This past Tuesday, July 16th, marks the 40th anniversary of my employment in the Fire Sprinkler Business.
On that first day, July 16th, 1973, I walked into "Automatic" Sprinkler's Birmingham, Al office and sat on the stool in front of a drawing board with a parallel bar. My new boss, Melvin Smith, came over and shook my hand and said "Welcome to the Fire Sprinkler business...let's get you started." I looked around at the other drawing boards in the office and the plans that they were working on and thought to my self "Look at all the detail on those plans...wonder what all of that is?". It wasn't long before I found out. I look back on the changes that we have seen in the last 40 years in this business. Welded Cross Mains and Grooved Fittings, Thin Wall Pipe, Mechanical Tees, Grid Systems, Computer Hydraulics, (remember Alan Johnson's first Wang set up in the '70's), Horizontal Sidewall Heads, CPVC Pipe, Residential Heads and Systems, CAD, ESFR and High Challenge Heads, and on and on...I tell the younger guys that work for me that when I first started we had 3: different sprinklers: Upright, Pendent and Sidewall. Now I think there are in excess of 250 different heads listed on Reliable and Tyco's head charts. Some times I get told that I am an "Antique" and my methods aren't applicable to today's world...but it all still works. I tell my salesmen...give me a preliminary, you have to know what you sold because if you don't it only gets worse from your desk to the field. I tell my designers...Put tie down dimensions on EVERYTHING...they argue that "but boss...it's CAD...it doesn't matter. I send them out to work a week in the field laying out the garbage they drew and that usually cures the dimension issue. I tell every one in the building..."It's all about the POJ (Pipe on Job) date...that's the schedule nucleus...be the first trade in" The same principals apply today that applied 40 years ago. I learned from At Bateman to write the proposal before preparing the estimate. I thought he was crazy but it makes perfect sense. I learned from Chuck Hura that if you have backlog you can manage it to become profitable...but with no backlog...you can't even cover your fixed cost. Today...we face new challenges that we never dreamed of 40 years ago. Microbial Induced Corrosion and spontaneous failure of CPVC Pipe and Fittings. An economy that has been on it's back struggling for the past 6~7 years with business failures that would have seemed impossible a generation ago. Yet with all of the challenges, the Fire Sprinkler Industry has become a serious force in the world. Forty years ago we were only involved in a job if an insurance company mandated it...now we are in every building code that there is. Looking back on this I reflect and ponder my future and how much longer I will stay with this. My wife asked me "Well you've put 40 years into it...what know?" I replied well...I've had a good run for the past 40 years...I guess I'll stick with this "Sprinkler Gig"..it's been good to me so far!! John W. Farabee Vice President Bass United Fire and Security Pompano Beach, Fl 561-707-5150 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
