Man, I’ll tell you that the old school ways were great but were they better? NO WAY, NO HOW! I am an old-school guy. Ask anyone who knows me. I Wash my truck in the driveway Saturday mornings; I read the (printed) newspaper every day; I even change my own oil. Yup, I’m that guy. But now I work for a technology company, a TECHNOLOGY company! What I can learn from the data I analyze each day is worth a thousand site visits, and I continually prove this to myself and our staff. I will analyze data and develop root cause theory, then make a site visit, and 90% of the time, the data is spot on and leads me right to the problem. Here is the thing, data don’t lie, and it won’t hide from you. It will occasionally throw you a curveball, but I can hit a curveball a good percentage of the time.
It is interesting to take all the data we collect, analyze it, develop an improvement plan, and then sit with a vendor superintendent and show them the trends in callbacks, repairs, and maintenance gaps. I know, from personal experience, that they do not have the time to gather and analyze this stuff, so it has zero chance to trickle down to the technician. But when I show this data to them 90% of the time, they appreciate it, run with it, and inform the technician, and things improve.
I can sit and go over data and do root cause analysis on 80 elevators in 60 minutes, the old school way… we are talking weeks. AuditMates software grabs the trends for me, spits out the anomalies, gives me the pertinent data, and sorts and categorizes everything. Add in a little old-fashioned equipment expertise and industry knowledge (which our AuditMate team has in spades), and BOOM, we are off to the races.
We don’t just help the elevator vendors get better; we educate our clients as well. The data helps them budget for modernization and significant upgrades. The data provides information on cost management and market pricing. It shows them how their on-site teams can do things differently and save them dollars in preventable callbacks and downtime. In June, I sat with a client and showed them how doing three simple things before placing a trouble call can save them downtime and money. July through September, they saved 20% of their average vertical transportation spend.
I’m not completely off the grid regarding tech, I have a cell phone and computer and state-of-the-art tools, and I even got rid of the rotary dial phone a few years back. But what I am learning at AuditMate and the services we are providing our clients is over the top great data and service. We help every client, large and small, and take a lot of work off their plate in the process. I never thought I would say this, but I am becoming a tech geek. I am pushing the envelope and upgrading to an automatic coffee maker next.
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back”
Abraham Lincoln
Joe Stumph
COO Auditmate