Preventing Disaster with Preventive Maintenance

Just imagine: You’re sitting in your dining room, hungry as ever, and about to enjoy a beautiful home-cooked meal you worked so hard to prepare. What a great way to finish off the evening, right? As you’re about to dig in, a crash echoes from across the room and shattered glass skates across the kitchen floor. A strange metal object has just been launched through your window and into your room, and you just can’t fathom why. For the residents of Copernicus Lodge in Toronto, this could’ve easily been a reality. And the culprit? A streetcar in need of some serious preventive maintenance.

Evaluating the Situation

Under thorough investigation, it was found that a trolley shoe had been caught on a wire after detaching from a streetcar, consequently being hurled straight at the old age home and directly through a dining room window located on the third floor of the building. This kind of occurrence is extremely dangerous to say the least, and it isn’t the first time it’s happened either. In August of 2019, the exact same thing happened to the exact same building. Fortunately, there were no injuries in either event.

In both cases, the vehicle was maneuvering over a slight curve in the tracks near Copernicus Lodge and the trolley shoe failed to keep the pole and wires connected. This resulted in the trolley shoe being caught on the wires, and the rest is history. If it happened once, it could’ve been deemed a fluke. But twice? There’s an issue – preventive maintenance needs to be implemented or improved upon.

Lack Maintenance, Lack Results

Both occurrences luckily resulted in minimal damages with only a window being broken each time, but the outcomes could’ve easily been lethal. Walking down the street and having a chunk of metal catapulted at you is definitely not ideal, that’s for sure. A scenario like this demonstrates why preventive maintenance is so important for pursuing operations. In the framework of a plant, ensuring that equipment and machines are functioning safely and consistently are crucial to a technician’s well-being, maintaining a reputable title, and preventing costly downtime; regular preventive maintenance will help will achieve this.

We Can Do It Together

Preventive maintenance requires careful planning, precise scheduling, and accurate data. NRX AssetHub can help you tackle all these requirements and more. Whether it’s conducting more thorough plant walkdowns or simply constructing a more effective schedule, we can help. Reach out and book a demo with us to see your preventive maintenance tactics at an all-time high.