Jack Noble, retired from his job as Safety Manager in the construction industry and decided to put his years of safety knowledge to use by inventing products that help with safety on the job. His newest invention, the CordControl System, came about because of the massive amount of cords lying around on job sites – a trip hazard waiting to happen, a real cause for concern on the job.

These trip hazards weren’t just responsible for employees ‘tripping,’ they posed a dangerous threat to employees who could trip and fall.

Safety should be upper-most in everyone’s minds everyday. The CordControl System is a great tool to help promote Safety on the job.

It’s More Than Just Construction Or Factories!

There is a tendency in the workplace to think of OSHA rules and regulations as mostly pertaining to construction or industrial workplaces.  In fact, according to OSHA “With the exception of agricultural, domestic, and mining work, all permanent places of employment are subject to the OSHA standards for walking and working surfaces.”

All workers, OSHA puts forward, are entitled to working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm.  Further, according to OSHA, “Slip, trips, and falls constitute the majority of general accidents,” causing “…15% of all accidental deaths…second only to motor vehicles as a cause of fatalities.”

Highlighting the fact that managers in all places of work need to be cognizant of the need to identify and address hazards is an interesting statistic reported by the American Federation of Teacher’s Health and Safety Program.    

As reported by the AFT, a recent OSHA funded study reports that,, “Janitors and cleaners; elementary school teachers; teacher assistants; and secondary school teachers have the highest incidents of reported STFs, (Slips, Trips, and Falls)” among all industry groups.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  According to NIOSH, “Slip, Trip and Fall hazards can occur in virtually every type of workplace.” 

NIOSH lists “Tripping Hazards:  Clutter, Loose Cords, etc.” as being among the ten most common workplace hazards explaining that,  “Contaminants on the floor, walking surface irregularities, and tripping hazards such as clutter, cords or hoses, on walking surfaces lead to most STF injuries in the workplace.”

www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2013-100/pdfs/2013-100.pdf

Nifty Tools LLC is dedicated to working with employers to improve workplace safety.  Why not contact us for more information on how Nifty’s CordControl System can help you:

·      Enhance Workplace Safety;

·      Optimize Productivity;

·      Improve Profitability and;

·      Maximize YOUR Competiveness;

There are times when it is both practically and financially advantageous for contractors on a job to make their own extension cords.  According to OSHA’s website the practice is acceptable but, with conditions.

A contractor wishing to take advantage of the ability to make and use their own extension cords needs to go to extra lengths to assure everything possible is done to assure the cords do not result in harm to anyone on the worksite.  A job made cord may be superior in nearly every way to a purchased cord but if it is associated with a workplace injury there will likely be extra scrutiny of the cord.

The Nifty Tools’ CordControl System can help demonstrate the care you’ve taken to assure a safe workplace.

First, care should be taken with all extension cords to assure the integrity of the cord near the plug in is preserved whether the cord is purchased commercially or us made on site.  A CordControl unit utilized at or near the electrical source relieves strain on the connection between the plug and the source helping to make sure cords last longer and, are less likely to fail.

Construction's "Fatal Four"

According to OSHA, the Federal Government’s agency charged with safety in the workplace, “…one in five worker deaths last year were in construction.”

In 2013, four categories of hazards accounted for nearly 60% of those deaths.  OSHA has dubbed those categories “Construction’s Fatal Four.”

The Fatal Four were:

·       Falls — 294 out of 796 total deaths in construction in CY 2013 (36.9%)

·       Struck by Object — 82 (10.3%)

·       Electrocutions — 71 (8.9%)

·       Caught-in/between — 21 (2.6%)

Nifty Tools’ latest product, the CordControl System addresses both the first and the third leading causes of death in the industry; the CordControl System is “Safety Simplified.”

Workplace safety is, of course, vital in helping assure employees are not harmed as they work but, it is also a financial issue.  A contractor can save thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars a year by making sure a safe workplace is provided for valued employees.

Why not look into the financial benefits the CordControl System can provide your firm by helping to reduce injuries; or worse?

When Jack Noble, creator of the CordControl System and other innovative products for the construction industry speaks about job safety, important people listen; over a 32-year career in the construction industry, Jack’s resume includes work on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of major projects for large corporations including positions as:

Site Safety Supervisor for Greenberry Industrial;
Site Safety Supervisor for Dawson Construction;
Site Safety Supervisor for Mills Electric;
Site Safety Supervisor for Fluor/Alcoa;
Safety Director for Archer Construction;
Night Safety Manager for TTI Constructors on the Sea-Tac Third Runway Embankment project;
Site Safety Manager for The Austin Company - Development Center at Ft Lewis;
Contract Safety Manger for Boeing Construction Management Group;
Site Safety Manager For Baugh Construction for the Intel Facility in Dupont, Washington;
Site Safety For Haskell Construction - Capital Project for Texaco 

Throughout his career Jack has understood that job safety is not a stand alone endeavor; job safety is an integral part of a competitive company’s efforts to improve productivity while still enhancing profitability; the firm that’s able to be productive by reducing accidents and down time will achieve profitability more readily than a less committed firm can; The bidder demonstrating excellence in its approach to safety is more likely to come out on top in a competitive bidding situation, all other things being equal, than the bidder with a less robust record.

As his career as a respected safety expert progressed, Jack also came to realize that some of the tools available to even the best construction firms were not up to the tasks he thought ought to be demanded of them.  Those tools did not address fully safety, competitiveness, productivity and, profitability; all attributes tool designers should strive for.  

To address the need for better tools, Jack began to tinker with a variety of approaches to tooling able to live up to standards Jack thought should be demanded of them. Jack’s early work resulted in a singular product designed to vastly improve job site safety, productivity, and profitability in excavation and other site prep projects.  Regulatory agencies as well as construction professionals have since come to value the tool because it is not only “state of the art;” it has the characteristics of enhancing job safety, competitiveness, productivity and, profitability.

Early success with the research and development of new tools and their acceptance by the industry led Jack to found Nifty Tools, LLC as a way to bring additional, innovative new products to the marketplace.

The CordControl System is the first product researched, developed and, brought to the marketplace by the new firm.

According to Jack the CordControl System features an approach he intends to bring to every Nifty tool; “Each product I develop,” he explains, “Is created to not only optimize on the job safety but also to increase productivity by allowing construction professionals to accomplish their jobs more quickly and easily and that means both profitability and competitiveness are enhanced.”