Elf and safety

There was a program some years ago on the work at the Buxton plant and it was very impressive. Stuff like how much pressure will a glass coke bottle stand ? [ 225 psi ] What happens when a propane cylinder catches fire [ A relief valve vents off the gas as a big torch ] What happens if some Herbert bolts the relief valve shut [ big bang ]

But most impressive was what happens if this 45 gallon drum of chemical catches fire [ result massive fire ball that the cameras couldn't catch as they were too close. So experiment 2 with cameras about a mile away on a hill, light blue touch paper and retire. Ginormous fire ball about 300 foot into the air from this one drum.

The chemical ? just plain acetone which incidentally can be carried in or on trucks up to 20 odd tonnes at a time with no restriction.

Be nice to see this again or at least some clips from it.

John S.

It would have been nice...shame really. Well I guess there were one or two short clips in passing, about 1/2 way into the hour, but it was pretty unexciting stuff.

I'm afraid I couldn't hold my nerve long enough to watch it all the way through - decided that I would have had to gnaw my own arm off to survive...

Regards, Tony

I was amused when the consultant counted at least ten people not using the pedestrian crossing in the supermarket car park. His view seemed to be that those people obviously needed protecting from themselves.

On the same lines was the guy with his one man garage. The woman was mortified that there was nothing she could do to protect him from himself.

John

Yep...I'm afraid watching him was the very worst kind of white knuckle ride. The sequence where he was teaching the window framers how to lift a box safely was particularly difficult to watch. I am, however, eternally grateful to him for pointing out just how dangerous the humble acorn can be...

Regards, Tony

I liked how the 'consultant' charged £400 a day !!!! I wonder how much he was paid to show folk how to pick up a small, light box, 10 minutes work and off again. Couldn't someone at the firm have done that and saved themselves money?? How about the time where he went into very great detail of how to wipe water off the kitchen floor, the water he gently 'spilt' on the floor himself. Or how not to locate a 'hidden' bread knife in a bowl of soapy water? He must be real pain to live with, being very pedantic, but at least his wife looked contented with him. Sad bit about the donkey rides though. Dave.

himself.

water?

..ah ... you miss the crucial point about consultants (and I speak as one who was one once). Management call in consultants usually to implement change - in this case a method of work. If it works they take the credit for having the nouce to use consultants, but more importantly, if it doen't work they have someone other than themselves to blame!

AWEM

Andrew

You're getting out of touch with modern management. Management Consultants don't actually tell you anything new. However paying heavily for advice gives it a certain gravitas and stops all the squabbling around the boardroom table.

Charles

Hmmm...I know that is regularly given out as a justification, but actually, most managers are wise to that approach these days. They have mostly figured out that a consultant is just "any ordinary guy that is more than 50 miles from home". So they figure that if one of their colleauges uses a consultant, then it is basically just a tactic to shut them up.

Regards, Tony

I wish I could get my company's bloody management to stop listening to IT consultants and start listening to us chaps that do the IT. It'd save us tens of millions of pounds and lessen the risk of us getting beaten up by angry users :-|

Mark Rand RTFM

I recall one bunch of consultants brought in by management a few years ago. Their detailed assessment took all of 15 seconds - the time it took to walk through one door to the workshop, a brief glance at a few of us drinking tea and discussing a problem, and then he walked straight out the other door.

Three *months* later the report got delivered to management. 20% cuts across the board said their report The experienced old farts left with a healthy voluntary redundancy payout, management then repeated the cuts at two year intervals until the company went down the pan completely.

In the meantime the same consultants had wrecked a few other companies with their standard "20% cuts is the answer to all your problems" But then in a stroke of luck the consultants went to the wall - pity it wasn't at dawn whilst they were wearing blindfolds.