The TOPPAN Group provides client companies with an array of products and services in Information & Communication, Living & Industry, Electronics, and frontier businesses. We recognize that the business continuity planning (BCP) initiative is a critical defensive measure to ensure the safety of employees and minimize business disruptions when a disaster strikes.

During normal times, Groupwide business continuity management (BCM) activities have the advantage of making us accountable to stakeholders for crisis management, heightening employee awareness on disaster preparedness and crisis management, and fostering a corporate culture that robustly responds to disasters.

We continue to implement BCP/BCM initiatives so that we can be trusted by society as a group of corporations that endure disasters resiliently. We are enhancing business continuity capabilities and maintain greater customer confidence in our supply responsibilities.

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Business continuity planning (BCP) clarifies a set of policy, framework, and procedures necessary to prevent any interruption of key business operations in the event of a sudden crisis such as a natural disaster or accident. The BCP initiative also aims to restore normal business operations in the shortest possible time when business interruptions cannot be prevented. Business continuity management (BCM), meanwhile, refers to various management activities undertaken at normal times to secure business continuity, such as BCP activities.

Training and drills are provided at each operational site to give all personnel a fuller understanding of their roles and to prepare all taskforce members to perform their duties when a disaster strikes. Trainees mainly learn about recovery flow, the roles of the response units, and how information-sharing tools are used. Drill participants also learn initial disaster relief procedures such as taskforce formulation, information gathering, and the actions to be taken to confirm the safety of site members. We continuously update an array of disaster countermeasure plans that specify approaches to disaster recovery response, along with action-procedure sheets that outline the actions each response unit should take.

The BCP Promotion Office, meanwhile, conducts assessments and interviews using a check sheet on the BCP activities underway at each site to increase the level of activities throughout the Group. Interviewers share the points to be improved with site personnel and discuss countermeasures based on the results of reviews of the previous year’s efforts.

We also hold liaison meetings with personnel from the BCP administration offices, organize BCP workshops for suppliers to reinforce our supply chains, and enhance employee readiness by posting disaster-mitigation information on our corporate and internal websites.

Training and Drills

Remote work environments have been established throughout the Group to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The group-style drills and training sessions formerly held in person have now shifted online to allow wider participation from diverse locations. In the damage-assessment training for buildings, for example, online instructors teach participants how to conduct structural assessments by presenting them with previously compiled drawings and photos of structural-assessment points. Online BCP lectures and workshops are also held for suppliers.

Drills are conducted by organizing taskforces over networks and confirming the coordinated disaster-recovery actions of a senior taskforce linked to a set of affiliated site-based taskforces. In the drill shown here, facilitators instruct each taskforce member to engage in appropriate recovery activities within an evolving disaster scenario. Remote participants assigned to play task-specific roles from their homes and workplaces respond to the advice, information, and inquiries prepared by the information-sharing personnel.

Coordinated Actions in Remote Training

We may choose to convert our practice-based training and drills back to a group-style offline format as societies around the world continue to relax their measures against COVID-19.

Personnel from the BCP administration offices at the business divisions and at related companies convene for quarterly and semiannual liaison meetings, respectively, to exchange views and share information. Currently, liaison meetings are held at 10 major manufacturing companies within the Group.

The administration offices at divisions in Tokyo also hold meetings to discuss specific BCP issues and themes, whenever necessary.

Posting Disaster-mitigation Information

In the event of a disaster, taskforces will be set up at operational sites in the affected region, along with taskforces at the responsible business divisions and subdivisions, subsidiaries, and Group companies across Japan. These task forces will work under a Groupwide taskforce to be established at Toppan Inc. in Tokyo. The Groupwide taskforce will consist of directors in charge of taskforces and several Groupwide response units led by taskforce managers, all working under the taskforce head, deputy, and assistant to the head. The Basic Plan for Countermeasures against Disasters stipulates the criteria for establishing a Groupwide taskforce. We have already prepared an alternate framework in the Kansai region for forming a substitute Groupwide taskforce, as a contingency for a disaster affecting the Koishikawa Building in Tokyo.

If an actual disaster occurs, the affected sites will confirm the safety of employees, provide emergency relief, and initiate other necessary actions on a top-priority basis. Concurrently, the Groupwide taskforce will build a system to support the operational sites affected by the disaster and begin assessing the damage to Group operations. Once the extent of damage is confirmed, the taskforce will design a recovery plan according to the Group’s business continuity strategy. If recovery will be difficult to achieve on schedule, the taskforce will consider alternate production at other Group plants or external affiliates. The pertinent departments will coordinate their recovery efforts while the taskforce allots resources to individual recovery projects according to priority-guided decisions by management.

Once the recovery is complete throughout the Group, the Groupwide taskforce will dissolve and the BCP Promotion Office will compile activity logs. Issues identified during recovery processes will be shared with the BCP administration offices and taskforce members across the Group and reflected in future recovery operations through document revisions.