First employee’s maintenance invention saves thousands 21 January 2013

First Aberdeen engineer Denis Noble has saved the bus operator thousands of pounds, having invented equipment that helps maintain the company's 32 bendy buses.

Until Noble's invention – essentially, an oil storage tank with a pump – First used a contractor to repair and maintain the turntable rams in the middle section of a bendy bus, which keep the vehicle aligned.

However, the cost of taking the buses out of service, transporting them off-site and paying for repairs was proving expensive, he explains.

"There seemed to me to be a relatively simple alternative, so I sketched out some designs, approached a local engineering company and had it built," states Noble.

"I was confident it would be successful but it proved to be even more effective than I had anticipated," he adds.

Duncan Cameron, First Aberdeen's director and general manager, predicts that Noble's invention will save the company more than £15,000 a year.

"For the few weeks that it has been in operation it has proved incredibly successful. Denis' attention to detail and flair for engineering has certainly reaped rewards. In identifying efficiencies like this and saving the company money, we are able to use those savings to re-invest in the business."

Author
John Challen

Related Companies
First Group

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