Through tabletop exercises, TSMC encourages participating staffs to proactively think about how to raise disaster prevention and response capabilities.
Through tabletop exercises, TSMC encourages participating staffs to proactively think about how to raise disaster prevention and response capabilities.
External experts assisted participating staffs to continuously improve planning of tabletop exercises in the effort to foster TSMC’s internal trainers in the future.

TSMC Pioneers the Introduction of an All-Hazard Approach to Enhance Disaster Management

Eddy Liu
Tsung-Ta Tang

Through the implementation of "Business Continuity Management Policy," TSMC has further refined its disaster prevention capabilities and created values for its stakeholders. In 2020, TSMC took lead in the industry to introduce the "All-Hazard” approach recommended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct disaster prevention exercises. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, TSMC added to disaster prevention training in an effort to minimize the risks of group infections that may arise as a result of . The inclusion of tabletop exercises also aids in the verification of full-scale exercise procedures to make disaster response more comprehensive, thus effectively mitigating the impact of various types of disasters on business continuity in the future. As of October 2020, 75 sessions of tabletop exercises have been completed in addition to 195 full-scale exercises.

Comparison between All-Hazard Approach and Conventional Disaster Response Management

Implementing Business Continuity Management Standards and Tabletop Exercise to Strengthen Disaster Resilience

In response to the frequent occurrence of due to global extreme weather events, the conventional disaster emergency response mechanism for singular events is no longer sufficient. TSMC followed up on the implementation of full-scale compound disaster exercises in 2019, working with domestic and foreign emergency response experts to formulate all-hazard management plans. Through the introduction of , the identification of various potential disaster risks is now standardized, and various disaster prevention mechanisms are re-examined and consolidated under the new standard. At the same time, the inclusion of tabletop exercises, such as verification of quantitative data and simulation of all possible disaster scenarios, enhances the non-technical exercise items in the full-scale exercises, and raises the company's capacity to respond to various types of disasters.

Repeated Verification of Tabletop and Full-Scale Exercises

TSMC leads the domestic industry in the implementation of all-hazard approach to disaster management. The extensive tabletop exercises not only reinforce the original disaster response measures and enhance the efficiency of exercises but also promote closer collaboration among all participating teams. This is a very important part of enterprise risk management.

- Dr. Fuh-Yuan Shih, Director of Emergency Medical Operations Training Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare at TSMC

Disaster management requires full communication between fire departments and enterprises. TSMC and Hsinchu City/County Fire Department held a joint tabletop exercise, setting an important milestone to maximum the protection of the firefighter safety.

- Chin-Hung Lin, Chairman of King Safety Management Consulting Company

Leveraging Modularized Disaster Scenarios to Enhance Emergency Response Exercises

To make disaster prevention exercise procedures consistent across all TSMC sites, the Company established a database of standard procedures that can be accessed by all TSMC sites in Taiwan. Disasters are divided into four categories based on "complexity of disaster" and "understanding of disaster.” The scope of disaster management is expected to expand under this modularized system in 2021. In the future, emergency responders can combine different types of disaster events to conduct exercises according to the needs of each site and also enter new scenario modules into the database after exercises to make disaster responses more comprehensive and complete.

Modularization of Disaster Response Scenarios

In accordance to the all-hazard management plan, TSMC intends to complete 90 sessions of tabletop exercise in 2020, and further increase the number to 250 in 2021. After the verification of full-scale exercise procedures in the second quarter, all future disaster response exercises shall follow the updated procedures to strengthen the existing emergency response system. Various disaster prevention and mitigation measures are to be prepared in advance to reduce the ratio of unknown risks and enhance disaster prevention and preparedness.

TSMC’s All-Hazard Management Plan and Implementation Process