Does your organization need to muck out the llama dung?

By Debbie Dickinson

Randy Bakel, Executive Director of the Southeastern Construction Owners & Associates Roundtable (SCOAR), recently shared a story that reminded me of the importance of performing safety and productivity audits. During the Feb. 2 Program Meeting, held in Orlando, Fla., Bakel shared this story about outdated military specifications.

In the early 1940s, so the story goes, The U.S. Army wanted a dependable supply of llama dung, as required for treating the leather used in airplane seats. Submarine attacks made shipping from South America unreliable, so the Army attempted to establish a herd of llamas in New Jersey. Only after the attempt failed did anyone question the specification.

Subsequent research revealed that the U.S. Army had copied British Army specs dating back to Great Britain’s colonial expansion. The original specification applied to saddle leather needed by the Calvary. Apparently the leather smell made untrained horses skittish. Treating the saddle leather with llama dung imparted an odor that calmed the horses. The treatment, therefore, became part of the specification for the leather, which remained unchanged for a century.

Safety and productivity audits help companies work safer and smarter by identifying gaps in skills and knowledge. The tendency is to keep doing what we always do. Audits provide managers with an opportunity to step back and assess potential improvements. While, engineers may need to question the rationale behind specifications, safety managers, supervisors, and trainers, may need to make sure training is not just compliance based. Crane Industry Services designs audits to help employers develop industry best practices that result in selecting workers with the right skills for industry specific job tasks.

“Sometimes we get so good at solving problems that we forget to ask if the problem has been posed correctly. On your next project, make sure you know the reasoning behind the specs. If the reason given is ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it,’ watch out for llama dung,” said Bakel.

The next SCOAR meeting is May 8-10, 2017 in Longboat Key, Fla.