site stats
Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to the Crisis Management Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit.

This board is for the discussion of all things involving corporate crisis management: strategies, best practices, crisis plans, mock disasters, media training, etc. It is also a place to follow and discuss current crises in the news, and the news media itself. This is a forum about preparing for and managing media crises, and a place to review, critique and discuss how real crises are being managed, or not managed.

This is a forum not only for communications professionals, students and educators, but for anyone who has found that the ability to manage crises is an important part of their job.

Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Explosion at Indiana Furniture; How small companies handle crises?
Topic Started: Jan 13 2009, 05:03 PM (803 Views)
WGCI Jan 13 2009, 05:03 PM Post #1
Member Avatar
Administrator
 Crisis don't always happen to large companies. Sometimes a crisis hits a small, seemingly low-risk, company just as hard, as was the case with the 60 employee company, Indiana Furniture, last Friday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28582948/

For someone who likely had no media training, crisis plan, nor public relations department to fall back on, company president, Rich Slayton, did a good job and actually got one message across.

Unfortunately, early on the company could not be reached for comment by the AP, and the Fire Chief and hospital spokeswoman did most of the communicating.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=6594801

On Monday, an email was sent out to furniture dealers letting them know how this would affect their ability to deliver product.

Quote:
 

January 12, 2009

To Indiana Furniture Dealer Partners,

Indiana Furniture experienced an accident at our Flat Line Assembly facility in Jasper on Friday, January 9. Our first concern is our employees and their safety. We are fortunate and pleased no one was seriously injured. Two people sustained injuries, but all involved were treated and released by Friday afternoon.

The incident involved an explosion and fire resulting in damage to the facility and dust collecting equipment. Over the weekend damage was assessed and work began immediately to get the plant up and running. The facility is structurally sound and the extent of the damage is minimal. The fire was contained mainly to the dust collection system on the exterior of the building and a portion of the finish room.

Our Flat Line Assembly plant (aka FLA plant) produces the product lines which have our UV finish also known as UV Advantage. They include Centennial, Revolutions, Madera and Promise. Because the UV finishing process allows these products to pass strict indoor air quality standards they are all Greenguard certified. We also produce conferencing products in this facility utilizing a different process. These are not Greenguard products but are affected by the temporary shutdown of the facility. The accident only affected one facility. Our production continued on Friday at our other four manufacturing plants. Products unaffected by this situation are our seating products, our laminate products including Derive, Lakeport, Fulton and Resilience. The Dubois assembly and finish plant is running as normal. The product produced there includes Arlington, Wilmington, Jefferson from our traditional offering and Encompass, Impel, and Allegiance contemporary product.

The purpose of this letter is to first ask for your patience as we work through the process of getting our plant back in operation. Second, we want to give you as much information about the products immediately affected for your business planning. You may have orders in house that will need to be discussed. We also realize the selling process in our industry requires extended planning and we want you to be aware of the options we can offer in the short term.

If you have an order in house that includes product from our FLA plant, we will be contacting you with options. The first is to have the product produced at our Dubois facility utilizing our Catalyzed Varnish finish process. This is the same finish used in our seating process. If the project requires the UV finish and/or Greenguard certification, we will have the option of waiting for the finish to again be available from our FLA facility. Other options from outsourced finishers may also be available and are being investigated. By Thursday, January 15th we will have a fairly clear understanding of when the facility will be able to run finished product. At this point it would not be prudent to estimate a date but we are confident it will not extend past the first quarter of 2009.

Situations like this bring unique opportunities. It has been a trying but inspiring few days. We have experienced incredible support and effort from our employees, suppliers, reps, friends, neighbors and even competition who offered whatever service they could to make our transition back to full operation a success. We will do everything we can to meet the expectations of you and your clients. Our commitment to service is higher than ever and our ability for you to Rely on Us is intact. Thank you again in advance
for your patience and we look forward to serving you in the future.


Best Regards,

Mike Blessinger
Vice President, Sales and Marketing


All and all there were some mistakes, but it is a lot better than one might expect from a 60 employee company.

This all does beg the question, what should the smaller companies do to prepare themselves for a crises? Media training, crisis plans, and a public relations department are not luxuries all companies can afford.



Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply