Several years ago, when my son was a Cub Scout, his den went on a night hike at our local wildlife sanctuary. He and I went together on this outing. We were led by a professional nature guide who worked full-time at the sanctuary. I wasn’t expecting much; after all, what can one see in the forest when it’s pitch dark?

It wasn’t long into the hike before I realized that I was nothing more than a babe in the woods. While I was concentrating on my footing along the trail, our guide was pointing out everything from faint insect smells to the luminescent trailers of caterpillars on tree branches. To her, the forest was an orchestra of sights, sounds and smells. Using only her senses, she named the species of countless birds, mammals and reptiles we encountered along the way. She was in her element … a true professional in tune with her environment. I was impressed.

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How does this relate to lubrication and maintenance? In my view, the most important maintenance function doesn’t require anything from the tool box. It doesn’t require an instrument or an oil sample. It may not be on your PM schedule or lube route.

What it requires instead are skillful inspections that are rapid, comprehensive and frequent. Taking a pointer from speed chess, we need to pick up both inspection tempo and quality by deploying sensory-based (versus instrument-based) condition monitoring techniques. Let’s call them daily OMIs, or one-minute inspections.

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You cannot monitor your way to a healthy machine just like frequent tests for cholesterol and blood pressure do not make their readings lower. Or do they? Monitoring physical conditions brings vision and awareness to health. It is continuous feedback about how we’re doing. In a similar manner, from measured readings we can report and categorize machine conditions as being safe, cautionary or at alarm levels (critical).

Bad news needs a rapid and strong delivery. And it needs an equally spontaneous response. Indifference and procrastination to nonconforming conditions becomes habit forming. It is true that no one likes a negative report, but it doesn’t make it go away; just like we cannot ignore-away the trauma of sudden-death machine failure. It is better to have to deal with 20 minor health inconveniences than the jolt of one terminal case of cancer.

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A sudden change in oil level, either up or down, is a telegraphed alert that something is wrong. And, this “something” could potentially be serious. Deferring maintenance or ignoring this alert could lead to a costly repair and longer downtime in the future. The frequent examination of quality oil level sight glasses by trained inspectors is a sound condition monitoring practice. Perhaps the most important of all lubrication-related inspections.

Whether oil goes up or down, any sudden change in the oil level requires troubleshooting in search of the cause and corrective action. Just adding more oil or removing excessive oil is an activity of treating the symptom, not the cause. True, some oil level changes are rather common and quickly understood. For instance, if oil goes sharply down, you might have a conspicuous leak (internal or external) that can be easily found and plugged.

Internal leakage occurs when a fluid has gone from one compartment to another. Leakage may be associated with seal failure or perhaps the wrong oil in use. Low viscosity oils leak faster than high viscosity oils. An abrupt chemical change in a lubricant can affects its interfacial tension which can increase the rate of leakage.

If the oil level goes up, this may be due to the introduction of new fluid. For example, perhaps someone added too much oil, or another fluid like a coolant or even fuel has entered the system, which has raised the oil level.

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Early detection means frequent detection. While daily one-minute visual inspections have been discussed previously in Machinery Lubrication magazine, many questions remain, including where and how you inspect, what the observed conditions mean, and how you penetrate a machine’s exoskeleton exterior without X-ray vision.

There are three important inspection zones in common oil reservoirs and sumps. These zones have a story to tell about your oil and machine. They might be difficult to reach, but difficult does not mean impossible and certainly doesn’t mean unnecessary. Let’s get inside that exoskeleton and see what we need to know.

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Inspection, in its most basic form, has been around forever. However, like most things in life, what you get out of an activity depends entirely on what you put in. This column is about radical reinvention of the whole concept of machine inspection. It has little to do with conventional practices of doing daily machine rounds.

With Inspection 2.0, you don’t just “look” at a bearing, seal, coupling or pump. Instead, you “examine” these components with a keen and probing eye. Inspection 2.0 is intense and purposeful. It seeks to penetrate and extract information from what’s been referred to as machine sign language. Inspection 2.0 requires polished linguistic skills to translate this sign language into prescribed activities and instructions that stabilize reliability.

The technologies of machine condition monitoring have been advancing at a near break-neck pace in recent years. These innovations will continue for decades to come. Still, for the vast majority of machines, there is currently no fault-detecting technology more effective than the razor-sharp and relentless focus of a human being.

The potential of a human being as a condition monitoring instrument is enormous. This potential depends on transformation, specifically from the going-through-​the-motions inspections of the past to mission-intensive detective work inspections of the future. That is the essence of Inspection 2.0.

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Most of us know that healthy lubricants are generally clear and bright. However, as oils age they can lose their luster, and many become dark and opaque. These optical changes are often important symptoms of impending problems that, if occur prematurely, merit further analysis and corrective action.

However, in other cases they can be benign or simply the result of the oil’s normal aging process. So how do we know the difference, especially without having to perform complex laboratory analysis? Like much in the field of oil analysis, answering such questions depends first on better understanding the nature of the problem.

We can score an oil visually the same way gemologists grade diamonds; by color and clarity. An oil’s luster or brightness is influenced by both of these options.

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I have written several articles on inspection recently, as I strongly believe it is foundational to condition monitoring, machine reliability and asset management. My last Machinery Lubrication column introduced the term “Inspection 2.0” to differentiate conventional inspection practices from the intense, probing and purposeful methods needed to optimize benefits. As common as inspection activities may be in any plant, Inspection 2.0 is largely untapped in my opinion. In fact, it is delusional to imagine world-class reliability without the coexistence of world-class inspection.

Inspection 2.0 borrows from many battle-tested philosophies, including the practice of autonomous maintenance advanced by total productive maintenance (TPM) doctrine. However, not detailed in these philosophies is the “how-to” to move an organization past the inspection status quo to the real game-changing opportunity that eludes their view. I plan to address these differences and the “how-to” tactics in several upcoming Machinery Lubrication articles.

This article introduces the concept of machine readiness as a critical enabler to Inspection 2.0. An inspector who is eager to determine the state of machine health – good or bad – needs help from the machine. What hurts, where does it hurt and what are the symptoms of being hurt? Information exchange, like basic communication, is a two-way street. There is a need to enhance the quality of machine-transmitted conditions so the inspector gets a clear and complete picture of the state of the machine’s health.

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Like most business plans and strategies, an inspection plan should be built from the top down. It should begin with a clear statement of corporate goals and objectives related to asset management.

This approach is addressed in ISO 55001. Another global standard currently under construction by the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML), ICML 55 focuses on optimized management of lubricated assets. It is aligned to ISO 55001 guidelines as well.

A full-on inspection plan should also be a detailed and comprehensive document to ensure that key features and functional elements are not overlooked. From there, it can be abridged or streamlined for quick review by technicians and operators.

The unabridged version of the plan can even serve as a rough curriculum for training and competency testing for both current and aspiring new inspectors.

A well-constructed inspection plan enhances the likelihood and magnitude of successful and sustained deployment. The discussion that follows is more about codifying the structure of an inspection plan, including the tasks and main features that should be incorporated when writing a plan.

Modern reliability and asset management programs expect documented, procedure-based work plans. This reduces the risk of variability, uncertainty and drift over time. The plan is best if it is consensus-based and continually improved.

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Doctors have perfected the skills of conducting physical exams. They know what questions to ask and how to examine the body for clues that signify health, injury or disease.

The same is true of pilots. They are taught how to perform critical preflight checks or inspections that reveal mechanical condition and safety.

By walking around the plane with checklist in hand, pilots survey the aircraft for signs of tire damage, maintenance errors, material defects, and even sabotage.

Mechanics, lubrication technicians and even equipment operators must be skilled at giving physicals as well. Like the doctor or pilot, they need to be alert to subtle changes or symptoms that might be an early sign of machine malfunction or accelerated wear.

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Even the very best motor oils cannot safeguard against sludge when free water is present. Within several minutes after starting an engine, the oil typically reaches the thermostat setting. This heat can drive off the moisture, even in cold winter conditions. However, it can sometimes take 15 to 20 minutes of continuous driving before the condensed moisture has dissipated.

When water accumulates in sooty used oil and remains in the engine for an extended time, the damage to the oil is irreversible. This is why short-trip “Aunt Minnie” drivers need to change their car’s oil more frequently.

How frequently? If you are a short-trip driver like me, consider performing a simple blotter spot test before a scheduled oil change in order to regulate the optimum oil change interval to your driving conditions and climate. If you see undispersed soot, characterized by an inability of the soot to wick outward into the card stock, this may indicate that you need to change your oil more frequently.

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The well-known KISS principle (keep it simple stupid) was first coined in the 1960s and began widespread use in the U.S. Navy shortly thereafter. While it started as a design principle for engineers, it has since been applied to any activity or creative endeavor that has had the propensity to become unnecessarily complicated.

What becomes overly complicated also becomes, by default, poorly understood and sparsely used. Conversely, the greater genius in design and engineering lies in achieving the design objective through simplicity and pureness of form.

This can be applied to the world of oil analysis in many ways. Increasingly, oil analysis has become engulfed by complex analytical chemistry and mathematical algorithms. This science is successful when it takes the complicated, such as an array of particles of varying shapes, sizes, textures, colors and compositions, and puts their formation into plain English (e.g., cutting wear on cylinder walls).

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Dipstick oil analysis may sound a little goofy, but it works. Not to mention it’s also cheap and quick. There’s only one problem – figuring out what the oil on the dipstick really means. No worry. Sit tight for five easy lessons on reading your oil dipstick.

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Inspection 2.0 is rooted in some of the most fundamental and time-honored maintenance principles. One of them is total productive maintenance (TPM). Today, it’s hard to play an active role in the field of maintenance and reliability without encountering and embracing TPM. Honestly, it is delusional to think otherwise.

World-class maintenance organizations understand the intrinsic value of a well-tuned and culture-driven TPM program. World-class TPM programs are fundamentally powered by keen observation. You can’t fix what you can’t see. Therefore, all progress hinges on the power of observation. Allowing you to see is the bedrock. Improve the quality of inspection and, by default, you improve the quality of TPM and all the benefits that TPM seeks to achieve. It’s that simple!

The origin of TPM can be traced back to the Japanese automobile industry in the 1960s. It has many similar elements to the quality movement that was advanced in Japan during the same period. However, it wasn’t until 1988 that the western world learned of TPM when two seminal English texts were published on the subject by Seiichi Nakajima. From that point, TPM spread across the vast global maintenance and reliability landscape.

TPM has similarities and overlapping features with other branded maintenance philosophies, including reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), condition-based maintenance (CBM) and asset management (see Figure 1). However, its strongest difference is the active and responsible role of machine operators and small groups toward maintenance prevention and improved asset utilization.

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This is the most common form of leakage. It is also known as external leakage. Out-leakage relates to a failure of containment. Typically, liquids or gases follow the path of least resistance, going from high pressure to lower pressure. A crack, clearance, orifice or unsealed space becomes the leakage path through which the fluid, gas or even solids (aggregate) exit to the surrounding environment.

The machines most prone to oil leakage are compressors, process pumps, engines and hydraulic systems. Think of an automobile engine, the product of billions of dollars of engineering advancements spanning more than a century. As sophisticated as it might be, we still see the ubiquitous presence of oil and coolant leakage on the pavement of garages and parking lots. We, therefore, must depend heavily on early detection and prompt corrective action to keep leakage under control.

For certain machines and production processes, out-leakage can result in the contamination of the product being produced (food, beverage, paper, etc.). Hydraulic systems, due to their high pressures, are the most prone to leakage, which can occur in multiple locations but is usually seen at fittings, hoses, dynamic seals and static seals. Seals used to control out-leakage are called retention seals. Many seals attempt to serve both functions of retention and exclusion.

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When most of us refer to inspection, we are thinking of running machines inspected routinely, say on daily rounds. Unarguably, this type of on-the-run inspection is critical to machine condition monitoring, but other types of inspections are important as well.

At its best, inspection seeks and finds the “precursors” to failure, also known as root causes. This is job one, for sure. Next, inspection must hunt down those elusive incipient failure conditions (the earliest detectable state) that can be as difficult as the sound of a “pin drop” for our senses to detect.

The time horizon when inspection should incur spans from cradle to grave. I’ve emphasized in past columns that Inspection 2.0 is a continuous state of vigilance.

The moment you let your guard down is exactly the time when the enduring Mr. Murphy makes his entrance. To fend off risk and vulnerability, the wise and reliability-intensive organization performs inspection across multiple states.

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Perhaps you’ve heard that machine reliability is everyone’s responsibility. In a general sense, this is very true and needed. We should all keep our eyes alert to issues, large and small. We should foster an inspection and proactive maintenance culture. Inspection is largely about relentless and purposeful sensory observation. Any competent and responsible person near a machine can and should serve as the inspector of the moment.

It’s not just about the machine. There are five inspection operating states, as I discussed in a previous column. Take machine parts, for instance. They frequently are staged in warehouses or on shelves and pallets near operating machines and other active work areas. Sooner or later these components become an integral part of the machines or machine trains where they are intended to be used. Inspection is a cradle-to-grave process, including all the parts that build to a complete and functioning machine or train.

Whatever impaired state or condition the part sustains or is exposed to eventually will be transferred to the operating machine. Even the smallest components that are infected with issues can metastasize and impart hazards and destruction to operating process lines and beyond. It’s not the cost of the repair but rather the cost of lost production that matters, often at many multiples of the repair cost.

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