Outage Season approaches!!!

[Justin T. Wittwer]

On the eve of starting to stage our first boiler of the season I have had to do what most sales reps. do when the work starts....go on vacation. Just kidding but I am going on vacation. I have had to review my bid, break it down one way then another, then yet another. Reverse engineering percentages is tricky. As i have reviewed it time and time again I can see why our clients wince in pain ever time the get a scaffold bill. This stuff aint cheap, when were done there isn't anything left except some pictures and a unit that run properly (as long as our brothers in the Boilermakers shop have done well.) With that in mind I would like to challenge all of us to give them more than their moneys worth. I think we need to remind them that some people think they can do what we do, but there is a reason we are professional scaffold builders. Safer, better and faster. I think should be our production model.

I think we all need to fight the urge to think we have all the answers and make sure we do. I am of the opinion that, even as professional scaffold builders, we need to lean hard on those people who have the degrees and can do the math. I think that when we are faced with a question that I am not sure of the answer to, my first instinct is to dazzle them with big terms like "modulus of elasticity" and fake my way through it. I used to think engineers were a bunch of geeks that couldn't get a date for the prom. As I have progressed in the industry, and as some of my false bravado has worn off with age, I have learned they are an invaluable resource when doing something that looks good on paper. While I can't speak for most of them, I have developed a great working relationship with my Regional Engineer. (This is the upside of working for a large worldwide corporation) I rely heavily on Dale for drawings and insight into what our equipment can do. He has become a major part of how I approach projects that are outside my skill set. He can look at some of my wild ideas and tell me just how far fetched they are, or how to make them work. If you don't work for a company that has it's own engineering department, i would be willing to bet they have an engineer that they use on a regular basis that would be more than happy to take a call about what ever wild idea you have. The key is to remember to ask if you don't know, or can't prove it. the latter of that statement becomes the tricky part. Remember OSHA's take on everything, "if you can't prove it, it didn't happen. Before I get off my rant on engineers, if you do end up in a jam and need a quick scaffold solution there is a guy in Denver, named Dave Galabe, and he is more than qualified to help you through even the stickiest scaffold situation. He writes some great article on scaffold, scaffold building and OSHA compliance for the SIA. If you don't get their magazine, I will try to post a link, but I think you may have to be a member to get it, you should ask your company if they are members and get a look at it. I am going to try and figure out how to post his articles here, because he gave me permission, but I am much better at swinging a hammer that figuring out computer stuff. I will work on that in the days to come but in the meantime, use the people around you, your boss, his boss, your engineering department and even this site. If you are doing something you are unsure of, post it here and see how someone else got around it. If you need an immediate answer send me an e-mail at [e-mail] and I will send out site wide request. Remember that we are all in this together and there is a wealth of knowledge in our membership.

Stay Up, Stay Safe, Stay Connected,

JW

[mike cisneros]

Thats funny to hear you talk that way. the Juston I knew back in the day knew it all already :-)