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
