面对地震，奥的斯公司如何接受挑战

美国联合技术公司旗下的奥的斯电梯公司日本部在48小时内共接待了48名客户的电话，7天内共维修电梯16400部。
3月11日奥迪斯公司接到日本地震通知后，公司主席丹尼尔还正在家中，他不知道其公司在日本的8万台电梯和2400名员工的情况如何。丹尼尔立刻通知日本的公司联系人Esaki，要求随时和他保持联系。第二天晚上，Esaki告诉他所有员工都安全，然而奥的斯还不知道电梯的情况如何。
奥的斯公司想知道震后是否有人被困在他们生产的电梯当中，在48小时内，他们接到客户打来的1300通电话告知他们电梯的情况。公司安排专门人员每天21小时提供客服服务，及时派出技术人员前往重灾区提供电梯服务。
主席丹尼尔对奥的斯电梯充满信心，公司在日本安装的电梯，特别是高层建筑和地震频发地区的电梯中，都装有地震仪。一旦预测到地震来临，电梯将自动下降到底层，方便乘客离开，然后电梯会自动停止运行，知道有技术人员确认安全之后。
地震仪起了作用。地震区域中，奥的斯16700台电梯通过应急系统自动关闭。奥的斯公司2010年收益达到1100多万美元，生产的8万台电梯中4万台在日本，这些电梯地震中没有造成乘客被困、受伤事故。丹尼尔说：“我们公司的电梯在地震中出色的完成了任务。”
公司下一步决定恢复地震影响区域的电梯运行。在7天内，奥的斯技术人员使16400台电梯恢复运行，他们还在继续检查受损城市中的电梯设备，他们还不能到受到核辐射的福岛县周围。丹尼尔说：“核辐射地区现在还没有办法进入。”
奥的斯位于芝山县的工厂离东京53英里，工厂拥有世界最先进的电梯检测塔。工厂震后曾短暂停工一天，丹尼尔为震后公司运作制定了详细计划，时刻关注日本的动态，“当遇到危机时，你必须要做好一切准备。”

Japan Quake: How Otis Rose to the Challenge

The United Technologies elevator unit took 13,000 calls from Japanese customers in 48 hours and restored service to 16,400 lifts within seven days
When news of the Japanese earthquake reached Didier Michaud-Daniel on the evening of Mar. 11, the president of United Technologies' (UTX) Otis Elevator unit was at his Connecticut home. He suddenly had 80,000 elevators and 2,400 Japanese employees to worry about. So Michaud-Daniel instructed his head of Japanese operations, Eiji "Eddie" Esaki, to "keep me informed, second by second." The next evening, Esaki told him that all the employees were safe. Otis, the world's largest elevator maker, didn't yet know about all of those elevators.
Otis executives weren't sure whether people had been trapped inside their lifts during the earthquake or tsunami. In the 48 hours following the quake, the company received 13,000 calls from customers asking about their elevators. Otis funneled staff to its 21 call centers in Japan and moved technicians from southern Japan into the stricken region.
Michaud-Daniel knew Otis had technology on its side, since about half the elevators it maintains in Japan—including most in high-rise buildings and regions with severe earthquake risk—are equipped with seismic detectors. At the first vibration signaling the onset of a quake, these devices return the elevators to the ground floor so passengers can exit, then block them until Otis can check their safety.
The detectors worked. Some 16,700 elevators in the areas affected by the quake were shut down by the emergency systems. Otis, which had worldwide revenues of $11.58 billion in 2010 and manufactured about 40,000 of the 80,000 elevators it services in Japan, didn't receive any report of trapped or injured passengers. "All the elevators operated as they were supposed to," says Michaud-Daniel.
The next step was to restore service. In seven days, Otis technicians worked around the clock in shifts to restart 16,400 of the 16,700 stopped units. They continue to check equipment in cities and towns struck by the quake, though they haven't gone within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, well beyond the Japanese government's 30 kilometer ban. Because of the radiation threat, Michaud-Daniel says, "we don't know yet what's going to be the next step."
Otis's factory in Shibayama, 53 miles east of Tokyo, which boasts the highest elevator test tower in the world, temporarily suspended operations, but only on the day of the quake. Michaud-Daniel credits careful planning with helping the company maintain smooth operations during the disaster. He still gets twice-daily updates from Japan. "When you have to manage a crisis situation," he says, "you need to have your nose on the window."