“If you never do what you never did, you’ll never get what you never got.”  That is my paraphrase of an old saying.  In today’s business climate, we are trying hard to get the market share we used to, and also trying to get the new sales we never got.

We have had an “Innovation” program at Pro-Tec Equipment for almost 2 years, giving monthly incentives to employees for coming up with ideas.  So far we have had hundreds of suggestions, some better than others, to help improve either our product line or manufacturing processes.  This program has really helped keep everyone thinking about how we can be better at our product offering and fabricating procedures.

However, what we really need is you!  We like to think that we are pretty creative around here, but we know that almost all of the really good ideas come from the field.  ”Necessity is the mother of invention”, -can you tell i like old sayings- when contractors are faced with a problem, they figure it out.  If stone is being wasted for backfill, how about a Stone Saver.  If putting a trench shield together is awkward, how about lifting eyes in the knife edge.  If a slide rail panel is hard to reach, how about a panel pusher (P.I.T. Boss).  You get the picture.  Sometimes the contractor will tell us, but more often they will just cut and weld or discuss the issue with our dealer sales team.  In fact, sometimes in response to the contractor, the sales people will figure it out first.  We don’t care who figures it out, we just want to hear your concepts so we can build a better mouse trap.

So please, send us your ideas: large or small, simple or complex.  Just draw the idea up on the back of napkin, or even better, write it on the back of a hundred dollar bill and send it to Ron.  Just one more old saying that I stole from my uncle.  It has nothing to do with the above but I like to say it every day and I think you will agree, “even though we’re getting better looking, we’re not getting any younger.”