Applying Functional Resonance Analysis Method to Strengthen Resilience in the Norwegian Customs Infrastructure

Accelerated globalization, climate change, and armed conflicts generate emerging security challenges at borders for the Norwegian custom administration (CA) authorities. CA has a critical role in governing management efforts to mitigate threats related to their social mission. Nevertheless, besides daily operational challenges, dealing with some events may go beyond the standard procedures and propagates over multiple interconnected functions delivered by other governmental agencies such as police- and health department. Managing such complexities in a CA's operational context requires a holistic management system capable of addressing uncertainties and interconnectivity between involved agencies. In this regard, resilience-based thinking, and its design in the system under study has been acknowledged to be promising for dealing with dynamicity and managing risk proactively. This study applies concepts and approaches from the resilience engineering field and explores the Norwegian Customs' ability to colocate and coordinate with other government responding agencies at the border. We examine the interoperability between involved agencies in joint operations through the lens of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). Our findings support the advantages of FRAM in studying a system's attributes. We conclude by outlining recommendations for strengthening resilience in the Norwegian customs border facilities such as a holistic approach to risk management, emergency planning and training for cooperation and co-location and proposing further research endeavors.

Keywords: FRAM, Complex systems, Resilience, Border facilities, Interoperability, Co-location, Interagency, Cooperation.

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