Well said sir! Congratulations! Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 20, 2013, at 8:04 AM, 321 <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
