Return on Investment

This week, the Bay Area team is working in a lab at a major life science company not too far from the San Andreas Fault.

There are hundreds of such companies all over the area, many of which suffered significant damage in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.  We're using the Safe-T-Proof Fastening System, putting safety straps on analyzers, centrifuges, HPLC's and all sorts of lab equipment.  There was one piece in one of the labs I hadn't seen before, so out of curiosity I looked up it's value on the internet.  A new one of these machines costs $175,000.  That got me to thinking.

Certainly not all items we are securing cost this much, and some probably cost a bit more, but overall we are securing around 300 items for under $10,000.  When you stop to consider the cost of securing items versus the cost of the items themselves, and then look at the addtiional cost to companies of lost research and down time after an earthquake, it's amazing to me that securing items isn't a standard operating procedure, and part of planning and setting up of new spaces, in ALL lab environments.

Yet in this lab the motivation for doing the work was not the enormous potential return on investment.  When I asked the department head why she was getting the work done when so few others do, she replied:  "I care about my crew.  I don't want anything to happen to them in an earthquake, and I have to be able to sleep at night."

Now THAT's a good return on investment!