Business Viewpoint: Security is the Biggest Economic Savings
Differential Feed, Versatility, Speed and Efficiency, Threading and Tension Zhejiang Lejiang Machine Co., Ltd. , https://www.cnlejiang.com
The explosion at the Shuangbang Plant of Jilin Petrochemical Company once again brought to light a painful truth: safety is not just a priority—it's the greatest investment. Isn't it?
When such a disaster strikes, the costs are immense. Evacuating tens of thousands of residents requires significant financial resources. Firefighting efforts and post-accident recovery demand even more. Whether the burden falls on the government or the company, these expenses are unplanned and often devastating. For workers at the plant, this meant months of belt-tightening and sacrifice.
Everyone knows that safety matters. But attitudes toward it vary widely. Some see efficiency as the real measure of success, something that must be strictly followed. Safety, on the other hand, is often treated as a soft goal—something that can be overlooked or handled with minimal effort. Others believe that even if you take safety seriously, accidents might still happen. This mindset leads to a "show for inspections" approach—where safety measures are only tightened when someone is watching.
But safety isn’t about passing an inspection. It’s about protecting lives, preventing disasters, and avoiding long-term consequences. Once an accident occurs, the damage done can never be fully compensated by any gains made before.
As the saying goes, "A storm begins with a single gust of wind." Major accidents usually stem from small, ignored risks. If we don’t act early, what starts as a tiny problem can grow into a catastrophe. A small hole in an ant hill can be easily filled with soil, but once the dam breaks, it takes enormous resources to fix the damage.
Ignoring safety is not just negligence—it’s the biggest waste of all. In terms of safety management, we need to think long-term and calculate the true cost. Short-term savings may look good, but they often lead to far greater losses down the line.
We must learn to think beyond immediate results and understand that true economic sense lies in investing in safety today to avoid costly mistakes tomorrow.