Safety Professionals are students.  The same process that takes place when one is learning a language or testing scientific theory must be followed when one is analyzing the workplace for potential hazards.

 
What does it mean to study?  To start, it means to apply the mind towards a subject with the hopes of mastering every intricate detail about it.  This is not a task for the lazy, preoccupied, or disinterested.  It requires a bending of the mind away from potential distractions to focus upon a singular aim:  the knowing of its subject.  Students seek to feel and know deeply what they see.  Required in this endeavor are discipline, time, and energy, which do not disappoint the learner because, upon understanding, the student is equipped to act upon that which is learned.

 
As a Safety Professional, you must be a student of the following:

 

Norbert Ore, chairman of the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing business survey committee, went on record last week saying, "The U.S. manufacturing sector is improving but it will probably take another three months to get it back into growth territory".
 
This should be good news for the country's economy and especially for companies in the logistics business, but is it true? The jury may still be out on this matter, but hopes are running high across America. The bottom line is when manufacturing goes up, companies become more stable and jobs are created.
 
Logisticsmgmt.com recently reported an interview with Ore where he spoke more specifically of his opinion on what he called "a strengthening economy". In the interview Ore was quoted saying, "The worst of the worst is over. Everything is moving in the right direction."
 
To substantiate his claims, Ore noted the "Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose two percentage points to 44.8 percent in June, according to the report. Production and prices both rose sharpest of all, by 6.5 points each. Even employment, which traditionally lags behind everything else, rose 6.4 percentage points to 40.7 percent". 
 
"Ore also noted good news in inventories. Raw materials inventories continued to drop, this time by 2.1 percentage points to 30.8 percent, while customers' finished goods inventories also went down, by 2.5 points, to 43.5 percent. Dropping inventories has been one of the first and strongest signs of recovery, as it shows companies are depleting their inventories by making and selling products, which leads to new orders". 
 
In the same article was the statistic that seven out of eighteen industries reported growth in June. These industries were Petroleum and Coal Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Wood Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Chemical Products; and Primary Metals.
 
You may read the full article and interview here , but as for Ore's predictions, we'll all just have to hope, pray, and wait to see what the future will hold.