elevators need more Right to Repair attention
Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you can relate to what Im saying:
I recently transferred from mod to service. After 10 years in the trade working on non proprietary GAL, MCE, Claddaugh, etc, and Otis GCS mods, I finally switched to service 2 years ago and for the first year I was an Otis lighthouse mechanic and had no real need to understand in depth troubleshooting, but I quit Otis and moved to Kone where Ive had to quickly learn how to troubleshoot.
Now Im not complaining. Im happy to be developing my skills in the trade, and I have been working hard to better understand the different systems and gather my list of documentation and testing guides.
Today I was thinking about a job I have with a TKE Tac 20 that is having some issues. This car has been shutdown on my call list for like 2 weeks now. Back when I first got the call, I called KONE THD (the tech help desk, basically the same thing as Otis Role) and the TKE expert told me Id need some kind of tool to troubleshoot. He told me to call another maintenance mechanic in my shop who has it. I called that guy and like every senior field mechanic he's busy as hell and he'll try to get to it when he can. He also told me Kone wont get me the tool and he had to get it by contacting some disreputable person online and buying it with his own cash.
Today, out of curiosity, I Googled "what is TKE elevator IMS" and I came across THIS reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/Elevators/comments/1lykxk2/need_access_to_ims_software_by_thyssenkrupp/
and honestly the comments you'll see in that post are upsetting to me. If you look through my post history you'll see I asked a question about a Schindler 3300 and got the classic response "if you dont know how to clear a basic unintended motion fault then you shouldnt be working on elevators". I was also working on a Dover Solid State, and wanted to know why capacitors were used as the voltage suppressor between PC and +24D instead of varistors and diodes, tried to ask a question on r/electronics and got the classic "if you cant identify components then you aren't qualified for the job"
It's like people dont remember what its like to be new to something. They must all have wonderful bosses who constantly support them, or maybe have family members in the trade to turn to, or maybe they were born knowing everything there is to know about electronics... WELL I DONT HAVE ANY OF THAT. And honestly, Im pretty sure most tradesmen are getting screwed over the same way I am. Ive seen supervisors at Otis that didnt know dick about elevators. I know personally that searching for documents on Otis Service app, or Kone eLibrary sucks! better know the exact TIP number, and even then you might have to scroll for a while. And what am I supposed to do? Tell Kone elevator to stop taking on TKE contracts if they cant get us IMS software? Yeah Im sure they dont care. And Otis doesnt care, and Schindler doesnt care, and TKE doesnt care.
I see how Otis is making the new gen 3 controllers, and they're trying to get rid of the blue tool and move everything to an iphone app. They're doing that cause they want to make sure they keep those service contracts, and it doesnt matter if the field mechanics at TKE, Kone, or Schindler cant solve the problem. And god fucking help the little mom and pop shops lol.
As for that TKE tac 20. Well it's been shut down 2 weeks. The customer is getting screwed over, and Im still getting paid. Maybe I shouldnt give a fuck... but I do. and yeah I have options: i can go to a union meeting and make friends with a TKE guy. I can call up my coworker and beg him to make time for my car. But what I cant do, is fix the problem myself because the manufacturers are doing everything they can to make our job harder just to pad their bottom lines.
If we're trained, and licensed mechanics we shouldnt have to beg, borrow, and steal to do our jobs and service our customers. And instead of shit talking each other, we need to circle up the wagons and push to give each other the tools and resources we need.