For any plant seeking lubrication excellence, there needs to be a visual starting point that sets the stage for what’s to come elsewhere in the facility. There is no better place for that than the lube room. In fact, I’ve never heard of a plant exhibiting excellence in machinery lubrication that doesn’t also exude excellence in the lube room. The lube room serves as the centerpiece and reference state for lubrication excellence. You have to get it right.

This is important because transformation can take a while for large plants. Rome wasn’t built in a day. To succeed, you must have a solid foundation and a constant reminder of what quality and success should look like. It effectively punctuates that this standard of excellence should be replicated at each machine where lubricants are in use. There’s a huge and very important psychological element here.

If you cut corners in the design and quality of your lube room, more critical corners will be cut elsewhere in the plant as well. Mediocracy becomes the norm and will be imbedded in the culture. When this occurs, the lube room transforms into a pigpen of tools, pumps, hoses, grease guns, bottles, totes and drums. Don’t let that happen. Be fussy and demanding, and set a high standard that encourages reliability excellence throughout the rest of the plant.

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The oil can was in need of a major redo years ago. It was grossly outdated in terms of modern views and needs relating to lubrication and machinery reliability. Fortunately, new products sporting highly advanced features have emerged on the market. For clarification, I’ll refer to the historic products as “oil cans” and their modern replacements as S&R containers. S&R is short for “sealable and reusable”.

Despite the obsolescence, the oil can still seems to prevail undeterred in many user organizations like a bad rash. You think it’s finally gone and then it just comes right back. Either these companies that use such archaic products are Neanderthals or they simply do not understand the business case for ditching the old in favor of the new.

This column was written to provide a gentle nudge to those who seem to have trouble getting or understanding this important message. In the world of machine reliability, this message is not trivial but rather a foundational underpinning of a well-engineered reliability program.

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