COP Outcome development and evaluation

Access Automation has a planned maintenance programme. The cable cars have a two-year warranty. During and after that period the client is offered a planned maintenance contract at a modest cost, covering two visits per year. A checklist is gone through at each visit, like a car's warrant of fitness process, followed by a written report to the client.

Maintenance is essential to keep the cable car running well and ensure its maximum life. The safety of the cable car is a function not only of the design of the original equipment but also of the ongoing maintenance, which is absolutely critical. A lot of the wheel bearings are now sealed but the ropes require regular greasing. One of the items on the checklist is checking the components of the emergency braking system. Normally they aren't required to move, so they must be checked to make sure they haven't seized up.

Feedback

Feedback occurs mainly when something goes wrong. The cable cars and their operating machines/systems are running in the open, exposed to aspects of the environment beyond anyone's control. Salt spray corrosion around Wellington creates a very hostile environment. After a few years on south coastal properties even galvanized steel will start to corrode.

Access Automation log every fault, observe any patterns of recurring problems and respond accordingly.

The commonest problem would be the safety braking system activating when the client doesn't want it to. This can be triggered by a stick the size of a pencil caught in the wheels, which is enough to alert the control systems that something isn't right and trigger the brakes. This probably happens about once every year or 18 months. Access Automation accepts that from time to time this “nuisance trigger" will occur, as they like to have their systems calibrated quite finely. As Mark Galvin says, “Its very easy to make a cable car in which the brakes never come on. That's the easiest thing in the world, but it's not a lot of use to people if it's ever needed."

Not all the feedback is about trouble, “we do also get people who ring up and say what a great job we've done," says Mark.