The other day I had the chance to participate in a webinar organized by BOMA Toronto with the focus on elevating devices, specifically Maintenance Control Programs (MCP). A great presentation was done by Andy Wells of KJA Elevator Consultants, who I had the pleasure to work with on helping one of our former clients on dealing with some issues they encounter with their elevator company.
Andy gave a brief description of the Technical Standards and Safety Act, 2000 and the Ontario Regulation 209/01 with the following highlights important to building owners (condominium corporations in our case) and managers:
Maintenance Contract to be in place.
Equipment to be maintained by licensed, registered and qualified personnel.
Owner and Contractor to maintain up-to-date logbooks. (5 yrs)
The owner shall not operate without a licence.
No person shall operate or permit operation if unsafe.
Owner to provide safe access to the device (walkways, railings etc. )
In the second part of the presentation, Andy did a refresher on the Maintenance Control Program. The norm prior to the introduction of MCPs was that all maintenance is recorded in logs and owner's manuals identifying systems that require inspections. Now, in a nutshell, and according to KJA, the MCP is "a more comprehensive “manual” that is specific to each particular elevating device in the building". The MCP should include:
periodic maintenance tasks required by the OEM
service request procedures
device-unique procedures (i.e. a remote governor test, hydraulic pressure test, etc)
annual safety tests
In case you wish to read more about the MCP here is a link to a more detailed description on KJA's website.
Conclusion on Owner Best Practices...very simple, GET INVOLVED. How to get involved in the maintenance of your elevators? Here are a few tips:
Read and understand your elevator service agreement. Highlight the key points: term, major testing, task frequencies etc.
Engage a 3rd party consultant to assist with contractor compliance, equipment condition, capital planning.
Hold frequent contractor meetings.
Visual inspections of the machine room logbooks.
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