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Webinar

Managing Campus Elevators: A Smarter Way to Take Control

What You'll Learn:

  • Protect your campus from costly maintenance contract gaps
  • Plan modernization before aging equipment disrupts daily operations
  • Strengthen elevator oversight with a proactive, long-term strategy

Transcript

 

Read full webinar transcript

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Sara Korolevich: Welcome everyone. Thanks for joining.

 

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Sara Korolevich: We're going to get started in about a minute. We'll let everybody join.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Hang tight.

 

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Sara Korolevich: We'll get started in a minute.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay, let's get started.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Welcome everyone to VDA's webinar, Managing Campus Elevators, A Smarter Way to Take Control.

 

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Sara Korolevich: My name is Sarah Krolovich. I lead content and campaigns here at BDA, and I'm based in Phoenix.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thanks again for joining us today, wherever you're joining us from across the United States. If you want to put in the chat where you're at.

 

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Sara Korolevich: maybe what university or college campus you're coming. You're joining us from. I know a lot of you are Vda clients. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.

 

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Sara Korolevich: For those of you who may not be familiar with VDA, we're a vertical transportation consulting firm serving clients across the US.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Canada, and the UK. We help with elevator and escalator design for new construction and modernization projects for existing buildings, and we also provide inspection services to help teams stay in compliance with local codes and regulations.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Programs like this webinar are meant to help building owners and facilities teams manage their elevator portfolios, from understanding maintenance contracts to planning for modernization.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Alright.

 

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Sara Korolevich: I'm gonna go through, some housekeeping items really quickly.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Please use the Zoom chat for comments, reactions, and links. You'll find some resources there, too, from our team.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Use the Zoom Q&A box at the bottom of your screen to submit any questions. We will have a live session at the end of the presentation with our presenters.

 

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Sara Korolevich: If you want to use the live transcript button, click the CC button to enable closed captioning.

 

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Sara Korolevich: And just a reminder that yes, we will be sharing the recording of the presentation along with the slides after the webinar. You'll find those in your email.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Disclaimer, the information provided during this webinar is for general educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute professional or legal advice. Attendees are encouraged to consult with a qualified professional regarding their specific situation before taking any action based on the information presented.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Alright, let's meet our presenters.

 

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Sara Korolevich: We have with us today Michael Burns.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Michael Burns has been with VDA for a year, about a year, and has more than 18 years in the elevator industry. As one of our business development managers, he works with higher ed and healthcare clients nationally.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Mike Nolan has been with VDA for 14 years and has more than 40 years in the elevator industry. As a vertical transportation consultant based in Miami, he works with clients in health care, college and universities, and hotel industries.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thank you for being our presenters today, Michael and Mike.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right, here's what we're going to go over today, our agenda. We're going to take a look at elevators and why they're such a critical campus infrastructure.

 

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Sara Korolevich: A look at understanding maintenance contracts.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Knowing when modernization is the right move.

 

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Sara Korolevich: building a proactive oversight strategy. And then, as I mentioned, closing with a live Q&A session.

 

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Sara Korolevich: First, we want to start off with a quick poll.

 

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Sara Korolevich: If you wouldn't mind getting that started for us, Tommy.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right. What is your biggest challenge with campus elevators right now?

 

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Sara Korolevich: Managing maintenance issues and callbacks.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Planning for modernization or aging equipment.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Understanding contract terms and service expectations.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Staying compliant with codes and accessibility requirements.

 

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Sara Korolevich: or securing budget or leadership buy-in.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Give you a few seconds here to.

 

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Sara Korolevich: answer that poll, and I'll share the results with you.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Alright. Few more seconds. It looks like

 

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Sara Korolevich: Definitely planning for modernization or aging equipment is in the lead, followed by managing maintenance issues and callbacks.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right, if everybody's had a chance to vote, I'm going to go ahead and end the poll.

 

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Sara Korolevich: and share the results here.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Yes, planning for modernization or aging equipment, that is something we're going to touch on. Mike Nolan will share some information about that, as well as managing maintenance issues and callback. All right, I'm glad you all are joining us here for the webinar.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Let's see.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right. I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Michael Burns.

 

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Sara Korolevich: who's going to talk a little bit about recognizing elevators as critical campus infrastructure. Michael.

 

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Michael Burns: All right, good morning, good evening, or excuse me, good afternoon, everyone.

 

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Michael Burns: I'm really excited to be here today and just wanted to thank everyone for joining today. I thought it'd be just a great way to kick off the webinar by talking about how critical elevators are to campus infrastructure and overall campus operations, as you all are aware, and probably one of the main reasons why you're on today's call.

 

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Michael Burns: Also wanted to start out by just how unique universities and higher ed facilities are.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, most of the campuses have dozens, if not hundreds of buildings that make up the campus.

 

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Michael Burns: They're also extremely diverse as well. You know, certainly you have classrooms and resident halls, but you also have dining courts. You know, if you have an athletic department, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of sporting events throughout the year. You know, certainly a lot of social activities, alumni events, as well as, you know, potential for, for medical research facilities as well.

 

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Michael Burns: So certainly very unique and very diverse.

 

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Michael Burns: These are also extremely high traffic environments. You know, there's a lot of people that are in and out of these buildings on a daily basis.

 

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Michael Burns: And having operating and reliable elevator infrastructure is just so critical to the overall campus operations.

 

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Michael Burns: you know. Certainly accessibility and Ada is of the utmost importance.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, the people that rely on, you know, services as well as the elevators to get, you know, in and out of a building and being able to access, you know, different floors within the property is so, so important.

 

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Michael Burns: And really wanted to mention just campus experience as a whole, you know, for whoever's on the campus at any given time, whether it's students or people visiting.

 

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Michael Burns: or even the staff and faculty, you know, I think the basic expectations a lot of time is that, you know, in the summertime, that the air conditioner is working properly, or, you know, when it's cold out, that the heating is working.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, students these days, I would imagine that they're wanting access to

 

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Michael Burns: reliable Wi-Fi services. And I think, you know, elevators are also in that bucket where, you know, when everything on the campus is operating as intended, I think it's just generally a positive experience for those that are on the campus.

 

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Michael Burns: you know. Lastly, building security. You know, we understand a lot of the elevator systems are tied into the the building security and providing secure access to

 

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Michael Burns: you know, a lot of the resident halls or the medical labs, and just the important role that elevators have in, you know, that secure asset or access, as well as just a general safety aspect for these buildings. We can go to next slide.

 

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Michael Burns: Alright, so shifting gears, you know, when, you know, you guys know when things go wrong, you know, there's a high cost of downtime. So when there's elevator issues, or maybe repeat calls, you know, unplanned downtime.

 

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Michael Burns: It really causes a lot of disruption for the overall campus operations. I was lucky to attend the Elevator U Conference recently in Quincy, Illinois, and sat through a lot of presentations as well as was able to interact with a lot of the facility leaders that handle

 

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Michael Burns: you know, small campuses and large campuses across the country. And, you know, it's amazing that a single elevator that's out of service or, you know, a single elevator that's outage can really cause a lot of disruptions for the campus operation.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, these are extremely busy buildings. There's a lot going on, throughout the day. You know, certainly you have classes.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, majority of the time there's construction projects going on, you know, cleaning services, there's daily deliveries, and it really creates a lot of bottleneck when the elevator is out of service. You know, it diverts a lot of the resources away from planned work as well.

 

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Michael Burns: And, you know, unexpected costs and emergency premiums. You know, I like to think, you know, if you have a campus building, maybe there's one elevator in the building, or maybe there's just a critical unit within that space.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, a lot of times you're going to be approving for overtime callbacks to try to get the elevator running as quickly as possible.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, maybe, again, if it's a critical unit, you're gonna have the repair team complete the work on overtime, so you're gonna be incurring additional costs for that.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, certainly you're going to be expediting the components as best you can. And, you know, these unexpected costs and premiums, they really impact your overall annual budget as well.

 

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Michael Burns: and student experience. I kind of talked about this on the last slide with the you know, the campus experience. But you know, students are paying

 

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Michael Burns: a lot of money for their education, and, you know, when the HVAC system's not working, when the elevator isn't working, they're taking the stairs.

 

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Michael Burns: I think it truly impacts the overall perception that the students have of the campus. You know, certainly if there's delays in classroom, like I mentioned, if they're, you know, having to access the building on a daily basis.

 

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Michael Burns: through the stairwell. If they have accessibility challenges, I think it just causes a lot of frustration and really impacts their overall perception of the campus.

 

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Michael Burns: And lastly, safety and liability. You know, when you're dealing with elevator issues and, you know, callbacks, certainly there's always an increased risk for passenger entrapments as well. And, you know, it's the potential to lead to legal claims, as well as units that are left down for,

 

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Michael Burns: a longer period of time, you've got risk of fines or even violations, as a result of that. So I'll now pass it to Sarah.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thank you, Michael. Thanks, Michael. All right, we're going to keep going. I'm gonna pass it over to Mike Nolan, who's gonna talk a little bit about understanding your elevator maintenance contracts. Mike?

 

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Mike Nolan: hello everybody I'm Mike Nolan nice to be with you all and joining us on this webinar I've been in obviously the elevator industry for a long time 40 years and been with VDA for 14 I'm also a third generation guy so

 

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Mike Nolan: Family's been in elevators forever. Anyway, I want to talk a little bit about maintenance contracts.

 

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Mike Nolan: Oem contracts, which is, you know, equipment, original equipment manufacturers, or I prefer to call elevator main, contractor agreements.

 

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Mike Nolan: You know.

 

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Mike Nolan: I don't want to see most people do the actual elevator contractors contracts because it protects them more than it does the client, which is you guys.

 

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Mike Nolan: And, you know, the obsolete language is excluded from contracts. Parts are very limited to what they're going to cover under your contracts.

 

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Mike Nolan: Now I'm.

 

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Mike Nolan: Obsolescence, obviously, is an issue, which we'll talk a little bit more about that later. The legal terms, there's a lot of stuff that gets involved, and like.

 

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Mike Nolan: during a maintenance, OEM maintenance agreement, a lot of times, something's not covered, and they're going to give you a proposal to fix it, because it wasn't covered under the contract. The margins on repair is astronomical, sometimes 40, 60, and 80% margins on these proposals.

 

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Mike Nolan: Now, consultant full maintenance agreement, that's a little bit different. If like VDA was to do the maintenance agreement, we would protect you on everything throughout the whole thing. What parts are being covered, you know, whether it be machines, generators, door equipment, all that stuff will be typically covered under maintenance contract.

 

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Mike Nolan: We also talk about service calls, how long, what they're supposed to be doing maintenance-wise, monthly, typically.

 

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Mike Nolan: in a VDA language, we would have them do one hour a month for strictly hydraulic, two hours a month for per traction elevator, and then we can follow what they're doing throughout the maintenance contract to protect you guys. Response times are critical.

 

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Mike Nolan: elevator companies

 

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Mike Nolan: talk about periodic, maintenance in their contracts. We're telling them, no, your response times need to be… or your, maintenance needs to be done monthly, and… and so many hours per elevator.

 

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Mike Nolan: And response times are critical, so our language in that document will also tell them they gotta be here. If a car goes down, they gotta be here in an hour, hour and a half.

 

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Mike Nolan: Two hours on weekend, depending upon your situation.

 

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Mike Nolan: But that's pretty much how maintenance contracts are.

 

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Mike Nolan: My… obviously, my opinion is go consultant. It's gonna protect you at some point.

 

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Mike Nolan: Next slide.

 

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Mike Nolan: Five common provisions that put you at risk. Okay. Contracts. Typical OEM contract.

 

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Mike Nolan: Since a 3-year or 5-year contract, it… you look at the deadline, a lot of times they have that language in there that says rollover, which means if you're not paying attention 30, 60, 90 days, depending on what the language says, it can automatically rollover for an additional 5 years, and sometimes you don't even know what happened.

 

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Mike Nolan: So that language would be removed if we decide to help you with it.

 

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Mike Nolan: Frequencies, maintenance, periodic.

 

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Mike Nolan: Again, periodic means, in my opinion, whenever they feel like it. There's no way to determine.

 

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Mike Nolan: If your elevators are…

 

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Mike Nolan: Being maintained without going and doing evaluations to find out. But most of these contracts have periodic or systematic maintenance.

 

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Mike Nolan: Service calls, response times. Again, we want to know

 

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Mike Nolan: When they're going to be on the job, if you get a car shut down, it needs to be repaired immediately.

 

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Mike Nolan: Parts, coverage, storage… That's another thing.

 

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Mike Nolan: A lot of times the elevator companies don't have the parts there. They're going to say they're going to fix them, but it could take a week, two weeks, three weeks to get parts

 

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Mike Nolan: We typically would like to see parts, your average parts, like door equipment, cart rollers, pickup rollers, stuff that doors, because doors on an elevator are probably 80% of your shutdowns because they're not being maintained. But to have the parts there will just help it get fixed quicker. Typically, that doesn't happen.

 

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Mike Nolan: Next slide.

 

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Mike Nolan: Okay, understanding obsolescence.

 

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Mike Nolan: So… Obsolescence is, is, is, has been a tough category lately because.

 

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Mike Nolan: The OEMs who make majority of the elevator equipment in the world, typically a life cycle of an elevator before it needs to be considered for modernization is 20, 25 years.

 

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Mike Nolan: And that's basically saying, hey, we don't build these controller boards anymore. All the equipment associated with your elevators is not available anymore. Can't find parts, so on.

 

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Mike Nolan: Was 20, 25 years. Now we're seeing it being shrunk down to sometimes 12 years. A lot of door operators.

 

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Mike Nolan: are being discontinued at 12 years.

 

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Mike Nolan: Unfortunately, the life cycle is probably 15 to 20 years would be a little bit more accurate now.

 

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Mike Nolan: And obviously, that's probably because, you know, I hate to say it, but elevator manufacturers probably want to sell more equipment, so they're reducing their

 

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Mike Nolan: Obsolescence lifespan, for that.

 

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Mike Nolan: And then, on downtime and, unexpected costs.

 

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Mike Nolan: If you have it on your main, there's no way of knowing when you're going to get the parts. So like a VDA, FMA, or modernization document, we'll talk about obsolescence. We have it very, very, very strict obsolescence language.

 

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Mike Nolan: in there that will help protect the client on their elevator, especially campuses. I know how campuses non-stop move, so…

 

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Mike Nolan: That's, that's on the obsolescence language. Next slide.

 

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Mike Nolan: I think, it's back to you, S.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Yes, thank you, Mike Nolan, for that. I'm going to pass it over again to Michael, and he's going to talk a little bit about knowing when modernization is the right move.

 

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Michael Burns: All right, thank you, Sarah. Yeah, assessing the real cost of aging infrastructure, you know, there's a statistic on the screen here, and it's an important one.

 

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Michael Burns: over 50%. So over half of the elevators that are currently in higher Ed facilities are either at or past their life expectancy. You know, as as Mike kind of mentioned on the previous slide, you know, elevators typically used to always have a, you know, a 20 to 25 year life expectancy. And for the most part they run

 

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Michael Burns: pretty reliably during that period of time. You know, that 20-year mark is really when you start to see a lot of the components are wearing down and showing signs of age. You know, as Mike mentioned, you know, there's certainly, in today's industry, there's a lot of sourcing challenges and obsolescence.

 

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Michael Burns: I think a great example of this is elevator drives and drive components. You know, these drives and, you know, the vendors that make these drives and components, they used to support the equipment kind of through the life cycle of the elevator, you know, had support, had spare parts, spare boards.

 

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Michael Burns: And, you know, really what we're seeing today is that a lot of these vendors aren't producing them, as long, you know, they're not supplying parts or support. And it's, you know, it's making these, these parts and including drives, obsolete much sooner. And really what that does to the customer is it increases the risk, increases their liability and and ultimately increases a lot.

 

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Michael Burns: of the cost and out-of-pocket costs that are required to get these elevators operational.

 

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Michael Burns: Next slide.

 

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Michael Burns: All right. So end of life warning signs. So there's typically signs and indications that your elevator is starting to wear down. You know, some good indicators are increasing callback frequency. So if you have a unit that is, that has more than 4 callbacks per year.

 

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Michael Burns: per unit. It's typically a good indication that the system is beginning to wear.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, parts unavailable, unavailability.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, if you're having longer lead times, if you're seeing lead times for items that used to be, you know, the ability to overnight, or had short lead times, if now they're exceeding that 2-4 week

 

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Michael Burns: lead time period. It's a really a good indication that maybe the manufacturer is not supporting them as they once were, and maybe parts aren't being produced anymore.

 

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Michael Burns: escalating repair costs. You know, if you're having a lot of

 

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Michael Burns: Repair costs associated with getting the elevator back up and running, you know, if that's approaching or exceeding the entire cost of a modernization, you're really just band-aiding these systems.

 

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Michael Burns: That have obsolete parts, and, you know, you really need to start a plan to, you know, put that money towards a complete overhaul of the system, which we'll talk about here in the coming slides.

 

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Michael Burns: you know. Certainly, if the elevator has increased downtime is another indication.

 

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Michael Burns: And then, you know, Mike and I both talked about the system age, just with where the industry is in today, you know, we're seeing a lot of these components become obsolete, no longer supported, where that 15-year mark is just really a great time to

 

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Michael Burns: you know, start start thinking about modernization and doing a complete overhaul of the system.

 

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Michael Burns: and I'll now send it over to Mike to talk about the benefits of modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: Hi, everybody. Hi again. So benefits of modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: the biggest thing is knowing when your elevators are going to need to be modernized so we can plan accordingly. Typically, I would recommend doing… you get between 10 to 15 years, start looking, doing a full evaluation, comprehensive evaluation on your elevators.

 

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Mike Nolan: So you can or we can take a better look at when that came so you can capital plan to have this work done prior to getting these cars modernized.

 

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Mike Nolan: It's definitely gonna improve your uptime.

 

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Mike Nolan: I'm trying to get on these elevators and be more dependable with less callbacks. Modernization will help that big time. It lowers your risk on aging equipment.

 

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Mike Nolan: Costly surprises.

 

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Mike Nolan: support campus flow. Obviously, kids are going to school on campuses, they need to get to class as soon as possible, or at least on time then. I know when my kids were little and they went to college, they were in no hurry to get anywhere until the elevators didn't work.

 

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Mike Nolan: Being an elevator guy my whole life, I heard about it all the time.

 

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Mike Nolan: And then, plan smarter, project infrastructure value and support long-term budgeting.

 

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Mike Nolan: So we can definitely help you with that piece if ever needed. Next slide.

 

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Mike Nolan: Modernization risks.

 

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Mike Nolan: So, modernization risk,

 

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Mike Nolan: You know, there's a lot of… I've been on a few campuses in the past where they've kind of took on the risks themselves and didn't use

 

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Mike Nolan: A consultant,

 

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Mike Nolan: for whatever reason, and I'm not saying it failed, it was just… it became costly, because a lot of times.

 

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Mike Nolan: VDA will suggest doing the turnkey project, so there's no expenditures that are going to happen during the modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: Misalignment and misaligned interest.

 

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Mike Nolan: It's very hard to conduct misaligned interest because contractor recommendation may not always align with the campus priorities.

 

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Mike Nolan: Campuses want their work done, but a lot of times they don't understand.

 

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Mike Nolan: the issues with the modernization, what… before, once it gets started. Unclear scope.

 

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Mike Nolan: Again, I'm gonna bring this back up.

 

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Mike Nolan: if you do a modernization, and we're gonna put… you're gonna put it out to bid to elevator contractors, we want to make sure that it's a turnkey project. So, going into the bids, we know whatever company you decide to pick.

 

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Mike Nolan: where the cost is going to make sense to the campus university.

 

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Mike Nolan: And then coordination gaps.

 

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Mike Nolan: Subcontractor work can create confusion around accountability and project control.

 

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Mike Nolan: So,

 

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Mike Nolan: When you do modernize an elevator, one of the big things that a lot of people don't know is, yeah, the elevator's gonna be modernized because it's, it's obsolete, or it's ran its life cycle, but then there's other contractor costs that are involved, like electricity in the pit areas.

 

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Mike Nolan: air conditioning and machine rooms if it's needed, fire command, all that different stuff needs to be incorporated in that typically when you start modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: And we can help you with all of that if you decide to go that route and get rid of all these risks if ever needed.

 

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Mike Nolan: And that's that's next slide.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right, we're going to go back to Michael Burns.

 

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Michael Burns: All right. So how VDA can provide professional support for you guys? You know, I would imagine some of the people on today's call, maybe you've never worked with an elevator consulting firm before or worked with VDA. We also understand that a lot of the universities across the country, they have their own in-house experts, you know, whether that's their own

 

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Michael Burns: in-house mechanics, or you know, maybe they have a ex elevator professional that that handles the elevator portfolio for the campus. So there's a lot of ways that we can support you, regardless of you know, if it's in in-house, or maybe just run by the facilities team.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, we work with over 100 campuses nationally, so we have the expertise in a lot of the higher ed facilities. And there's a lot of ways that we can get involved. And it really starts with maintenance management. You know, Mike did a great job of talking about the importance of having consultant paper.

 

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Michael Burns: Rather than signing a vendor agreement, you know, the… a consultant paper, the BDA paper, you know, it puts a lot more accountability on the vendor, and it takes a lot of the risk and liability away from the owner, you know, can really, you know.

 

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Michael Burns: have it benefit the ownership through specified KPIs, response time, special billing rates. Truly important to get on some type of consultant paper. You know, we also have services where we control unbudgeted expenses, so we do all the cost mitigation on your guys' behalf.

 

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Michael Burns: So, any repair proposal.

 

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Michael Burns: any, callback invoice, you know, we review that, you know, we're checking it for accuracy, you know, we're making sure that the billing rates are correct.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, making sure it's not something that's covered in your agreement. You know, you wouldn't believe how many times, you know, callbacks are billed, or maybe a repair is… a proposal is sent for a repair or upgrade where it's already included within your agreement.

 

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Michael Burns: So, you know, we look out for your best interest, you know, with controlling your costs and doing all the cost mitigation on your guys' behalf.

 

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Michael Burns: equipment evaluations and capital planning. I think this is a great way for Vda to get involved with your campus, you know, having our team come out and perform

 

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Michael Burns: an independent assessment of your equipment, validating the current maintenance status, as well as looking at the current condition of the equipment, and then working with you to come up with both short-term and long-term CapEx projects, working with you to prioritize those repairs and work with

 

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Michael Burns: You know, your guys annual budget as well. You know, modernization services. Mike did a great job of talking about the benefits and the risk of modernizations. But, you know, the reality is that modernizations are extremely technical. They're also extremely costly. You know, we have the expertise to kind of handle that entire process.

 

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Michael Burns: for you guys. And then, lastly, inspections. You know.

 

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Michael Burns: wherever you are across the country, your elevators are required to be inspected annually. You know, certainly states are different. You know, some states are, provide state inspections, but a lot of the states are now moving to a third-party inspection company.

 

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Michael Burns: So VDA, we have an entire division that is just devoted for inspections. You know, we're the largest inspection company in the United States, and, you know, happy to provide those inspections. We have resources throughout the country that can handle those for you.

 

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Michael Burns: And we also have inspection oversight services that we offer as well.

 

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Michael Burns: You know, working to do the deficiency tracking.

 

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Michael Burns: Working to schedule all the inspections, you know, making sure that, you know, from start to finish, we're handling the entire process on your guys' behalf, and making sure that you guys pass and get your certificates on time, so…

 

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Michael Burns: Next slide, sir.

 

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Michael Burns: All right. So, that ends today's, presentation is as far as next steps. So, you know, if you if you have an interest in what was discussed today or, you know, maybe you're having some challenges or issues, you know, with your current portfolio or even trying to plan for future projects.

 

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Michael Burns: There's, you can go to our website, there's also an email here, and then a QR code. I would really highly recommend that you take advantage of it. We'd love to set up just a quick 30-minute call.

 

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Michael Burns: you know, learn more about your portfolio, what your needs are, you know, maybe some of your pain points. But the big thing is, is we're here as a resource for you guys, and and would love an opportunity to kind of continue this this conversation.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Great. Thank you so much, Michael. And thank you, Mike Nolan, as well.

 

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Sara Korolevich: So I want to remind you that we do have a live Q&A session. I see a couple of questions coming in through the Q&A chat.

 

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Sara Korolevich: please go ahead and use that, and we will get to that. Before we do, though, I want to ask a quick poll, and as Michael said, you know, we're happy to set up, a free consultation.

 

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Sara Korolevich: If you'd like VDA to reach out, we can do that, make it very easy for you. Go ahead and click yes or no, and then we'll get to the live Q&A session.

 

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Sara Korolevich: It's great. Thank you.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right, let's get started. Let me find those questions here.

 

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Sara Korolevich: I'm gonna stop sharing my screen.

 

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Sara Korolevich: There we go.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Alright, here is one. Someone wants to know, Mike, maybe you can take this. What is the lead time for materials after a modernization contract is executed?

 

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Mike Nolan: Okay, so how that works is basically if you put it out to bid, then you get back, you pick the contract that you're happy with moving forward with the modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: After the initial down payment, and then we go into submittals and picking out cab interiors or whatever.

 

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Mike Nolan: Once that's done, then they go into manufacturing and that can typically take for a traction elevator, it can probably take from anywhere from 15 to 20 weeks before you see the initial material to start the modernization.

 

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Mike Nolan: It seems like a long… it can be 4 months before you get material after contract is awarded, but a lot of times, campuses like that because of

 

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Mike Nolan: You know, they need to capitalize on the expenditure.

 

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Mike Nolan: So, and then hydraulic elevators, typically.

 

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Mike Nolan: I would say probably 5 to 10 weeks. You can get those a little bit quicker.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay, thank you.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thank you. Look at the next question here.

 

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Sara Korolevich: This goes along with modernization. How far in advance should we start planning for modernization projects?

 

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Mike Nolan: I go 15 years.

 

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Mike Nolan: My, I mean, 10 to 15 years start, start thinking about.

 

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Mike Nolan: you know, I Campuses are a little bit different, but, you know, I have a lot of projects that

 

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Mike Nolan: I want to know what the expenditure is going to be well in hand so they can budget for it. So I would say probably 10 to 15 years. I would start planning it on a traction elevator. Hydraulic elevators are the same.

 

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Mike Nolan: As far as… because it's controllers, we're talking about door operators and stuff like that.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay, thank you.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Going back to maintenance, what are typical response times we should expect for maintenance?

 

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Mike Nolan: Michael, you want to take that?

 

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Michael Burns: Yeah. So you know, it can vary depending on the type of building. But you know, we typically have standard specifications, you know. Certainly during business hours for entrapments, you know, a 30 to 45 min window is is acceptable.

 

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Michael Burns: you know, during normal business hours, you know, on 1 h response time, and then, you know, depending on where you are throughout the country, or or you know, maybe where the techs are located for the the vendor, you know. Typical overtime callback response time is is 2 h is pretty pretty reasonable. But you know all that can be. Whenever we write these contracts, you know, we always

 

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Michael Burns: figure out what your needs are of the building and the property, and make sure that we're accounting for that when we do specify these response times.

 

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Mike Nolan: Yeah, Mike, I would also like to add to that the, the couple of colleges or.

 

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Mike Nolan: Colleges that I have now, they…

 

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Mike Nolan: The only… they have a resident mechanic on site 8 hours a day.

 

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Mike Nolan: And the response times after that, so calls are generated during the day, are typically picked up right away, as long as the mechanic's not doing something, but after hours, Mike's accurate, Michael's accurate on those response times.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay, thank you. I have another one.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Can you speak about pre-existing condition language when bidding new contracts?

 

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Mike Nolan: Michael, you want to try that one?

 

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Michael Burns: Why don't you handle that one, M.

 

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Mike Nolan: I'd say, can you repeat the question again.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Can you talk about pre-existing condition language when bidding on new contracts?

 

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Mike Nolan: We're talking… I'm assuming we're talking about a maintenance contract, pre-existing conditions. So, typically, if you're gonna put… so you're not happy with your elevator contractor, and you want to move forward with a new contractor.

 

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Mike Nolan: you put it out to bid, and there are going to be some pre-existing conditions. if there is some, then the when you're doing, when we get the contract back, there's probably going to be clarifications in there talking about it.

 

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Mike Nolan: that they're not going to cover pre-existing conditions. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't, sometimes they miss them. It just depends on the situation and the environment that they're doing, they're going to get the bid on.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay, thank you. We have another one. You mentioned having a full-time person on site. Mike, how many units would justify a full-time on-site tech being assigned to campus?

 

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Mike Nolan: Great question.

 

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Mike Nolan: So, I don't want to say the university, but the university I'm at right now.

 

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Mike Nolan: is about 128 units.

 

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Mike Nolan: So there's a resident mechanic on site for that.

 

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Mike Nolan: Typically, in the elevator industry, what's really bad about the… what's good about the 120 hours is you're getting better coverage.

 

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Mike Nolan: Than you would if you sent a mechanic home after each call, and he didn't stay on campus.

 

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Mike Nolan: You get much better service, but the problem is these elevator contractors now

 

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Mike Nolan: Are their maintenance guys are 3 to 400 elevators that they're supposed to be maintaining monthly.

 

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Mike Nolan: And they're not getting maintenance done, they're just answering calls

 

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Mike Nolan: So having a resident mechanic there is going to be much more beneficial for you guys than it would be if you were to have them.

 

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Mike Nolan: Come in and not be a resident.

 

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Mike Nolan: And then, like, obviously, the cost is probably gonna be better.

 

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Sara Korolevich: A related question. How many technicians should be on site for daily issues for an area that is servicing 143 elevators, escalators, and lifts?

 

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Mike Nolan: I'd say probably a mechanic and an apprentice helper.

 

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Mike Nolan: Would be enough.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Okay.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Let's see…

 

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Sara Korolevich: One more, I think. You can keep adding questions if you like, everyone. I see one more came in. What would be the next step for you to help us with our elevator portfolio?

 

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Michael Burns: Yeah, I'll take this one, Mike. I mean, you know, really setting up a call with us, you know, really trying to figure out what your needs are, maybe if there's any pain points you're dealing with. You know, I mentioned it in my last slide. Usually a great way to start out is us performing those equality evaluations or comprehensive evaluations.

 

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Michael Burns: you know, really doing an independent assessment of your guys equipment to, you know. Figure out what the condition of the units are. You know where your your maintenance, your deferred maintenance is, you know. So evaluation is always a great, great place to start, but also inspections. I mean inspections. You're already required to do those annually. Anyways, you know, we have the expertise and and the resources to provide those as well.

 

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Michael Burns: Those are two great entry points, but really it's, it's, you know, however you'd like us to be involved, you know, certainly there's a lot of aging infrastructure, as I mentioned, so…

 

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Michael Burns: You know, if you want information on capital planning or some modernization services, be happy to to speak to you all about that as well.

 

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Sara Korolevich: All right. Well, I appreciate everyone's time. Mike, Michael, thank you for presenting great information.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thank you everyone for joining our webinar, and as I mentioned before, we'll be in touch with the webinar recording along with the slides.

 

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Sara Korolevich: Thank you for joining us.

 

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Mike Nolan: Thank you, everybody.

 

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Michael Burns: Yep.