Year in reflection - Colley Elevator Blog - 2022 review

 

Welcome 2023!  We had a great 2022 at Colley Elevator.  Last year at this time we were hiding under our tables because covid came back strong.  This year we have a lot of covid but are carrying on.  In the last year we had the opportunity to do some great things and work with some great people.  The greatest experience I have personally have is to work with our great Colley team, I’m lucky to have such great people around as we enter our 115^th year of being an independent elevator contractor.

Annual reflection – This year we saw our maintenance portfolio grow from 2020 to 2200 elevators under contract. Mid-year we adopted a new purchase order system so I cannot report exactly how many controllers we ordered but we kept Smartrise and MCE busy, we also ordered our first Alpha Elevator controller.  We probably ordered over 100 door operators, 75+ fixtures packages, 50+ power units, a few elevator packages[MEI and Canton], a whole lot of cylinders from EECO along with Custom and ITI.  Colley Cares, our philanthropic outreach, gave out over $12,000 to philanthropic organizations ranging from substance abuse to food depositories.  The Colley team came together to help out Toys for Tots and a Food Depository this fall/winter with a truck load of gifts and food to help out those in need.  We work with incredible people who made this all happen and our average employment is about 11 years. I’m proud to work side by side with everyone here and that we have a culture of openness at Colley that helps get everyone done at a high level! Thank you to our coworkers, customers & suppliers for being great!  In 2022 the Elevator World Ellie came back to Colley Elevator winning our 3^rd “Best Contractor of the North” from our friends at Midwest Elevator who won last year.

Post reflection – Take a look at the great catalog of blog posts in 2022, go back and read some.

1/9/22 – Cold Weather Elevator – How does Cold Weather Affect my Elevator

1/15/22 – Hydraulic Freight Elevator Modernization – Evanston, IL

1/23/22 – Colley Cares – Chicago Land Elevator Company Gives Back!

1/30/22 – 3D Door scans – New Elevator code A17.1 2019 – State of Illinois

2/6/22 – Elevator picture Hall of Fame 2022 – Superbowl of Elevators

2/12/22 – Two Way visual Communication ASME A17.1 2019 IBC 2018 Code requirement

2/20/22 – When is it time to modernize an elevator

3/6/22 – Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC] and Three Leading Residential Lift Manufacturers Announce Recall 

3/20/22 - Pressure Sensitive Pit Ladders – Elevator Safety That Will Save Lives

3/27/22 - End Of Life/Obsolete Elevator Equipment – Dover DMC Elevator Update 3/27/22

4/2/22 – Giant Passenger elevator modernization – Chicago, IL

4/10/22 – Westinghouse Elevator Fast Track Hydraulic Elevator

4/19/22 – City of Chicago AIC Elevator Inspections

4/24/22 - NAESA Central Region Spring Work Shop – Des Plaines, IL - April 22-23, 2022

5/2/22 – Traction Elevator Modernization – Evanston, IL

5/15/22 - Community Associations Institute [CAI] – Condo-HOA conference & Expo

5/22/22 - Elevator Education - Educating our Customers and Facility Managers

5/30/22 – Colley Cares – Colley Elevator Gives Back – 1^st Quarter

6/5/22 – Hydraulic elevator control modernization – Skokie, IL

6/12/22 - Hydraulic Elevator Oil Filtration – Tank Cleaning – New Hydraulic Fluid – Hydraulic Elevator Valve - 2022 Version

6/19/22 - Hot Weather & Elevator Machine Rooms Will Affect Your Elevator's Ability to Service the Building - Summertime! HOT! TOO HOT!

6/26/22 – Traction Elevator modernization – Wilmette, IL

7/10/22 – Elevator picture hall of fame – Volume 2

7/17/22 – Highland Park, IL Shooting Victims Fund

7/24/22 – Elevator maintenance wanted – a dream deferred

8/1/22 - Vote Colley Elevator for Elevator Worlds 2022 Best Contractor – North Ellie

8/7/22 - Vote Colley Elevator for Elevator Worlds 2022  “Best Contractor – North” Ellie

8/14/22 - You Don’t Need to See the Whole Stair Case, Just the First Step – Traction Elevator MOD - Chicago, IL

8/21/22 - Proactive Elevator Cylinder Replacement – What You Don’t See - Chicago, IL

9/3/22 – Otis Elevator Black Belt door operator – Obsolete

9/11/22 – NAEC Elevator convention & exposition

9/18/22 – Hydraulic elevator modernization – Oak Park, IL

9/25/22 - 2022 Elevator World Ellie winner – Best Contractor of the North – Colley Elevator

10/9/22 – Elevator modernization planning – Evanston, IL

10/16/22 - Colley Elevator's 10th Annual QEI Education Training – Always Keep Learning

10/23/22 - Making elevators great again – Traction Elevator - Chicago, IL

10/30/22 – Hydraulic elevator modernization – Forest Park, IL

11/5/22 – Chicago Elevator Association – November Meeting

11/20/22 – Elevator cylinder hole clause – Elevator cylinder replacement

11/27/22 – Hydraulic elevator modernization – Forest Park Library – Forest Park, IL

12/4/22 - NAEC – National Association of Elevator Contractors Membership drive

12/10/22 – Freight Elevator – What does a building do with the old work horse

12/18/22 - Cold Weather Elevator – How does Cold Weather Affect my Elevator – Repost

Blog reflection – 43 posts in 2022[that is a lot of words, pictures and time], over 35,000 views, over 205,063 views in the blog’s history.  

Elevator resolution – I would like to get back out and attend a conference or two next year and go to more continuing education.  We had our 3^rd child last year so I didn’t do much traveling, this year I would like to be in the class room more as well as read more technical documents.

2022 Challenges – Covid went away but early 2022 we saw significant supply chain issues with our control manufacturers.  One company had starters and not boards, one company had boards and no starters.  One company didn't have motor drives.  Lets hope 2023 sees the end of these shortages.

2022 projects/relationships – We are doing a lot of work with Presbyterian Homes and that has been a great relationship along with their CM, Skender Construction.  We got to know a few different GC’s doing CPS work, most notably George Sollit who was great to work with.  We are starting to book some work with Q Center – St. Charles, IL who we are excited to get to know better.  One of the best GC’s we worked with was at the Forest Park Library and SMC Construction Services, thanks Jason.  Over the last year we worked with so many great GC’s, consultants and buildings, thank you all.

Thank you for everyone who took the time to read the blog.  My challenge for you in 2023 is to find something new to do.  Pick up a new hobby, go to a new place on vacation, make a new friend.  If you don’t go and look, you might never know what you are missing.  I have 3 kids and get to meet new people, do new things and go new places on the regular and while I am a creature of habit and apprehensive of some the new things I’m thrown into, after I am done doing them, I’m glad I did.

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If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.