Risk Management
Risk management basic policy
The Advantest Group will conduct measures to minimize damage should any of the following events occur:
- If damage is caused to buildings or facilities, or if networks and systems stop functioning making it difficult to continue our business operations, or if there is the possibility of this type of situation occurring due to a disaster or accident;
- If there is the danger of one of our executives or employees being killed or injured or their life or physical health is put at risk due to a disaster or accident;
- If there is an occurrence of scandal or incident that has the potential to become a social concern; or,
- If any event other than those described above were to occur that could cause a significant impact on the business of the Group or its affiliates due to a disaster or accident.
Risk management system
In December 2001, Advantest established a Risk Management Group with the Company's president as its head. The Risk Management Group will convene when any of the above events occur, and will consolidate information flows, evaluate the problem, direct the initial response, and formulate recovery plans. The Group will remain in operation until recovery is complete.
Business Continuity Plan
Advantest Corporation established the following basic policy during fiscal 2007 in preparation for large-scale natural disasters. We have devised our business continuity plan based on this policy.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) — basic policies
- We will place top priority on ensuring human safety should a major disaster strike.
- We will fulfill our responsibility to our stakeholders by ensuring that any impairment to our operations has a minimal adverse impact on our suppliers and other stakeholders.
- We will cooperate with local bodies in regular disaster prevention measures, and if a disaster should strike near any of our locations, we will contribute to local recovery.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, we began reviewing our disaster prevention arrangements. In fiscal 2012, we revised our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to take into account an earthquake directly under Tokyo and flooding along the Tone River, and to ensure the integrity of our supply system even in such disasters. Within the BCP, the following measures are stipulated in line with the basic policy.
| Basic Policy | Specific Measures |
|---|---|
| 1. Ensuring human safety | In addition to continuing with regular disaster prevention drills and safety confirmation drills, we will strengthen crisis management and business continuity systems, making human safety the top priority. |
| 2. Fulfillment of supply responsibilities | When an earthquake occurs, supply systems at our manufacturing plants (Gunma Factory) will continue. In the case of a flood, it is assumed that supply systems will be maintained at alternative manufacturing sites. |
| In preparation for cases where workplace attendance is temporarily impractical because of damage to offices or infrastructure, we will establish an environment allowing high-priority work to be done from home. | |
| 3. Regional & social contributions | Our Gunma R&D Center has been designated by the town of Meiwa as an evacuation shelter in case of flooding, and we contribute to the area by keeping the site ready for flood evacuees. |
2014 Initiatives
In fiscal 2014, based on the BCP, which was formulated in April 2013, the crisis management headquarters secretariat and related departments conducted initial tabletop drills assuming an earthquake directly under Tokyo. With this training we identified that there would be a problem in communicating between headquarters and development and production bases and suppliers, however by changing and clarifying the operations these problems were resolved. In addition, we modified each manual reflecting other deficiencies in the BCP that were revealed during the training.
In addition we increased the number of times that we implement the safety confirmation training that we do every year to three times (in July, November and March) to further strengthen safety registration. Although the training carried out in March was conducted without notifying the date and time in advance, we were able to confirm the safety of all domestic employees within one week.
In future, we will expand BCP training to more departments and extend the target period, ensure that each department is able to act quickly in the event of a disaster by continuing to implement training and aim to establish a BCMS (Business Continuity Management System).
