Have a Safe Day

Howdy from Texas and this is my second post of the New Year!  Y2K + 15.  It's been fifteen years since the horror and disasters and near disasters of Y2K!

"Have a Safe Day".  I sometimes get a quizzical look from others when I bade them "Have a Safe Day" instead of "Have a Good Day" or some other friendly parting comment.

Why "Have a Safe Day".  When I started at Texas Foundries, AKA Citation Lufkin, the most important training I received during my new employee training were the safety courses.  Safety was a mantra and was not just a "passing thought".  A metalcasting operation is an inherently dangerous working environment.  However, the uninitiated would be led to believe that the biggest safety concern and issue was the liquid metal.  In reality, and I recently had the opportunity to confirm this with a metalcasting insurance agent, that the majority of the accidents and fatalities, yes, you can die at work, are related to forklifts and not wearing PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, especially eye shields when in the grinding and finishing areas.

Texas Foundries and the employees were proud of the safety record and worked very hard to maintain a safe and secure work environment.  We achieved, if I recall correctly, four million man hours without a lost time accident.  The company gave away nice "gifts", some that I still have today like flashlights, coolers, etc. for reaching certain milestones and anytime there was a huge milestone, the company catered a huge catfish fry that was all you could eat.

Unfortunately there were lapses of judgment and the lack of management supervision during the course of my tenure there and metalcasters went to work in the morning, but never returned home.  Forklift races in the early hours of the morning are never acceptable.

Thus, safety is instilled into the very fiber of my being.  It's a "bonafide" that I as well as the other Synchro ERP team members know metalcasting and can assist your facility in running efficiently and productively and most importantly profitability.  You don't gain this kind of knowledge without having experience it in the real world in the bowels of the foundry where profit and loss is decided on a daily basis.

I make sales visits to metalcasters.  I travel with my own PPE of hardhat, earplugs, and safety glasses, with the exception of the heavy and bulky metatarsals.   Oh sure, this is a "sales tactic" in some respects with my name and company logo on the hard hat,  but I want to make it crystal clear to the metalcaster that I am visiting that I know metalcasting and appreciate safety.  When I was at the foundry, it always impressed us when contractors or consultants showed up with their own PPE.  It gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling that they knew what it was all about.  I had the pleasure of "busting" a group of our corporate folks for being in the foundry working without any PPE.  I had asked them in advance to bring their own safety equipment and metatarsals as they were going to be in a very dangerous area of the plant, the shipping dock.  They paid no heed to it, but after the safety manager lectured them and how they might "blow" our four million man hours and get hurt or even killed, they paid attention.

I was reminded of safety not long ago when a friend of mine from the foundry were with others and were walking through a door way at a store.  The entry floor mat was curled up.  Funny, at the same time both of us bent down to straighten it, it was just automatic.  We didn't have to say anything to each other, we just did it naturally.  Another person with us asked "why did you do that, it's not your job to do that"?  We both answered in unison, SAFETY IS EVERYONE's RESPONSIBILITY!

Until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen

Synchro ERP

Head of North American Operations