Hytec Expands To Meet a Need

Florida company brings skills from the digital imaging repair industry to the VT industry.

reported by T. Bruce MacKinnon

With more than 40 years of experience in circuit board repairs, Hytec is confident they know just about everything they need to know about circuit boards. What the company leaders knew less about was elevators. But after extensive research and partnering with the National Association of Elevator Contractors (NAEC), the company is making waves in the vertical-transportation (VT) industry. This is due to some key partnerships with VT players and the ability to listen and learn from those with expertise — and those facing challenges in the field. From this, Hytec has been able to identify a need in the VT industry – a need that they can meet – and provide a set of skilled solutions that they believe are lacking in the industry.

Based in Orlando, Florida, Hytec offers aftermarket service solutions on parts provided directly to the manufacturer or field service organizations within an 82,000-ft² service and support center that warehouses hundreds of test beds and simulations for each OEM supported. The company got started repairing circuit boards as a division of Delta Business Systems, with a focus on circuit board repair, said Eric Auman, president and CEO of Hytec. He added:

“We’re trying to bring some of the skill set and quality control that’s worked so well in our industry into other markets. If we can do circuit boards on copiers, we believe we can fix anything. A copier has thousands and thousands of signals going through it, and to date, we haven’t found anything that is near as complicated as what we see on copiers.” 

For the VT industry, Hytec brings some clear differentiation to the industry. The quick turnaround (three-to-five days for most repairs), the commitment to quality control (every board is bench tested, then live tested and even after all of that, it is sent through quality control) and the concept of “board banks.”   Upon numerous interviews with VT OEMs and independents, Hytec found there is nothing like this being offered in the VT industry today. Hytec offers many key services to the VT industry: repair and return of printed circuit boards (PCB), an inventory management and advanced exchange program with PCBs, the repair of electro-mechanical assemblies, sub-assemblies and power supplies. Hytec is also a leader in power protection – with an extensive selection of power protection, conditioning and UPS backup solutions available. 

Repair and Return

Broken or damaged boards are sent to the Hytec repair facility, where the item is inspected, repaired and sent back to the field technicians in record time. Brian Mullaney, elevator sales director for Hytec, said they have heard from major independent elevator partners that there is typically a high level of repaired out-of-the-box failures in the industry. Hytec works to mitigate this concern through live testing using simulators. “We always knew this was essential in our core business, and that we would never want to get away from that,” Mullaney said, adding: 

“We are insuring we grow at the right pace to stick to our core guarantees. We might not be able to fix everything at this time — eventually we will — but we are going to make sure that we have the simulator to be able to support those products with guaranteed processes and simulators. Our goal is to serve the elevator industry with no less than 1% out-of-box repair failures.” 

Inventory Management/Advanced Exchange Program

With the inventory management/advanced exchange program, PCBs are inventoried and can be pre-repaired and sit in the customers’ board bank, making them as soon as same-day available when needed. The broken boards are returned to Hytec and added back into the customer’s inventory for future use. One advantage of this program is the warranty begins when the item is shipped out, so a customer doesn’t have a lot of pre-repaired boards sitting on a shelf with expiring warranties. The customer has access online to their bank and can manage how many to have available as pre-repaired.

“We’ve been managing the banks and inventory of a few major independent elevator companies to allow them to become that much more effective with their inventory resources,” said Mullaney, adding that for a select group of clients: 

“As they do modernizations, they’re taking old materials out and putting new in. They can strip the boards out of the controllers and drop them into their board bank and eventually become self-sufficient and sustaining from a parts perspective.”

The key is to get the parts back to the field technicians quickly to get the elevator back up and running. 

Hytec provides an interactive online catalog that allows companies to see their accounts and instantly know which parts they have available along with the repair status. Hytec’s sophisticated knowledge base documents and systems track every piece available in the system. Mullaney said:

“We really do see our catalog of available parts and offerings for the repair of circuit boards and drives increasing for the VT industry. We view this market as being the next big thing for Hytec. It’s just a really nice feeling to be a part of this industry and being able to provide such transformational solutions to the elevator industry.” 

Power Protection

Working with a few intermediaries, the company provides a full product selection of power protection, conditioning and UPS backup solutions to prevent power spikes and power issues causing failures on the front end.

Bottom Line

With just three years in the VT industry, Hytec attributes its ability to learn about the industry from key partnerships and a productive relationship with the NAEC. Hytec attended the 2022 Louisville, Kentucky, and 2023 Reno, Nevada, conventions to spend time listening, learning and understanding customer needs before determining there was a place for Hytec in the VT industry. NAEC officials introduced company representatives to many key players to learn even more. Hytec has been active with the NAEC and has since joined the membership committee. 

Beyond circuit boards, the company is looking at other types of repairs that can be made, with the main one being drives and motors working with the controllers. Mullaney said these are not well supported in the industry from a repair process, so Hytec plans to focus on this, as well. 

In looking at the VT industry, Hytec provides a service model that supports manufacturers, independents and, ultimately, the technicians. Bruce Nelson, Hytec vice president (VP) of Strategic Initiatives, said:

“The things that we do on a daily basis are so innate to us and so ingrained in who we are, but we have found many of these same traits are new to the elevator industry in a lot of ways. We have taken the processes that have made us a leader in PCB repair for more than 40 years and brought them into the VT space. We are not here to make a quick dollar but are seeking to be a long-term partner in this industry. We built that reputation slowly but surely over many, many years, and the commitment to integrity, processes, quality and partners should help us become a leader in this space as well.”

Look for Hytec at United 2024 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in booth 1553.