Business Continuity Management System for the Risk Governance in Port Sub-sector

Abstract

Earthquake and tsunami has been and will be one of the major threats to the logistics services and business activities in the port and shipping sub-sector. One of the examples involves the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 (GEJE2011), which causes serious damages to port facilities in the eastern Japan, resulting in huge economic losses due to long continued supply chain disruptions. In this regard, the authors first review an impact of the GEJE2011 to logistics and industries in ports for identifying disruption risk and its consequences due to natural disasters. Currently developing business continuity management (BCM) frameworks including the international and national standards are also reviewed for discussing skills and expertise for properly meeting BCM requirements in the port sub-sector. Based on the discussion, the authors propose due procedures and analysis techniques for managing business continuity of the sub-sector. Intensive discussions at the pilot project site, in the ports of Japan and Chile were undertaken by the authors who have been engaged in a Japan-Chile international research collaboration project. Authors conclude that systematic analysis procedures for establishing business continuity management system in ports are vital for maintaining continuity of logistics infrastructure services and a variety of business activities in ports.