Document gLdMv19zvDjJyzwEqKx2Y1vJ

accidents would crowd in on us --people would be hart, injured, would have their health damaged, because no one was on the spot representing top authority to take a personal interest in this phase of the work--a phase ail too easy to abandon in meeting of the need of o war-time schedule. We made a radical change in the organization set-up of our safety program. Previously it had been part and parcel of manu facturer reporting to the top oper ating executive. With the decen tralization of operations and with the emphasis on centralization of services--safety and accident pre vention, industrial hygiene, em ploye health--were grouped to gether .under the Personnel or Industrial Relations Department. How could we, in making such a move, still carry the prestige of top management blessing to oar safety work? It was decided to give it a try by putting it in the top reaches of our Industrial Re lations Department. Unfortunately it fell to me to head the program. I say unfor tunately because, in spite of the fact of my engineering back ground--ond ten years octual ex perience at that time with the Company, I was not a safety mon.. I was not even a qualified inspec tor. There was only one way to bridge that gap. The safety pro gram, while normally under the direction of the industrial Rela tions Department, was given a direct channel to top manage ment, to the President of the Corporation, so he saw a safety problem without delay. An in spector's report or a recommenda tion from the 'State of Pennsyl vania, or a suggestion by the insurance company would not be road-blocked, but could if acces sory travel freely and effectively right to the top of our Company. On the other hand, by being tied in with the rest of our personnel program, we hod on open door into every nook and cranny of the organization, in spite of war-time security limitations, in spite of accounting niceties which tend to put things in little pockets and not allow a free interchange of information between activities. Under a Service Department, which affected everyone, through top management and every branch of the organization, and with the channel clear to the operating executive for the Company as a whole, we started oat. That sounds fine. That's the paper program. But what happened is what counts. The credit for the success of that operation goes to the men in the field, particularly to Jim Lawler, our Area Safety Engineer in Pennsylvania. The success of our program stemmed, not from the top or the bottom, but from an intelligent, experi enced, effective inspection, fol low-up and guidance program, through the hands and mind of our Area Safety Engineer. The problem we faced was a terrific one. We had new prod ucts; we began to make metal parts for ourselves; we started In the wire business because wire was a critical material and we could not buy it. We made com plicated mechanical equipment, 15 i- m