The Elevator Consultants has offered up strategic best practices for owners with elevators in their buildings. This is in response to several elevator and escalator-related incidents nationwide.
Some elevator best strategic practices
Following incidents such as Chicago’s Hancock Building elevator plunging 84 floors in November 2018, a Texas hospital employee being seriously injured in an elevator accident, and the housekeeper who was trapped for three days in a Manhattan elevator, The Elevator Consultants offers three key strategies. These strategies help building owners ensure elevator maintenance and safety.
Reevaluate Your Elevator Service Contract
You may be shocked to learn just how often buildings are being charged for services they are not receiving. This includes premature modernizations, parts not available, unnecessary repairs, and redundant service calls and break/fix maintenance.
The lesson learned here is that regular inspections are not enough. They do not ensure your equipment is maintained to industry standards. Building owners and managers have to actually enforce their service contracts and ensure necessary maintenance is being done.
Include KPIs and Accountability Measures in Your Elevator Contract
Buildings implement a number of policies and SOPs to dictate their use. This includes owners’ rules and regulations, insurance requirements, and building safety regulations. It is relatively easy to include elevator service provider requirements in these policies.
The building should also instate an elevator service contract. This contract should include terms and conditions that align with the building and its operational needs. That contract should have key performance indicators and service level agreement terms. These hold the elevator service provider accountable for errors and gaps in service.
Keep Detailed Records
Buildings can monitor service providers manually. But why do this when the advancements in technology have made it so much easier? Technologies like ElevatorApp, our elevator monitoring software, can automate the process of identifying and resolving issues with much more efficiency than manual methods. Moreover, the building owner then owns the data. This data has detailed information about all aspects of your equipment, including a detailed onsite service and repair record and all history—even if you change service providers.
Many owners work with an elevator consultant. This ensures correct interpretation of data, fast resolution of problems, and protection of your capital assets—elevators and escalators.