Disaster Preparedness During Inclement Weather

Hurricane season is underway in Houston, Texas—home of Smith’s global headquarters—and the surrounding region. The area has experienced multiple, widespread power outages in recent weeks after a derecho tore through the city in mid-May and Hurricane Beryl followed in early July. Smith’s multifaceted contingency plan ensures that our facilities can continue to operate through inclement weather and the subsequent recovery periods.

As we move through this hurricane season, Smith continues to take the proper measures to ensure inventory protection and continuous productivity across all departments. The first step in this process is maintaining open lines of communication with our employees and supply chain partners.

“We make sure to be as transparent as possible with our users,” said Mike Mercado, Chief Information Security Officer at Smith. “We strive to maintain a highly available system that is robust enough to withstand disruptive events, such as inclement weather, and have redundancies in place to keep our business running around the clock, enabling us to continue providing excellent support to our global customer base.”

By maintaining a regular planning and testing cadence, Smith can ensure that everything will work as expected when the emergency system needs to be implemented. This process was tested and validated as part of our ISO/IEC 27001 certification earlier this year.

“With our global presence, Smith stays connected with every customer at every moment,” said Phyllis Tsu, Chief information Officer at Smith. “The information and expertise we share with customers are based on our decades of industry experience and historical data, and this knowledge system is securely maintained and continuously upgraded and improved for our customers’ benefit.”

Additionally, our Operations team has established comprehensive processes and procedures to protect the products in our facilities, ensuring high-value assets are safeguarded to prevent potential damage. When necessary, Smith can also divert critical shipments to other warehouses around the globe and mobilize teams to those locations to process orders and continue the flow of our business operations.

“Disruptions are inevitable and come in many forms and severity,” said Art Figueroa, Chief Operating Officer at Smith. “It is important for us to remain proactive and respond in a timely and decisive manner in these scenarios. We can mobilize quickly and assess dire situations. Due to the unreliability of the Texas power grid, we have established contingency plans to make sure we are still operating as close to full capacity as possible. As demonstrated through our responses during and after the most recent weather events, our disaster-preparedness plan ensures the efficiency of our production and keeps us prepared for the next possible scenario.”

Regardless of the situation, Smith remains proactive and prepared so that our products, our people, and our processes are properly safeguarded through any disruption.

Keep an eye out here on our Market Blog and our LinkedIn page for more industry news and analysis.