,000 square foot expansion. The Situation: Given the significant growth over such a short period of time, Otis President Doreen Garrett recognized the need to ensure the company's ability to provide services even when confronted by a crisis. The unique nature of their business, as well as the criticality of their military clients, were cause for concern when Doreen considered the consequences of any interruption to Otis’ operations. In addition to the products developed at Otis, the company is 99% self-sufficient, which means that a loss of any aspect of the facility could mean a significant impact in their ability to meet contractual obligations. Ms. Garrett engaged SPP to provide in a Business Survivability Assessment for Otis as well as the development of an Emergency Preparedness Plan. The Process: At the same time Otis contracted SPP to drive the development of the plan, a new employee was hired specifically for the purposes of becoming the company team lead for the development and eventual maintenance of the Plan. In consultation with SPP, Otis built a planning team that included representatives from management, sales, manufacturing, assembly, Caboodles, Human Resources, Procurement, Public Relations and design engineering. The Otis Technology Tactical Team, comprised of key staff members from all aspects of the company functioned as the Emergency Preparedness Planning Committee. This committee evaluated the large scope of issues and served as the starting point for the development of smaller targeted teams to develop solutions to all issues raised by the EPC. The individual teams worked closely with SPP to evaluate potential scenarios and solutions, eliminate non-acceptable options, prioritize acceptable risk and create viable plans for prevention response and recovery. Items developed by the teams were brought before the EPC for corporate vetting to ensure all impacted areas were addressed. A Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis and Risk Assessment identified significant preventative measures in place at Otis, but also identified critical gaps in the areas of organization and IT redundancy. Overall corporate vulnerabilities unique to Otis’ industry and regional threats in the Lyons Falls area were distilled and SPP focused on prevention, response and recovery issues. Strategies and Plan Development followed, which included participation by the Planning Team. SPP constructed an Emergency Preparedness Plan around an Emergency Response Organization and focused on actions of Prevention, Response and Recovery. The team included coordinators for Emergencies, Facility Protection, Relocation, Communications/Public Information, IT/Data Protection and Medical Emergency. Otis unique campus setting provided on-site redundancies for certain aspects, as well as the need to develop distinct strategies for the different buildings and the on-site day care center. The Strategy: The overall strategy was to construct an organization ready to face any emergency, internal or external. This was to originate from a sound thought process, be supported with a communications and control structure that would maximize crisis management, and be supported by a plan with pull out sections applicable to various scenarios. The planning process was facilitated by SPP in conjunction with the Otis Tactical team. SPP facilitated three on-site team planning sessions, coupled with smaller workgroup sessions. Compaby specific issues were managed by Otis Team members and coordinated with SPP via the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. Each of the three sessions functioned as the culmination of team work and SPP support to review and validate benchmarks and set the roadmap for the next round of work. The Results: OTIS received a comprehensive Emergency Preparedness Plan, increased employee awareness of emergency issues, improved safety and security at the facility and implemented several key enhancements to daily operations as result of the planning process process:
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