Rome was not built in a day. Transformational change takes time. You’ve heard the expression, “once begun, you’re halfway done.”

But what are the milestones along the way? In other words, what are the stages or levels of transformation on the pathway to excellence? How can they be described in the most basic terms? That’s the subject of my column today.

The seven levels are in sequential order. Some organizations may elect to skip or leapfrog over two or more levels. Others may realize the virtue of getting a few small wins first before moving on to higher levels. There could be danger or pitfalls in moving too fast.

Slow and steady wins the race. Moving rapidly through the levels may be more achievable if you are counseled by an experienced person or team who has step-staged through these levels before.

The post The Seven Levels to Lubrication Excellence appeared first on Tesibis.

These days an increasing number of companies are trying to achieve a state of lubrication called “lubrication excellence.” Others might call this “world-class” lubrication. Most understand the reliability benefit gained when excellence in lubrication is attained, yet even those who are professionals in reliability and maintenance too often have vague ideas of what defines lubrication excellence.

We all know that machines used in plant production processes are designed and built to engineering specifications intended to achieve a desired level of performance, efficiency and productivity. Using this same concept, it is reasonable to write an engineering specification for machine reliability and lubrication excellence. In the specification would be an itemized list of critical attributes needed to achieve the desired state of reliability. It should be noted that only part of the specification relates to the design and modification of the machine.

In the past, these critical attributes have sometimes been called “best practice” or the “rights of lubrication,” but what exactly defines best practice and these so-called rights? A true engineering specification must be precisely defined and purposeful. It needs to not only permit the desired level of reliability to be achieved but also be within reach of most reliability and lubrication teams.

I would like to introduce a new term called the Optimum Reference State related to the integrated and collective use of these critical attributes. Let me define this important term:

“The Optimum Reference State (ORS) is the prescribed state of machine configuration, operating conditions and maintenance activities required to achieve and sustain specific reliability objectives.”

Note the definition for the ORS does not state a requirement to “maximize” reliability. This is because a point can be reached where the incremental cost of reliability exceeds the incremental benefit (point of diminishing return). Such overspending on lubrication is seen, for example, when synthetics are used in marginal applications or when lubricants are changed too frequently. Like many things in engineering and reliability, there is a “precision” component to good decisions.

The post Creating an Engineering Specification for Lubrication Excellence appeared first on Tesibis.

When it comes to oil analysis and lubrication, it goes without saying that execution beats brilliance. And, this execution does not mean a single high-impact feat. Instead, it is a continuous value-building activity, beginning with perhaps a marked change in maintenance philosophy. Many refer to this as a nurturing process, i.e., nurturing your oil and hence, nurturing your machine’s lubricated surfaces. Does it take a new strategy to succeed at this? Not in all cases, but tips, tactics, and strategies definitely help. After all, why not do things the easy way and borrow the learning curve from those who have been there and done that.

The post Defining and Executing Excellence in Lubrication appeared first on Tesibis.

I first met Ron Moore in the early 1990s. He is known as an icon in the reliability community and is the author of an excellent book entitled What Tool? When? This book tackles a delicate subject that is both difficult and controversial.

Moore examines and contrasts the world’s most notorious and respected philosophies in the field of maintenance and reliability. These include lean manufacturing, kaizen, total productive maintenance (TPM), Six Sigma, reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), root cause analysis (RCA), predictive maintenance (PdM) and others.

Which of these philosophies does a user organization really need? Is there a priority order or logical sequence to their use? Which produces the greater benefit or return for the lowest risk or investment? How sustainable are they? These are all great questions that require an answer, especially for those seeking a major transformation in their maintenance and reliability programs.

For those of you in the reliability field, this book is a must read. Lectures and interviews with Moore can also be found on YouTube and in the “Rooted in Reliability” podcasts for an abridged understanding of his main themes.

The post Philosophies of Transformational Change and ICML 55 appeared first on Tesibis.

The first step in designing a lubrication management program is to have a qualified professional perform a lubrication audit. Its objectives should be to:

• Identify current practices and suggest best-practice alternatives.
• Identify improvement and cost reduction opportunities in lubrication management, storage, handling, and disposal.
• Identify opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of oil analyses by incorporating or refining sampling methods, test slates, on-site analyses, target cleanliness levels, data alarms/limits, and sampling frequencies.
• Review contamination control and proactive maintenance practices and propose improvements to them.
• Identify opportunities and needs for lubricant consolidation and purchasing standards.
• Examine the way oil analysis is integrated with other maintenance technologies.
• Suggest needs for training and documenting procedures.

The post Effective Lube Oil Management appeared first on Tesibis.

Arguably, more change has occurred related to lubricant analysis and condition monitoring in the past 30 years than all other areas of lubrication. Why does this make sense? The wisest among us know that relentless measurement is a key enabler to forward progress and change. Measurement leads us to awareness and finally to action (tangible results). Of course, there are many other factors that share in importance too. These are thoroughly mapped on the Ascend Chart.

There are nine critical factors in this Condition Monitoring, Lubricant Analysis and Troubleshooting Lifecycle Stage of the Ascend chart. Each one is important enough to justify a feature article describing its purpose and application. And honestly, one or more articles on each of these subjects can already be found at machinerylubrication.com. What has become clear after years of working in the lubricant analysis field is that the concept of best practice is not as intuitive as one would expect at the outset. As a result, from my observation, the vast majority of oil analysis and inspection programs fall miserably short of their full potential.

Therein lies the opportunity and low-hanging fruit ready for harvest. Even those who have benefited from training often seem to struggle with anything more than fragmented execution. We are fully aware that knowing is not the same thing as doing. The Ascend Methodology was devised specifically to enable user organizations to succeed in full and successful execution, each stage, each level, each factor. The roadmap is clear, the journey and execution remains with you. Listen to your oil… listen to your machine. Lubricant analysis and inspection serve as the most important metric of a lubrication program. I often say, “it’s darn hard for there to be a problem with the machine without the lubricant knowing about it first.” So, let’s examine the oil the right way, again, again and again. The story is being told but we must listen and act.

The post Listen to Your Lubricant appeared first on Tesibis.

This past year I’ve been spending a lot of time studying the possibilities of ISO 55000, especially its long-term impact on the lubrication field. I was a bit skeptical at first. Now I view it as a game-changer to machinery asset management and the field of reliability in general. If you haven’t heard of ISO 55000, this might be a great time to get acquainted – very acquainted.

ISO 55000 is an international standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), created and approved by representatives from 10 countries, 50 organizations and 15 different industries. The foundational elements of ISO 55000 originate from the British Standards Institution (BSI) standard PAS 55. It provides an overarching framework for using modern principles of asset management to achieve a wide range of precisely defined organizational objectives.

An asset, by definition, is anything that has future value. Plant machinery and equipment are most commonly referred to as assets. However, people are assets too, as is software, intellectual property (e.g., patents and trademarks), knowledge/skills, goodwill and so much more. In a nutshell, asset management can probably be best summed up by the following sentences excerpted from ISO 55000. Certain words are italicized to emphasize concepts and themes that I will further develop in this and future columns.

The post Will ISO 55000 Change the Definition of Lubrication Excellence? appeared first on Tesibis.

Machinery lubrication is critical to reliability efforts at a power plant. Numerous studies cite poor or ineffective management of the lubrication process as a leading cause of forced plant outages. Poor lubrication also compromises efforts to extend intervals between and reduce the duration of scheduled outages. Precision machinery lubrication is a profit-driven, holistic strategy to engineer lubrication maintenance activities and the organization that carries them out. It employs engineered, procedure-driven techniques to optimize lubricant selection, lubrication management and application techniques, organization training and development, and the employment of world-class lubricant analysis techniques. It delivers consistently high lubrication quality that maximizes profit by optimizing lubrication-related costs to own and operate machinery.

The post Precision Lubrication for the Power Generation Industry appeared first on Tesibis.