Computer Aided Analysis for Managing Business Continuity in Ports
Kenji Ono1, Yasuhiro Akakura2
1 Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto-University, Uji, Japan. ono.kenji.5z@kyoto-u.ac.jp
2 National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, MLIT, Yokosuka, Japan. akakura-y83ab@mlit.go.jp

ABSTRACT: Preparing business continuity plans (BCPs) under the Basic Law for Increasing National Resiliency enacted onDecember 4, 2013 is a new challenge for Japanese major ports to improve business continuity capacity and to promote international
competitiveness. On the other hand, ISO22301 requires BCP builders to undertake comprehensive risk analysis and appraisal
procedures including employment of a business impact analysis (BIA) and risk assessment (RA), for which Japanese port experts areseeking proper methodologies, techniques and tools. This study discusses on the possible development of computer aid analysis tool forassisting port experts in undertaking systemic BIA and RA procedures to prepare further effective and efcient BCPs at ports.
Keywords: Business Continuity Plan, Business Impact Analysis, Risk Assessment, Computer Aided Engineering

1. INTRODUCTION
Resiliency of logistics infrastructures in ports is one of key elements for the modern industry and business activities, therefore of great
importance for the local, regional and global economy. Developing business continuity plans (BCPs) for major port operations are, inthis context, currently encouraged by the government of Japan, in particular aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Preparing
BCPs for ports is not straightforward, however, for people from the port community, which are normally a multi-stakeholder businesscolony with different business interests and no single governance. The integrated but a bit complicated risk analysis and appraisal
procedures required by ISO22301 are also other challenges. This study discusses and proposes a methodology, by focusing on theport logistics, for systematically preparing BCPs in line with ISO requirements under supports of computer aided human and machineinteractive working environment. Particular emphasis is placed on the practice to undertake BIA for improving quality of the business
continuity strategy.

2. ANALYSIS FOR PREPARING BCP AT PORTThe process to prepare port-BCP is illustrated by Caselli et al (2016) as shown in Figure 1.
Risk finding for port logistics

Policy development of Port BCP→Priority of port functions to be secured

Identifying and appraising risks.
→Risk mapping and positioning

BIA (Business impact analysis)

Selecting core port business

RA Risk Assessment

Deciding
MTPD

Identifying importantbusiness operations

Evaluation ofdamage of theport users

Deciding
RTO/RLO

Finding mobilized resources

eg. shut down andrecovery of port user
industries and otherrelated sectors.

Dependency of resources
Finding resource bottlenecks

Demand sideapproach

Supply side approach

Predicted resource recovery time (PRT)NO

Preparing risk
response planRe-evaluating
PRTeg. loss of power
supply, personnel,
port facilities andequipment, ICTsystems, offices.

Preparing possible recovery optionsof operational resources

Risk response plan

RTO≥PRT

Evaluatingfragility ofresources

Yes

Documentation of BCP(incl. institutional arrangement andaction programs)

Fig. 1: Analyzing procedures for preparing port BCP

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As a demand side approach of port services, BIA is employed to determine the maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPD) andrecovery time objective / recovery level objective (RTO/RLO), which are indices of clients’ least requirements and maximum patiencein terms of port service recovery after disasters. From a view point of port service supply side, RA is mobilized to evaluate predicted
recovery time / predicted recovery level (PRT/PRL) of port services. In a practical view point of BCP preparation, PRT is evaluatedan maximum time period for recovering availability of resources needed for port service in a reality basis. RA is a series of damages
estimation procedures of resources needed for port operations. Resiliencies of these resources are represented by PRT/PRL, which are
key indices for BCP preparation as stated above.
RTO and PRT are to be compared, and when PRT is shorter than the RTO provided PRL meets the required RLO, the clients are judged
to be satised. The PRT is longer than the RTO, however, counter measures for curtailing the PRT are to be considered to fulll theclients’ requirements. As such, BIA and RA is conducted as a main stream preparatory study of developing port BCPs to maintain theport clients.

3. BCP PREPARATION PRACTICES AND ISSUES
From the practical view point of undertaking BIA and RA, mobilizing workow analysis and worksheet techniques are found useful
because of its advantages of being rich in transparency, which facilitates the information sharing among administrative and business
entities concerned. (Kon, 2009; Komatsu et al., 2013; Ono et al., 2015)
Figure 2 is an example of work ow diagram prepared by the authors for BIA of container terminal operation in the port of Osaka, Japan.
The authors noted the work ow analysis signicantly encourage participations of port entities in the BCP preparation procedures andimplementation of business continuity management (BCM).
Entrance
permission/ report
Entry intoport
Shiparrival[1 hr.]

A1

Accesschannel Arrivalat theDock
Pilotage, wharf
Tug boat,

Berthallocation
Docking &mooring

Anchoringpermission
Anchoringoffshore
port
Ship
stowageplan
Loading &Unloading

A2

Anchoring
area

Clearance
permission/reportRelease &Undocking
Completion
Turning
A4Comple [2 hrs.]of mooring [8 hrs.]basin
A5 Departure-tion ofTug boat,
to theTerminalloading
Accesswharf,
next port
control/unloading channel,
Mooring line
system,Turning basin,
service,
Wharf,Wharf,
Berth window
Quay cranes,
Tug boat,management,
Cargo
Mooring line
handling
service,equipment,
BerthChesses,
window
Dock workers
Unloadedmanagement,
Tally men＊cargo＊
Cargo to ＊be loaded[1 hr.]

A3

Fig. 2: A work ow diagram of container terminal operation

On the other hand, the step-by-step working procedures and multi-layered structure of the worksheets leads to the excessive working
load of the staff in charge, therefore may result in the insufcient and uncompleted analysis works. In this view, the systematic BIA
and RA implementation worksheet system was introduced by providing 14 worksheet templates, which enable BIA and RA analysts
to undertake sufcient and complete analysis works by only transcribing data from the sheet to sheet, and adding necessary data andinformation as instructed.
A case study of a container terminal in a Japanese port undertaken by the authors, however, indicated that the terminal operation
required a variety of resources such as water and energy supply, workforces, various facilities and equipment, information systemservices, and ofce spaces. Actual number of these resources identied through the work ow analysis reached at 243 items, which areclassied into 61 resource categories. The authors noted that it is substantially impossible to process these bulky and duplicative databy humans. As such, developing computer aided system for preparing the above worksheets were considered vital to disseminate thesystem among port communities.

4. COMPUTER AIDED ANALYSIS SUPPORTING TOOLS
A computer aided system for developing BIA and RA work sheets is proposed by authors in order to enable port community to undertake
BCP preparation in a more efcient and effective manner. The system mobilizes VBA (Visual Basic for applications) embedded inMicrosoft Excel sheets, which automatizes data processing such as transcribing resources, removing the duplications and classifying
them, and identifying interdependency among the resources with less working burden on the BCP analysts in charge. The schematic
view of the system is as shown in Figure 3.
The system comprises three main stream worksheet les: ie. the les of “BIA”, “RA” and “Resource bottleneck evaluation”. Among292

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these mainstream les, BIA le are supported by three data processing les: ie. the les of “Resource collection sheet”, “Resourcedependency identication sheet” and “RLO resource mobilization judgement sheet”. These three supporting devices play respectively
important roles of: i) collecting resources from the work ow diagram of core port business, ii) identifying interdependency of theresources, and iii) selecting and deciding recovery levels of the resources on order to meet the required RLO of the port clients.

BusinessImpact Analysis file
List of business
Screening/selection
core business

List of business activities

operation resources

Worksheet1

Worksheet2

Worksheet3

Identified core business

Dependency matrix
Classification of business Dependency of business of business operation
operation resources
operation resources
resources

Worksheet4
作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ4

Deciding MTPD/ RTO/RLO

Necessary resources tomaintain RLOWorksheet7

Worksheet8
作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ8

Worksheet6

Worksheet5

作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ8

Identified business activities
Classified
resources

Business flow
analysis
Input resources
and control forbusiness activities

Identified
resources

Resource
dependencyon the otherresources

Resource collection
sheetsResource dependency
identification sheet(A)
Requiredrecoverylevel

Needed resources andtheir recovery level
for meeting clients’requirements

RLO resource mobilization
judgement sheets

List of resources and categories(B)
Risk Assessment file
List of RLO-specificresources

Evaluated resourceresiliency

Resource recovery
strategyWorksheet9

Worksheet10

Worksheet11
作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ8

Resource fragility
evaluation

作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ8

(B)

Resource bottleneck evaluation file Worksheet 14
Result of tracking
resource dependency

Identified resourcebottleneck

Worksheet12
作業ｼ ｰ ﾄ4

Worksheet13(A)List of bottleneck
resources
Resource
interdependency

Legend：：Manual data entry：Data transmission by link function：Data transmission by macro program

Fig. 3: BCP worksheet system assisted by Excel VBA macro

The system also equips learning capacity to store past worksheet data in the memory area for reducing data input efforts of BCP
analysts. Figure 4 illustrates an example of the Excel window view for resource collection, which comprises i) checkbox menu forcollecting resources based on the workow diagram, and ii) functions to automatically remove resource duplications and summarize
them into a corresponding cell.

Fig. 4: An Excel worksheet window for collecting port operation resources

Figure 5 shows a worksheet window for classifying 1st tier operation resources. The identied resources through business ow analysis
are classied into ve resource categories of i) outside supply, ii) human resource, iii) facility and equipment, iv) ICT and v) building
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SEE 7and ofce. Once the system including relevance data and information is established, only a few minutes is enough to complete theworks from collecting data on the business ow diagram to create the resource classication table as shown in Figure 5. As such,computer aided analysis system for preparing BCP is considered effective and speedy enough to be employed as a simulation tool toseek better strategy of removing resource bottlenecks and improving the port business continuity.

Fig. 5: A classification window for 1st tier operation resources

5. CONCLUSION
This paper rst reviewed the current issues in terms of preparing port-BCPs in Japan. Because of ISO required implementationof sophisticated BIA and RA for effectively improving port continuity capacity, developing port-BCPs are new challenge for port
community. In view of this, the authors discussed and proposed an analysis aid tool for assisting port experts in more systematicallyand efciently addressing port business procedures, reviewing operational resources and identifying bottlenecks of the resource
mobilization at disaster areas.
The computer aided analysis tool proposed in this paper involves VBA macro programs embedded in Microsoft Excel sheets, which,the authors expect, may ease preparatory analysis works undertaken by port communities. Since VBA macro programs are one of thesimple and popularized computer language, it is also expected the tool can be easily customized by the users for further mobilizing ina variety of analysis scene for improving BCP.

6. REFERENCES
Caselli, Felipe; Reyes, Mauricio; Beale, Mario; Akakura, Yasuhiro; Ono, Kenji (2016). Methodology and procedure of business impact
analysis for improving port logistics business continuity management, IDRiM Journal, Vol 6, No 1 (2016), pp.1-29.
Komatsu, Rumi; Hayashi, Haruo; Ohara, Masashi; Samejima, Ryuichi; Mitsuyasu; Tamase, Kouji; Kimura, Reo; Suzuki Shingo (2013).
Developing business continuity plan for water treatment facilities based on the business impact analysis and the risk assessment oftsunami caused by the theoretically maximum Nankai Trough Earthquake Through the case study at Osaka Municipal Waterworks
Bureau, Journal of Natural Disaster Science. JSNDS 32- 2, pp.183-205. (In Japanese).
Kon, Masakazu (2009). Manual for preparing practical BCP, Ohmsha. (In Japanese).
Ono, Kenji; Caselli, Felipe; Akakura, Yasuhiro (2015). Analysis Supporting Tools for Developing Business Continuity Plans,
Proceedings of 5th World Engineering Conference and Convention, World Federation of Engineering Organizations, Kyoto.

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