The preparedness and competence of your factory personnel will be tested even more, given the need and obligation to continue to function through the emergency, whether in order to minimize possible damages that might come about due to the situation (such as hazardous materials plants) or whether in order to allow for the ongoing functioning of the economy (essential industries) as needed.
Below is a synopsis of the necessary steps of emergency preparations for the convenience of key personnel in the industrial sector:
1. It is crucial and required to train workers and to equip personnel with protective gear
Section 20g of the Civil Defense Law requires industry owners to train their workers in protection and defense and to equip the factory with rescue equipment and first aid supplies, as specified by the 5733-1973 Civil Defense Decrees (Factory and Institutional Equipment and Employee Training).
The Home Front Command helps with to instruct and train workers to function in an emergency.
2. Assigning workers to specific duties
Research has shown that when the first response in an emergency is organized and planned out among a number of individuals (such as a team of flight attendants, institutional faculty, the family, and workers), who have, ahead of time, mapped out the measures that must be taken and divided them up amongst themselves, the system’s ability to cope with the emergency improves and the group’s chances of surviving a crisis increase. Preparing for an emergency demands that workers be assigned to specific duties in the following areas:
* Factory supervisor for civil defense: This is to be done in coordination with the relevant regional headquarters of the Home Front Command.
* Operational teams: A first aid team, a firefighting team, a Hazmat events team.
* Workers' support team
* Shelter maintenance team
Depending on the specific nature of the factory, assigning workers to the following specific duties should also be considered:
* Head of rescue team
* Head of supervising and ushering team
* Head of security team
Every team should have a team leader whose duties will include creating the team, training it initially, and maintaining its level of training and competence for the event of an emergency.
3. Writing the factory’s emergency plan. The writing process must include:
a. Generating a status report based on possible emergencies (risk of war event depending on the geographical location of the factory, fire, earthquake, etc.) and with regard to the specific nature of the plant (an essential industry, keeps hazardous materials, etc.).
b. Writing procedures for dealing with emergencies of various kinds as outlined in the status report. It is a good idea to prepare various scenarios with a range of difficulties that might arise as the result of an emergency (absenteeism of workers because of widespread reserve duty call-up or because of the suspension of school, difficulties in obtaining raw materials of various sorts, instructions for working behind protection, etc.). When formulating the procedures, it is important to relate to the various stages of the emergency, including the time needed to transition from routine to emergency (a set of automatic actions to go into operation) and life in an ongoing emergency (continuing emergency conditions).
c. Drilling and reviewing: Make sure to drill and train the factory personnel who have been assigned specific functions as well as all factory personnel in the measures you have formulated to cope with emergencies. It is important to conduct a review to minimize those elements that might raise the risk (e.g., fire safety rules, Hazmat stockpiles, etc.) and to make sure that the means for handling an emergency (firefighting equipment, appropriate procedures, rescue equipment you have decided on, etc.) are available.
Note well:
Hazardous materials factories must make preparations in terms of hazardous materials as well, in addition to making the general preparations as outlined above.