Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/579895
26 PalletCentral • September-October 2015 palletcentral.com xperiencing a serious loss is something that no businessperson wants or expects. The fact is that serious losses will happen and business owners will have to face the urgent issues associated with the damage. The building and contents are gone, employees show up with nothing to do, customers are contacting you wondering about their order or shipment, some customers go elsewhere and your business operations have stopped. Unfortunately, this is a situation that is experienced all too often. The impact of seeing your business in this condition can be overwhelming. At a time like this, clear thinking might be difficult. The decisions made now will be the first steps in making your way back into business, and time is of the essence. How long before your suppliers are no longer willing to give you that priority treatment again? How long will creditors wait for payments due now? If this seems like a lot of unknowns, it is. The future and continued success of the business depends on how quickly you resolve these issues and return to "business as usual." Standing in the debris is not the time or place to make these decisions. The most effective way to make these decisions and prepare for this day is to pre-plan. The purpose of any pre-plan is to provide your business with a blueprint for actions to be taken should a severe loss occur. So it was during the NWPCA's Annual Leadership Conference in March where we discussed fires, property and casualty insurance, and how proactive plans for the wood packaging industry can be implemented. As a follow-up to our presentation, a Loss Control Guide (LCG) was compiled with more details and checklists than the space below allows us. A summarized version of the contents explains critical areas for your business such as Housekeeping, Electrical Preventive Maintenance and Machinery Preventive Maintenance; the full LCG can be found in NWPCA's Resource Center at PalletCentral.com. Business Interruption: Taking a Proactive Approach Guest Editorial by Greg Pianko and William Johnson MANUFACTURING E