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Thursday, March 17, 2011

A Workflow for Procedures in Emergencies

The major earthquake in North Japan (*) has been followed by many smaller earthquakes everyday. Japan's economy is under chaos with the earthquakes, tsunami and nuclear plant accidents. We sincerely hope to see things turn around during the next six months or one year. (* The 2011 Off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake)

Today's workflow sample is called a contingency plan. It is a workflow for confirming damages and announcing a state of emergency. When emergency procedures are in place, people will be able to follow them better when something happens. Of course, there should be "practice drills" every six months or so, and the process should be revised periodically. This workflow assumes not only natural disasters such as earthquakes, but also cyber attacks and financial damage caused by rumors or misinformation.

A manager that notices the emergency, thus in charge of confirming damages, immediately begins to grasp the situation, and accordingly gather involved parties. The system automatically records who did what work at what time, so this can be referred to at a latter date.

<Tasks>
1. Instruct to Check Damage, 2. Confirm Start, 3. On-time Instruction, 3a. Start, 4a. Report, 5. Confirm Report, 6. Decide to Gather Involved Parties, 7. Announce State of Emergency


[Contingency Plan <Notification>: "1. Instruct to Check Damage" screen]



The manager in charge of confirming damages instructs up to three employees to check damages. (Task 1. Instruct to Check Damage). Then, reports should come in one by one through the system's chat function (Tasks 4abc. Report and 3. On-time Instruction), and the manager is able to gather involved parties at any time (Task 6. Decide to Gather Involved Parties).

The below workflow sends an automatic notification, if all directors should be involved with the process of "Announcing a State of Emergency."

<Tasks>
1. Instruct to Check Damage, 2. Confirm Start, 3. On-time Instruction, 3a. Start, 4a. Report, 5. Confirm Report, 6. Decide to Gather Involved Parties, 7. Announce State of Emergency