Reminders of the things that make for loss-control success come from the most unexpected places. On March 8, the Wall Street Journal printed an article: U.S. shoe factory finds supplies are Achilles' heel.

Here is the slightly edited, key quote: What killed his U.S. factory isn't just competition from Asia's cheap labor, he says. It is the lack of infrastructure needed to make a factory tick ... Finding technicians to fly in on short notice to fix shoe machines was a constant and growing challenge ... because the number of U.S. companies that make and service machines has dwindled. The suppliers of shoelaces, leather and other basic materials insisted that he buy in batches far larger than made sense for a small-scale producer.

Key elements

It is a short step from this story to loss control. Just examine the infrastructure of loss control. Years ago Frank Byrd, then with the International Loss Control Institute, planted an idea that served well for organizing loss-control efforts. Frank emphasized the need for "program elements" to guide and control the effort to reduce losses. By 1978 he had metamorphosed his loss-control program elements into a rating system. Yes, a vigorous audit system is part of the infrastructure of loss control. He never minimized measuring what had been done, but his best ideas were always looking ahead at what remained to be done for continued improvement. How are you going to measure what you are going to do? The general program elements are the form, and the details are the reinforcing rods of the program.

My copy of the program elements to be evaluated has 20 elements. To make the audit work, there are points for scoring attached to each element to put them in perspective. Looking and scoring make the audit system work. Not all elements are equal.

Ratings system

As expected, leadership and administration has the highest point value and is the most important element of the program. The loss-control manager had better be spending a significant amount of productive, quality time with the most senior manager he can get to. "Significant amount of time" means all the time you can get to train and educate that manager. At the same time, the loss-control manager should be working to have the attention of the next highest senior manager. Senior managers, except those who have come up through manufacturing, know a whole lot less about injury and damage control than might be imagined.

The second-highest-rated element is management training. I would include management education. Education and training are not the same thing. Education answers the "why and how" questions. Training answers the "who, what, where and when" questions. Before you fret, employee training is included as No. 10. The leadership has to be the best informed and have the most informed guidance. The old line that the miner knows more about the job than anyone else is a blind alley cliché.

Program evaluation (audits) is No. 13, but task analysis and procedures is No. 4. It is imperative that the management knows and understands as completely as possible the demands it is going to make on the employees. Critical analysis of what is actually happening in the mine and what the miners are actually doing can be revealing and is loaded with positives to be complemented and negatives that will have to be rooted out.

The parallel between technicians that can fix a shoe machine, suppliers of shoelaces, leather and other materials and the activities or program elements for loss control is easy to see. One set keeps a shoe factory running whereas a complete set of well-tended program elements has the potential to extend lives and enhance property.