How does one prepare, respond, and recover a cleanroom operation from a natural disaster?

Question: I am a production supervisor working in an ISO Class 7 cleanroom in Florida. Our cleanroom has not been affected by the hurricanes in Florida in the past but I have been assigned to write a disaster plan for the clean-room. How does one prepare, respond, and recover a cleanroom operation from a natural disaster?

It is wise to develop a disaster prevention plan and a disaster recovery plan now, when you don’t need it, in order to reduce the financial impact and ensure a quick recovery, should a disaster occur. I assume you are a member of a cross-functional team that is developing a comprehensive disaster plan for the entire facility and you have been given the responsibility and authority for the clean-room. I will focus only on the prevention, response, and recovery as it pertains to the cleanroom operations. However, to be successful, the plan for the cleanroom operations should be incorporated into the overall masterplan.

The source of the disaster can be from nature (i.e. tornado, hurricane, earthquake, flood, etc.) or man-made (i.e. power outage, terrorist attack, uncontrolled wildfires, etc.). A disaster plan should be a documented, comprehensive planthat addresses three key areas:

• -Prevention of the disaster
• -Response to the disaster
• -Recovery from the disaster

Prevention of the Disaster
The focus of this section of the plan should be on the importance of being prepared to continue operations in any unplanned event for the welfare of the customer and the employees. One can use routine quality system audits to spot a crisis waiting to happen. Performance of a failure mode analysis and evaluation will produce a plan to keep the impending crisis from happening. A crisis management team can implement and execute procedures and policies designed to continue operations in the event of a disaster. If not already in place, your facility should install security systems, back-up generators, fire protection systems, and contract for data back-up and document storage off-site. Additional planning should include both internal redundancy of equipment and back-up facilities within your company that follow the samepolicies and procedures in the case of a severe disaster.