 |
|
|
|
|
11/01/2006
Chairman’s Message
It’s nice to hear reports that most companies are flush with work. Many NATE members are so busy that they are having a tough time returning new calls.
This sounds like a good time to pause for a minute and reflect. “What’s that you’re saying? ‘Stop and reflect,’ are you nuts?”
Yes, take a minute. Look at all for which you have to be thankful. A full backlog. Crews hustling from one project to the next. Long hours at the office trying to keep track of the costs. Yes. This is a good time to reflect. This is what owners hope for when they first get started or when a seasoned professional tries to look ahead to the coming year.
For seasoned folks, this is old hat. For new owners, these can be stressful times. What both know or will come to know is this: this is when you plan for expansion or see the time when some adjustments are needed (read that: cutbacks). Ours can be a seasonal business. The reflection I’m urging is taking the time to review your safety performance.
Take the time to look at your incident reports or near miss history. Is there something to be learned? Is there a trend that jumps out at you when you put these down on one sheet of paper or look at them with rested eyes?
Many times seemingly unrelated incidents all of a sudden start to connect the dots in the form of a trend. Sometimes the facts are at your fingertips and you just don’t see until one of two things happens: you either have a personal injury incident; or you sit down with a clean sheet of paper and really look at your operation from a safety point of view; and that’s when it may jump out at you.
Those of you fortunate enough to not have had a serious incident may not understand what I’m trying to tell you. I know many such companies that have not had a serious incident and they still take time to look back and reflect. They scour their records, find bad trends and stop them before something happens.
Those of you who have survived a serious incident can sometimes point to an unsafe trend that was right under your nose, but you didn’t see. You must do all you can to ferret out a trend that might be building somewhere in your statistical data. It’s not always easy to find problems before they occur. Sometimes there is no trend, just an accident.
This year has been a trying one for our industry. When we read about the type of accidents that have happened this year, there were trends everywhere. Someone didn’t notice and now men won’t go home tonight to their loved ones.
I urge you to take time now, when you have the least amount of discretionary time, to look at your safety performance for the year. You may be surprised. You may be able to stop something before it changes from a bad trend to an incident.
Don Doty is Vice President of Doty Moore Tower Services LLC of Cedar Hill, Texas and can be reached at 215-631-1302 or Don.Doty@StainlessLLC.com.
Don Doty
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
