Editor's View: Making Do—Safely - Columns

Everywhere I turn, I’m hearing more about economic pressures forcing people and businesses to cut back. Many are saying that it’s time to return to the thrifty lifestyles of those who survived the Great Depression. This reminds me of my grandmother, who was known for saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

She was a smart woman, and this is a smart philosophy. It can be applied to everything from small personal items to a fleet of heavy iron. As you assess not only your fleet but also the overall financial health of your business, consider how to apply this strategy to make your cash stretch a little bit further.

A thorough evaluation around the office and the jobsite might reveal a few practices that could be tightened up to reduce expenses and run your company a little more frugally. In other words, it sounds like it’s time to use up the box of old office stationery instead of throwing it out.

Just one caution: As you search for ways to cut costs and scale back, don’t skimp on safety. I recently had a conversation with Ron Koons, a safety consultant who co-owns RoSaKo Safety with his wife, Sandee. RoSaKo is known as a premier consulting firm in construction safety. As part of his job, Koons travels the country conducting safety seminars and assessing jobsite safety.

Koons says he often sees hazardous situations with smaller contractors “who are using old equipment that should have been retired 10 years ago.”

He mentioned one jobsite where a large machine’s ladder is broken. “The ladder’s been broken for three months straight. The [operator] has to pull himself up four or five feet to get in the cab. It’s a minor thing, but it can become a major problem if the guy falls off or has an injury.”

Koons added, “It would take a welder maybe an hour to fix the ladder.”

Thriftiness is no excuse for negligence, especially when the construction industry experiences the highest occupational fatalities in America (see “Industry Dirt” on page 8). So, as you trim, cut, skimp, save and stretch, make safety your No. 1 priority.