Page 78 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company
P. 78
CH05pp048-059 4/10/02 12:49 PM Page 56
56 Serious Incident Prevention
January 11, 1944
Dearest Wife,
Last night in one of my pre-dream reveries I was dreaming of an idea
that was designed to revolutionize the strip steel industry. However, with
the dawn of an English day the idea began to look like a drunkard’s
dream (and me a teetotaler) and I have at last cast it away to the winds
having first memorized the faults of the idea. I hesitate to mention the
idea for fear of being scoffed at but since Firestone and Edison were both
successful inventors and attributed their successes to the counsel of their
wives I am going to briefly outline the idea to you. It had to do with the
rolling and thinning of steel as it is done on a four high Steckle Mill of
the type used at our plant. I wondered if it weren’t possible to weld a sec-
tion of the sheet of steel to itself so that the strip instead of having to be
run through several times could be run to the desired degree of thinness
by one continual passing.
I love you
Frank
anniversary, the contents of Corporal Elliot’s letters, written during the
months preceding his landing on Omaha Beach, were released. In one let-
ter, Frank communicates his personal thoughts on improving the steel mill
that provided his peacetime employment. Corporal Elliot’s active interest in
improving his employer’s work process, despite the stresses of preparing for
the imminent invasion, is a testimony to the dedication and resourcefulness
of workers in a free enterprise system. 12
Management must ensure that the Charles Rosses and Frank Elliots of
their organization are involved, nurtured, and given responsibility. A safe
and prosperous workplace is a vision that can be sustained as reality
through the involvement of each and every employee.