Creating an effective plant lubrication program

The goal of every lubrication program should be to ensure that all equipment receives and maintains the proper levels of lubrication such that no equipment fails due to inadequate or improper lubrication.

In order for this to happen, we must follow the five ‘R’s of lubrication — meaning the right lubricant, right condition, right location, right amount, right frequency are followed for each piece of equipment. Whether you are building a lubrication program from scratch or are falling in on an existing one, the following four phases must be addressed in order to have an effective lubrication program that will meet your plant reliability goals.

• Program development
• Program implementation
• Program management
• Program improvement.

Lubrication program development

In the program development phase you will need to address the following areas:

• Develop an equipment list
• Conduct a lubrication survey
• Select lubricants
• Consolidate lubricants (if applicable)
• Develop a lubrication manual
• Purchase necessary lubrication equipment
• Set the lubrication preventive maintenance (PM) frequency.

Before a plant can begin implementing a lubrication program, it is necessary to create or obtain a current list of all equipment that requires lubrication. This list should include all types of equipment requiring lubrication — not just the usual pumps, motors and compressors. Resources for this information can be your computerised maintenance management system (CMMS), plant maintenance files, piping and instrument diagrams and also a physical survey of the plant. The minimum output from this process should be equipment identification name and number, and process description.

The lubrication survey will consist of a detailed lubrication inspection of all plant equipment. Each machine will be studied and its related characteristics recorded. Obtaining this information is time consuming and may take several days or weeks to complete. The lubrication survey is the only way of obtaining an accurate picture of current lubrication practices and it is the basis for future steps to select lubricants and improve lubrication practices. Since a general knowledge of the design of a machine is required for making decisions about its lubrication requirements, it may be necessary to make frequent references to machine drawings and OEM manuals.

Once lubricants have been selected for each piece of equipment in the program, it is important to review the list and determine if there are any opportunities to reduce the total number of lubricants that will be used in the program. In some instances you may find that there are only a few pieces of equipment that use a particular brand or grade of lubricant; and by allowing for a change in lubricant viscosity (as long as you do not compromise the design criteria of the equipment), it is possible to eliminate the use of the lubricant entirely. Reducing the number of lubricants has the following effect on the program:

• Reduces the number of lubricants that have to be purchased and stored
• Reduces the chance for misapplication and cross contamination
• Reduces the number of lubricants that have to be documented and controlled for environmental compliance.

The rationale of creating a lubrication manual is to have one place where all pertinent lubrication information gathered in the process can reside. After all the time and effort expended to locate and collect the data, it is worthwhile to consolidate that information into an electronic lubrication manual so it can be easily referenced by all plant personnel. Also, by having an electronic lubrication manual your program can become a living organism. If any change needs to be made like a change in supplier or consolidation, the changes can be made with minor intrusion into the program. A detailed lubrication manual at a minimum should have the following:

• Equipment number and description
• Equipment picture
• Lubricant section from the OEM manual
• Selected lubricant technical data sheet
• Selected lubricant Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).

When purchasing the necessary equipment for your lubrication program, we must remember that we want our lubricant in the right condition. In storing lubricants we want to ensure the lubricants that are used are deployed in a first-in-first-out manner, remembering that all lubricants have a shelf life. When applying lubricants the following equipment is recommended but not limited to:

• Storage racks
• Sealed plastic heavy-duty oil dispensing containers
• Grease guns
• Bulk lubricant storage containers
• Filter carts.

Before entering the lubrication task into the CMMS or enterprise asset management system (EAM), it is necessary to determine the frequency at which the lubrication tasks will be repeated. This information, along with the other data collected, will be input into the system and used to generate a service schedule. Services to be performed should include but not be limited to:

• Lubrication inspection and top-up
• Equipment visual inspection
• Equipment temperature readings
• Oil sampling (as required).

Implementing the lubrication program

Once all the data has been collected and gathered in the development phase it must go somewhere. If the information isn’t there already, it must go into the plant’s CMMS or EAM system. Once in the CMMS or EAM we must ensure that the PM and task frequencies are set. Once the frequencies have been set, create the lube routes. Review routes for clarity and consistency — if any changes need to be made ensure they are made and then set the inspection scheduler (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Lubrication implementation flow chart.

Another key factor in implementing a program is to have your safety practices developed and in place. When it comes to lubrication safety, there are a number of unique aspects regarding the use and handling of lubricants. By their very nature lubricants are slippery, and when a lubricant is accidentally spilled or leaked onto the operating floor or any other undesirable location it can lead to a high-risk situation that must be immediately attended to in order to prevent personal injury.

In addition, most lubricants are flammable, so correct fire-hazard precautions should be taken. Finally, some lubricants can cause personnel health problems when the lubricant comes into contact with the skin. Items for consideration for your safety practices are the following but not limited to:

• Material Safety Data Sheets are available and are reviewed
• Lockout procedures are followed
• Leaks are under control
• Spill response is in place
• Handling practices maintain a safe environment
• Lubrication equipment use is understood
• Sampling procedures are followed.

All staff performing lubrication-related work must be properly trained to ensure the effectiveness and the consistency of the program. Also, we must ensure that there are procedures for all major tasks and functions within the lubrication program. If these documents exist they must be reviewed and evaluated. When reviewing these documents and procedures, we must ensure that they support the maintenance strategy, address the purpose of the task and give clear guidance and direction to complete all tasks in a safe, effective and efficient manner.

Managing the lubrication program

Managing your lubrication program is the third phase in this journey. Large amounts of maintenance dollars and resources are often budgeted to develop and implement an initiative such as a lubrication program. Once the program is in place, however, insufficient attention might be provided to ensure that full benefit is continually received from the initial expenditure. Programs put in place to meet a requirement or management expectation, without established ownership and a guiding vision, can decay into a low value day-to-day chore.

As work requests and work orders are written we must ensure there is clarity in what work needs to be performed. All too often there is a lack of information delivered from the floor which can lead to poor planning and scheduling efforts. Once the work has been identified, scheduled and then executed comes the most important portion of this entire process — documenting the work performed. Work history is one of the greatest struggles faced daily in the manufacturing world. In most facilities there are pockets of excellence within the organisation, but there may be multiple systems being utilised creating a problem when the information collected does not get back to the main software system. All work information needs to be documented and available for review in the main CMMS or EAM. In order to improve your program you must have good history.

Improving the lubrication program

In order to improve your program you must identify from detailed equipment history where your lubrication issues are within your facility. When assessing your equipment history you must ask yourself is the MTBF you have acceptable? Does your plant have a goal for what the MTBF should be? Is your associated cost for maintaining your equipment acceptable? If any of these answers are no, you must create a paretto analysis to prioritise what equipment needs to be looked at, examining the failures and cost. Once the paretto has been completed, decisions can be made about whether to conduct a root cause failure analysis or go through the reliability centred maintenance methodologies to determine if the current PM procedures are acceptable. Once these are conducted and the cost to make the necessary changes is acceptable, adopt these changes and make the corrections or additions to the current PM process. After these are implemented you must come back and continually address these issues as they arise. If the costs are not acceptable you must go back to the beginning and develop a strategy to implement the change (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Improvement process work flow chart.

Another area concerned with improving your lubrication program is your lubricant analysis program, and having established goals and metrics used to track progress of the program.

Lubricant analysis is commonly used as a diagnostic tool in most facilities; however, many oil analysis programs lack the proper set-up and utilisation of data that is needed to gain maximum benefit. All too often, an oil analysis result is provided to the customer in a hard-copy format with generic recommendations and is usually filed never to be looked at until time for an audit. In these situations, oil analysis provides little or no value to the organisation and to the overall reliability posture of the facility.

The establishment of goals and metrics is key to improving a lubrication program. The selection of specific program goals and the development of key performance indicators by which to measure the progress towards these goals are largely dependent on the maturity of the program. Unfortunately, the development of goals and metrics continues to be an area of weakness in many lubrication programs. Although most organisations have established corporate and plant-specific goals and metrics aimed at overall operating and maintenance improvements, few programs have established goals and metrics at the technology level. The key program element is required to ensure lubrication program excellence. It is also important to have a clear understanding of the current status of the program, and it is equally important to have both vision and focus on the continued improvements that can be made to the program to realise effective and efficient fulfilment of the lubrication needs of the organisation.

Continuous improvement is an important element of a comprehensive lubrication program, but is often overlooked. In order to get better, it is necessary to understand where you are. By using an appropriate audit or self-assessment process, an organisation will have a roadmap to address and evaluate where it presently stands, and where its focus needs to be. It must also be understood that continuous improvement is a living program, continually changing to ensure both equipment reliability and ultimate cost effectiveness.

Conclusion

Increasing equipment reliability should be the goal of any plant lubrication program. Whether you are developing a program from scratch or falling into an existing program, if you follow these four phases you have the ability to develop and create a world-class lubrication program. Remember nothing will ever be perfect, but if you strive for perfection you will find excellence — and excellence in lubrication means the difference between inconsistency and reliability, poor plant availability and optimum overall equipment effectiveness.

JSG Industrial Systems Pty Ltd
www.jsgindustrial.com
Trico Corporation
www.tricocorp.com

References

Heinz P, Bloch PE. Practical Lubrication for Industrial Facilities. The Fairmont Press, 2000.
Leugner L. The Practical Handbook of Machinery Lubrication. Maintenance Technology International, 2005.