Guidelines for Supply Chain Aspects of Business Continuity Training Course (ISO/TS 22318:2015)

Most organizations rely, to a lesser or greater extent upon suppliers who, in turn, rely upon suppliers themselves. This is the concept of supply chain and organizations, in addition to managing the risks of disruption of their own business processes, should also manage the risks of supply chain failure. The growth of modern concepts such as sole supplier and ‘just in time’ can mean that some organizations are critically reliant upon their suppliers and their suppliers’ suppliers and so on. 

The technical specification ISO/TS 22318:2015 Societal security - business continuity management systems guidelines for supply chain continuity - provides guidance on managing these risks including key sections on supply chain analysis, strategies for managing supply chain risks and managing supply chain disruption.

The additional guidance focuses on the supply chain aspects of business continuity, for which the core management system standard is ISO 22301:2019.  ISO 22301 focuses primarily on internal business processes and the resulting products and services.

ISO 22318 provides additional guidance for organizations that are more dependent upon their supply chains, especially for supplies that form part of a product or service delivered by the organization. A technical specification is not a full standard; its purpose is to amplify the established standards. Typically, the required processes will be integrated into a business continuity management system (BCMS) which meets the requirements of ISO 22301:2019 Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Requirements.