Customer story
Konecranes resolves months-long problem in a week at glass fiber company
The inconvenience of the inoperative hoist cost the customer about 16 man-hours a day, not to mention the health and safety risk of employees carrying heavy equipment up and down the stairway outside the furnace.
For several months, maintenance workers lugged heavy equipment–torch cutters, welders and replacement parts–up three 20-foot flights of stairs to the platform where they performed routine service on one of the furnaces their company uses to process fiberglass.
The 160-foot-high hoist that once raised and lowered the equipment was broken. The Amarillo, Texas, company’s crane service provider promised to replace it. But the maintenance workers kept trudging up and down the stairs day after day.
A series of facility renovations had left the hoist in a tough spot to reach. The crane service provider had, apparently, given up on it.
Putting resolve and resources to work
Then enters Dave Jasper, new business development for Konecranes newly opened crane service branch in Amarillo. After several meetings with the company, Jasper reached a deal. If he could replace the broken hoist with a new XN chain hoist, Konecranes would have a new customer and a one-year contract for an annual Konecranes MAINMAN® inspection and preventive maintenance of 212 overhead cranes.
“They needed that hoist,” Jasper said. “I said we would absolutely get it done.”
Within a week of the agreement, Jasper accompanied the new branch’s only technician at the time, service supervisor Shayne Covel, to get started on the replacement hoist.
Konecranes answers the call
“We had the resources, the training and safety culture to get the job done,” Jasper said.
In the eyes of the customers’ maintenance employees, “we were heroes,” he said. And Konecranes got right to work resolving other issues. “We got to them right away in a very timely manner. They’ve indicated they won’t be going anywhere else. They’re happy with Konecranes.”
