32 replies to this topic

[mthornton]

We tend to think of our lifts like airplanes. The prospect of having them quit working while in the middle of doing their job is completely unacceptable.

Downtime for Pano was nil last year, a combination of hard-work (pm) & a bit of good luck. I'm not gloating here, but for last season, it looks like our maintenance program was effective insofar as minimizing downtime.

When we do have a lift problem which interferes with operation, we strive to understand the underlying reasons behind the problem, and take corrective actions so the same problem will not recurr. Sure we do what the manufacturer tells us, but we also do more than that. And once we bocome aware of a problem on lift-A, we make sure that we don't have a similar problem on lifts-BCD

When Mr. lift electrical refers to lifts with suffer from lack of manufacturer support, are you referring to a manufacturer still in business? Lack of parts availability?

M

[Bogong]

That's incredible mthornton, no downtime on a lift for an entire ski season.

What is your strategy for coping with older lifts with wonky electricals, or do you replace the wiring every few years?

[lift_electrical]

mthornton, on Jun 1 2009, 04:40 AM, said:

When Mr. lift electrical refers to lifts with suffer from lack of manufacturer support, are you referring to a manufacturer still in business? Lack of parts availability?

M

No Mitch, I think what I meant was here in the States with Doppelmayr/CTEC having lost several employees from the two companies coming together, differences in lift philosophy's and equipment to achieve their goals and new or existing employees trying to fill the void of departed employees has lead to several instances of lack of support.

Not pointing fingers to the Doppelmayr/CTEC employees. I would just like to see these issues internal to Doppelmayr finish getting resolved and move on.

That being said, we as the end user need to straighten out things on our end too. Like paying our debt to Doppelmayr.

[Kicking Horse]

Let me ask you this;

What defines Downtime? Is it whenever a fault happens or when the lift has to be closed for a short while to repair a problem?

[lift_electrical]

Kicking Horse, on Jun 1 2009, 10:35 AM, said:

Let me ask you this;

What defines Downtime? Is it whenever a fault happens or when the lift has to be closed for a short while to repair a problem?

Downtime to me is when a lift is scheduled to be open and it is not running during that scheduled time. The downtime is broken up into weather, mechanical, electrical and operations (fallen skier, operator issue, food on the lift, etc.).

I would prefer that our lifts were using the printer function to record the stops over the course of the day instead of relying on the operators to interpret and document these occurrences. This can also be said about the maintenance personnel and logging the mechanical and electrical downtime.

The real difficulty for us is taking the information, compiling that information and coming up with a number that truly reflects the efficiency of our transportation.

[Lift Kid]

I know this is way off topic, but I understand that the printer function prints out all of the stops. Where are those printers located? I've always wondered if they are at the lifts or if they're in the shop or somewhere else. Also, does it print it out in a long, never-ending spread sheet, or one page for each stop? What types of printers are common for this function?

Sorry, it's a geeky question, but I am curious to know how all of that works!

[lift_electrical]

Printers are located in the drive station control panel. The schemes I am familiar with print the stop, the time of the stop and time the fault was reset. It has been a while so I don't remember models of printers but as I remember, simple HP ink jets were the choice.

Another reason for the printers are at load test you can print the brake curves for future reference or if your system allows, save these to memory to compare load test to actual and then make your brake adjustments.

A downside of either using the printer or operator documented stops is gathering the paperwork, having someone interpret and enter that information. Time consuming and subject to interpretation errors.

[Kicking Horse]

The best solution here is to have the Lift manf come up with software that puts each stop in a catorgry and then allow them to print it OR send it over wifi / network to the lift operations office and or lift maintaince. I think it would be great if the Lift techs can have a remote view of the lift's status in the shop. It would save a lot of hassle trying to explain what the fault is when the lift is down. On the Poma lifts since the computer is running windows you could tie it into the resort's network and have a computer in the shop with either VersaView some other remote desktop viewer.

[mthornton]

lift_electrical, on Jun 1 2009, 01:53 PM, said:

Downtime to me is when a lift is scheduled to be open and it is not running during that scheduled time. The downtime is broken up into weather, mechanical, electrical and operations (fallen skier, operator issue, food on the lift, etc.).

Downtime is when a lift is not running because it's broken... a mechanical or electrical failure.

We do not include an operation related issue (fallen skier, operator issue, food on the lift, etc) as downtime. that is simply part of the lift operation.
A lift operator unable to restart the lift due to inadequate training... ya, it happens to us, but that still falls under the category of an operational stop... not downtime.
Pano didn't have any notable weather last winter (wish we did)

We did have several instances of operational delays due to procedure (lift maint must attend following a grip-force fault/alarm, or a drive-fault.

[mikest2]

mthornton, on Jun 1 2009, 06:55 PM, said:

Downtime is when a lift is not running because it's broken... a mechanical or electrical failure.

We do not include an operation related issue (fallen skier, operator issue, food on the lift, etc) as downtime. that is simply part of the lift operation.
A lift operator unable to restart the lift due to inadequate training... ya, it happens to us, but that still falls under the category of an operational stop... not downtime.
Pano didn't have any notable weather last winter (wish we did)

We did have several instances of operational delays due to procedure (lift maint must attend following a grip-force fault/alarm, or a drive-fault.

Nice job Mitch

......Mike

[mthornton]

Bogong, on Jun 1 2009, 08:20 AM, said:

That's incredible mthornton, no downtime on a lift for an entire ski season.

Yup, No downtime on all lifts last season.
Pano is a big mountain with a small operation, 5 Dopp chairlifts ranging from 1974-2003, a small gondola, and a few surface lifts. We have a lift maintenance staff made up of old-farts that know their lifts inside-out. Out of a LM staff of 6, 3 guys on our crew have been doing LM for 30+ years each... we have a new young guy only been at it for 15 yrs or so. We sit around & bitch about each other. Our teeth are starting to smell bad.

Quote

What is your strategy for coping with older lifts with wonky electricals, or do you replace the wiring every few years?

Over time, anything electrical or electronic that might possibly be "wonky" has been dealt with difinitavely. Removing electrical wonkyness is kind of my thing, and over time I've developed a very deliberate method of ensuring the electrical maintenance is comprehensive & meaningful. Maybe I should post it in detail under a new thread in the technical section. But right now I feel like brushing my teeth & having some warm milk before I go to bed.

[Bogong]

Thanks mthornton.
I know people who have worked on the old 1979 "Grimus" Doppelmayr triple chair at Mt Buller. No matter what they did, it always broke down, probably as much as the other 25 lifts at the resort put together. Over the Australian summer they ripped out every electrical thing and replaced the lot.

It opens for the season this Saturday, so it will be interesting to see if it still breaks down regularly.

[lift_electrical]

When we tally the time totals at the end of the year, the operational stuff is not in that total. I do like it noted in the log book because we seem to stop our lifts for varying reasons that might not be needed. I also like it logged because we seem to use the wrong stops (ie: e-stops) in the wrong situations.

I don't have any teeth, everybody around here loves each other so I will wash my arse and have another beer!

Great job with the zero downtime Mitch!