At SCM, we strive to measure true value added vs. the cost of our services. In the HAZMAT world, it's often what DOESN'T happen that creates customer satisfaction, but quantifying actions that prevent accidents or citations is a challenge. We took it on. Here are examples of our ongoing attempts to measure the value added we provide:

Manufacturing - Some of our manufacturing clients have chosen to fully outsource the management of their Health and Safety training and compliance requirements to SCM. This is similar to what many businesses have done with accounting and human resource services. As a result they are able to maintain expertise in all the areas that are necessary without having to pay for the maintenance of it all in-house.

• More consistent safety policies between sites which take into account industry best practices - By applying our experience accross many industries, solutions that ensure the desired results at the lowest overall costs are recommended and many are ultimately implemented.
• More ownership for safety within the plants' operations and maintenance groups - Armed with professionals who have vast experience in Health and Safety to train, provide written safety programs, audit, and consult them, the Operations and Maintenance groups understand that it is not somebody elses responsibility to implement these programs and ensure safety, but ultimately their own.
• Better relationship with emergency response agencies, municipalities, and the public - By having a 3rd party work with the plants to evaluate, improve, and implement programs, a higher level of credibility was created with each of these stakeholders. The reasons for this include the fact that we have former high ranking members of these stakeholders on our staff who can discuss the plants operations in their language and most of all because our reputation rests on the safety performance of our customers' facilities.

Construction - Many construction companies hire SCM to visit each of their job sites on some freequency to provide toolbox safety talks and to audit the work being done to make safety suggestions. While we are very familiar with what OSHA will look for if your site is visited, our finding such a safety issue is a learning experience and an opportunity to improve as opposed to a severe fine. Without trying to quantify the accidents that may have been avoided by these services, we can easily measure the amount of savings in workers compensation premiums as a result of improved safety performance since we started providing these services. An example of this is one of our clients who has enjoyed a savings of over $150,000 annually as a result of our monthly services that total less than $4,000 per month. This is an annual savings of over $100,000.

Building/Fire Code - Unfortunately, most customers do not think to involve SCM in these types of projects unless they encounter a situation where they do not think they can get a building approved without help. While we can certainly help at that point and the return on investment is large due to the urgency of the situation, we have also been able to help achieve significant savings with routine projects. Our staff has considerable experience in working with city planning, building and fire departments. By utilizing this experience in combination with our knowledge of building and fire codes, we are consistently able to both reduce the approval process time and the overall cost of the project. A recent example of this includes a client whom we were able to propose an alternate solution that would meet the building code while avoiding the installation of a $235,000 ventilation system that was planned. Our total service cost for this project was under $1000.

Legal - While in the legal world SCM plays an expert role in a larger team, over the years SCM has provided expert witness services for many cases (at both the state and the federal level) in varying situations with respect to the regulations. It is very routine for us to make findings and statements that reduce the clients' overall expense by millions of dollars. To date the largest return on investment for our clients in this area was a case that settled for $75 million less than the original claim as a result of our analysis of the situation with respect to the regulations. Our cost of services for this case totaled about $22,000.


Cost Savings

The outsourcing of regulatory training and compliance expertise for a facility can provide a tremendous cost benefit. Below is a calculation of the cost savings experienced by a client site with 50 employees. The savings are even larger for large sites or those sites whose operations are changing or growing rapidly.