I’m sure Imperial Sugar thought cutting back on housekeeping costs was the fiscally responsible thing to do. I have no doubt that the managers at Imperial were clueless to the fact that cutting this corner would cause the death of 14 employees and injury of 40 more.
It is easy to overlook facility services in manufacturing because cleaning is often viewed as merely cosmetic but the Imperial Sugar tragedy proves that there is often a hidden danger in tightening your belt.

“inadequate housekeeping practices allowed highly combustible sugar dust and granulated sugar to build up throughout the refinery’s packing buildings.”
And continued…
“Imperial’s management as well as the managers at the Port Wentworth refinery did not take effective actions over many years to control dust explosion hazards – even as smaller fires and explosions continued to occur at their plants and other sugar facilities around the country,”

When all is said and done this entirely preventable tragedy will cost the company over 200 million dollars; every penny of which could have been saved by insisting on basic facility services and dust control

Megan Erickson of cnn money published an excellent piece about the plight and turn around of small businesses with outside backing.  In the piece Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Obsidian Launch explained how his $250,000 sba backed loan caused the near collapse of his first business because the financial cushion caused the organization to circumvent best practices. While Michalowcz’s business was far removed from our labor-intensive facility services industry what he arrived at is a lesson all building services contractors should take to heart.

“My explanation to myself was that if I had a lot of employees and a beautiful car, people would know I was successful and want to do business with me,” he says. “Once I was out of cash, I had to get back to doing business the right way: servicing clients well and working hard.”
Michalowicz ditched the expensive furniture and renegotiated his rent. In three years he had paid back his loan and sold the company for six figures.
Easy money can kill a business l CNNMoney

There aren’t many venture capitalists lined up to throw big backing to a building services contractor nor is there the type of push for innovation that fuels grants. As building services contractors we are forced to secure capital via loans or self-finance, this may be a blessing in disguise. With a market of 40,000 competitors nationwide there isn’t an opportunity that can be missed and in such a labor intensive market we can never lose sight of our goals and forget that exceptional service and hard work is what will allow us to rise to the top.