Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1061099
46 | November - December 2018 | www . machinerylubrication.com TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION within engineering groups supporting the shuttle program. e Jacobs team decided its new oil analysis program would build on that eff ort. Jacobs envisioned improvements to the way lubricants were received, stored, transported, tested and analyzed while anticipating that implementing best practices would align to all customer needs. However, some system engineers were skeptical of the value to be gained by such a program, expressing concern about kitting, delivery changes and whether test results would depict the accurate health of the system. Jacobs knew that oil analysis could provide the necessary insight on all TOSC assets to optimize the ground support equipment's maintenance program, and that champions would need to be identifi ed to make it happen. erefore, Jacobs' management selected two engineers and two technicians to form the M&R Group, and they started to devise an implementation plan. ey opted to develop everything in-house by seeking training, attending conferences, acquiring front-line user feedback, and studying resources in order to educate themselves and adapt what they were learning to their specifi c needs and priorities. How It Works e M&R Group named its new program the "oil pharmacy" because it established an easy, accessible one-stop shop off ering solutions for nearly every ailment connected to proper storage practices, lubricant consol- idation, distribution, testing, analysis and employee training. Within the first two years, the team executed changes involving storage and distri- bution, including inventory consolidation, an air-conditioned co-location, procedural docu- mentation and the introduction of lubrication codes. e team piloted its program with one group of system engineers — the Cranes, Doors and Platforms Group — with the intention of expanding to other groups as new procedures were established. Once the system engineers witnessed the insights provided by oil analysis and realized they were receiving cleaner lubricants faster and with greater confi dence in their suitability, they became advocates of the program. The program's development was further validated as ICML certifi cations were introduced in 2016. e oil analysis lab is a major component of the oil pharmacy. Designed in-house and based on best practices, the lab is conveniently co-located with the storage area and equipped to diagnose the health of lubricants and assets. It receives oil samples from all TOSC system engineering groups requiring machine lubri- cation and analyzes each lubricant for wear, contamination and chemistry composition. Reports are then provided to the system engi- neers with recommendations on how to act on the results. e lab also analyzes oils upstream of service, including those newly arrived from a supplier, sitting in storage for other contracts or upon delivery to large and critical machines. Oil samples are collected in new, clean containers with appropriate labeling. All technicians have been trained on how to take proper samples from the specifi c hardware confi gurations where they work. Analysis employs a combination of particle counting (ISO codes), elemental spectroscopy (individual metals in parts per million) and wear density (wear particle concentration, percent ferrous, micrograms per milliliter, wear index, etc.) to ensure all large and small particles are recognized. e lab's testing equipment was arranged to accommodate frequency of use and purchased based on self-guided research, vendor tutorials, and ease-of-use suggestions gleaned at conferences. All assets were loaded into the selected management software, with limits applied consensually by system engi- neers, manufacturer direction and drawing requirements. e team uses enterprise asset management software to track asset hierarchy, baseline asset information, condition assess- ments, labor time and material costs, along with details on oil sampling routes, grease caddy inspections, etc. e Jacobs M&R Group runs the oil anal- ysis program in conjunction with a broader reliability team, which includes vibration analysis, thermography and other condition monitoring technologies and tactics. "We recognize that it takes a suite of tools to get the job done," said Sean Hollis, Jacobs TOSC reliability engineer. "Routine oil anal- ysis and static motor analysis are performed independently, but in all other maintenance and troubleshooting situations, other tech- nologies are utilized to corroborate fi ndings as necessary." e overall success of the Jacobs program was buoyed by three key elements: a lubri- cation manual, management support and ICML certifi cations. The oil pharmacy lab includes 6-S best practices and an assembly line for oil analysis.