Nora Kamiñetzky
30 years ago, Rubén García and Hugo Machado courageously went on the adventure of creating their own elevator maintenance company. “We had the no,” says García, “so we went for the yes, in search of personal and economic growth.” Today, at the top of the pyramid, experience and life tell them that the bet was worth it.
We had not visited ALP since 2003, when the company obtained its first ISO-9001 certification and we were pleasantly surprised by the exponential growth it has had since then.
Currently with the renewal of ISO, we find a 120 people staff, with a building that has grown in floors, comfort, sectors and functions. They also now have two large warehouses to store the stock of components for installation.
ISO 9001
Within the company renovation, which is ALP’s leitmotif, it was essential to obtain the new ISO 9001 certification. They had already certified years ago, as we said earlier, and from that moment on the company had a very important growth that, paradoxically, overwhelmed them and didn’t allowed them from continuing to maintain certification. So much work exceeded expectations and surpassed them as they didn’t have at that time the great team that today allows them to follow the protocols thoroughly. Just in June 2019 they obtained the certification to continue with their style of organized company that works according to standards, under direction of Eng. Flavia Álvarez Villareal, general coordinator, who has been working for 10 years now in ALP.
Organization
ALP is currently responsible for the maintenance of 2.400 units which includes 1,750 elevators, another 200 more elevators under warranty during the building process, water pumps, and also gates and mobile ramps. In addition, also, they are large-scale installers, to the point of having sold up to 250 elevators in a year of heavy construction.
The company has 14 engineers who are the technical representatives. La Plata city Lift Ordinance requires one engineer for every 120 lifts, an amount that represents half of the lifts required at CABA.
Systematization and call center
Within the various departments in which the company is organized, stands out the claims office, or call center as they call it.
When entering the offices of this sector, a huge map of the city of La Plata hangs on the wall containing all the equipment maintained by ALP. This sector centralizes all the information, both of the people who are working with tasks already assigned in the different repair, installation, support and service sections, as well as emergency claims. Julián and another collaborator answer calls through a special line and upload this information to a program that classifies the type of call, the reason for it, the delay in the response, and the repetition of the call. That information is updated all the time. In turn, when the claim comes in, the system triggers the necessary information so that the claimant has the “clinical” history of the elevator that he receives on his cell phone. All claims are displayed as spreadsheets on computer screens with different colors that express the time of the delay and the changing colors over time. It is also seen on the screens if the elevator is stopped, if it is running, or with some pending task to be done, almost in real time, because the operators are reporting what they are doing with great speed.
At night they have a guard table that is attended by a telephone operator who is responsible for logistics and customer service.
All this system of organization and control of claims arose from 2013, the year of the fatal floods in the city of La Plata that exceeded everything expected.
Facilities
ALP shares a large percentage of the market for the maintenance, modernization and installation of the city of La Plata. His latest achievements include the installation of new equipment in the brand new 5-star Brizo hotel, and the modernization of the La Plata Government Towers, two emblematic 16-story buildings, located in front of the city’s great Cathedral.
Taking a little history, Towers I and II are office buildings that were inaugurated for the centenary of La Plata city (1982). Both towers were made by different construction companies, which is why there were differences between the teams from one tower to another (for example, the dimensions of the free opening of the Tower I 900mm and Tower II 850mm doors).
In the Government Towers, which are 40 years old, there were 8 elevators originally installed by Guillemí Company, with former Ward Leonard type multi-voltage machine technology. ALP modernized a battery of 4 elevators in each Tower, for the moment, with what they achieved a shorter waiting time for the users, which were used to wait in long queues. And that is because of the 150 meters p/minute speed that the new Wittur machines are developing along with the complete Wittur elevator kit. The new controls are from Automac.
In the tower
We went up to the machine room in Tower 1, accompanied by Mario Coto, operational manager of Ascensores La Plata. Mario has been working in ALP for 12 years now and has a long previous experience of 11 years of working at Acelco, where he came to occupy the factory manager position and also he worked other 20 years in Atlas Elevators. At ALP, Coto is in charge of managing both the service and facilities departments. Mario was the one to direct this installation project and that is why he is the ideal person to show it to us.
The modernized elevators are four in battery, in each tower. One of them runs from underground -3 to the 16th floor, the other three only travel from underground -1 to the 16th floor. They run at 150 meters per minute, and have capacity of 900 kilos of cargo or 12 medium people. They are interconnected with the engine room and with the security staff at ground floor.
Automac controls are variable frequency equipment, for 150 meters per minute, and are prepared to work on batteries of 8 cars. At the moment they are working for four cars in ascending descending maneuver.
Wittur’s gearless machines have the pulley train covered in accordance with the City Ordinance. These machines have a 1-in-2 effect, so they operate at 300 meters per minute and the elevator goes at half the speed, that is, 150 meters per minute.
The new variable frequency equipment replaced the former and old multivoltage one with direct current , is gearless and much smaller and quieter , with much less maintenance requirements.
The equipment is completed in this way:
Cabin and outside doors: Wittur Hydra model.
Cabin: Wittur in AISI 304 stainless steel.
Cabin and counterweight guides: 6 wheels (cabin) from ELSCO,
3 wheels (counterweight) from ELSCO.
Bumpers: hydraulic from Henning.
Security: Witter unidirectional progressive type made in Austria.
Steel cables: Special IPH for Gearless machines Pfeifer Drako-250T-1570, quantity 5 of 10 mm. diameter.
