An area of growing importance for lift suppliers is that of modernisation and support. Throughout its life a building may go through one or more changes of use, which often have a knock-on impact on lift provision, requiring a degree of re-design or re-fitting.

Similarly, the age of the building may mean that, in order to continue providing the quality of service required in a modern working environment, facilities such as lift provision need to be upgraded. And in other cases, it may be that regulatory change has placed new demands on the building operator to provide an acceptable level of service for employees or other users.

Whatever the driver for change, at the time any such decision is made there will be two available options - either to install a new lift or refurbish the existing installation. A key consideration in each case, of course, will be financial: as a result, more often than not the overriding economic imperative will dictate that the current lift should be adapted or modernised as the more cost-effective solution.

There are a number of ways in which the lift operator may look for an improvement in lift performance which will require some degree of modernisation or refurbishment - from superficial changes to a radical redesign which stops short of replacement.

Compliance

Meeting changing legal obligations is one of the most common reasons for upgrading lift provision, with an increasing number of regulatory demands on lift operators to provide a safe and accessible environment for all users. The most important recent change has been the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, which seeks to ensure equality of access for the 10 million adults in the UK with some form of mental or physical impairment.

Though the need to provide suitable access for the disabled is clearly not new, it has recently gained momentum and become a much higher-profile issue with the emergence of the DDA, now fully in force since Part III came into effect in October 2004.

Under the Act, it is essential to recognise that disability should not be considered purely in terms of wheelchair access. Indeed, the DDA defines a disabled person much more broadly, as someone with “a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”

As a result, operators of premises have to address the needs of the blind and partially sighted, those with hearing difficulties, people with long-term illnesses and those with learning disabilities, all of whom face very different problems regarding physical access to and within buildings.

One of the best ways to ensure full compliance with the Act’s wide-ranging requirements therefore is to develop a detailed conformity checklist, covering such issues as initial access to the building, sign-posting, the siting and design of interior call buttons and the provision of visual emergency alarms.

Under the Act, the Disabilities Commission has teeth and penalties can be imposed for non-compliance. Critically, the underlying onus is on the owner or user of the building to anticipate, rather than respond to, the needs of disabled customers in accessing their services.

At the same time, implementation is based on the principle of ‘reasonable adjustment’. Though this has yet to be tested in law, the extent and period of time over which implementation must take place must be realistic

Similarly, if it is not feasible to change existing policies or practices, then the Act allows for the provision of an alternative method of making the services available. So, in the case of many existing small buildings, it may be physically impossible to install a lift: in these circumstances it may be regarded as reasonable to provide all the relevant services on the ground floor only.

Yet there is a broader imperative here, as operators and users of buildings have become increasingly aware of their social responsibilities in providing adequate access to their goods and services. In today’s customer-oriented environment, it is recognised to be just as important for a high street store or sports or leisure centre to welcome a young mum with a baby buggy as it is for a health clinic or hospital, say, to cater for the special needs of a physically or mentally impaired patient.

Reliability

Ironically, in what is often perceived as a ‘fit and forget’ element within the overall functionality of a building, lift reliability is paramount. In some cases – such as a hospital lift taking patients to and from an operating theatre – the need for product reliability, backed by 24-hour, 365 day service with rapid response time, is obvious.

Yet few businesses can operate successfully with regular or extended periods when a lift is out of action. So whether you are a manufacturer moving components on a ‘just in time’ basis to a production line, a pub restaurant on a Friday night, a hotel laundry in peak holiday season or a care home looking to ensure rapid evacuation in case of emergency, you must be able to rely on the robustness and durability of the product in order to provide a quality service for both internal and third party users.

Manufacturers are utilising technology to respond to this demand for ever-greater reliability. Today’s lift controllers, for example, incorporate fewer parts, which not only results in greater energy efficiency and cost savings but also provides an inherently more reliable lift mechanism. Put simply, there is less to go wrong.

Environment

This has become an area of growing concern for users, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency. New motors and other components will inevitably be more energy efficient: more broadly however, manufacturers continue to develop technologies to address environmental pressures for more efficient lift motors and reduced energy consumption.

As indicated here, the need for fewer working parts within lift control systems has led to improved efficiency and lower cost. At the same time, utilising the latest intelligent control technologies results in a more energy-efficient lift operation, by utilising the system’s memory to ensure the lift is in the right location at times of peak usage.

Another environmental concern is that of vandalism: lift refurbishments may thus include such vandal-resistant features as strengthened entry and exit buttons and stainless steel interior mirrors.

Appearance

Change of use is often the catalyst for refurbishment here, as it is important that the lift accurately mirrors the nature and ethos of the building operator or occupier. Indeed, this may on occasion be particularly important, as it is one of the few opportunities for a visitor to get a definitive experience of the company’s operation.

A lift can be modernised or tailored in a wide variety of ways. At Pickerings for example, recent projects have included the provision of a leather-lined lift car, a panelled wooden structure and, in the case of a city centre toyshop, a lift shaped like a rocket! In our experience, the only limitation here is the imagination of the specifier, though as always financial considerations will also have a part to play.

And this does not just apply to passenger lifts: aesthetic issues will also impact on goods carrying lifts where, say, they stop at a sales floor.

Ride quality

Part of the positive image which a lift can project for the business owner is in the area of ride quality. A number of design factors will contribute to the overall level of performance here which can degrade over time, including the lift motor, fittings and quality of installation and on-going service.

Once again, the control system is especially important and here the latest lift technologies seek to provide outstanding and unrivalled ride quality. As one dyestuffs manufacturer client recently confirmed following the refurbishment of an industrial goods passenger lift: “The ride quality is as good as any passenger-only lift.”

Summary

By its very nature, a lift refurbishment or modernisation project is a ‘one-off’. Even if the contract relates to, say, a hospital or a block of flats, each lift will have its own special requirements, even if it is similar to others in the same building.

As a result, the service provider will need to be geared to providing bespoke solutions, at a local, regional or national level. This is likely to require a degree of specialist expertise in working closely with the client in developing a tailored ‘cradle to grave’ solution, no matter how complex the requirement - or how pressing the demand for change.

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