Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1080534
46 | January - February 2019 | www . machinerylubrication.com BACK PAGE BASICS An often-overlooked element is the cyclical decay of the program over time. is issue can send even the best reliability cultures into decline. A plan must be put in place to ensure the program's continued success, including documented guidelines and processes that are entrenched into the plant's culture. Otherwise, the program will begin to decay over time due to turnover. is deterioration of the program through individuals leaving or taking different positions within the company can occur at any level. Once it has begun, redirecting its course can be difficult. One final consideration in this stage of development is the benchmarking or assess- ment of the program against itself as well as other sites. It is critical to know where you started so you can identify and illustrate your progress throughout the journey. As you share best practices, common challenges and paths toward excellence with sister sites, the possibility of creating and sustaining a culture change becomes more optimistic. Constructing Short-term and Long-term Goals Like any process, changing the culture requires detailed short-term goals, broad long-term goals and non-negotiable stan- dards (or lines in the sand) to define the scope. As goals are established, be sure they are measurable, realistic, feasibly completed within the specified timeframe and paired with an action. Short-term goals should be defined with detailed steps on how to execute the plan. ese goals should be able to be accomplished in less than a year and show continued success of the lubrication program. ey should also be reviewed at every meeting to confirm that the lubrication team is working toward the overall vision. Long-term goals should be a bit broader and can often be used as a platform from which the small-term goals derive. ese long- term goals, which may vary in length from 18 months to three years, should be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis. By creating standards or non-negotiables for your program, you can establish lines in the sand for possible future concerns. ese standards may be identified from several different areas, such as within the company's overall vision or based on best practices deter- mined through benchmarking at other sites. A few examples of these non-negotiables might include maintaining mutual trust among all levels of personnel or sustaining a culture of continuing education within the team. Establishing a Path Forward Once the program's status has been reviewed and goals and standards have been developed, the next step is to establish a path forward. is is where many lubrication teams follow through on an interim basis but struggle to make continuous progress. Poor documentation of the process is often to blame. Addressing this concern will go a long way toward creating and sustaining the culture change. Documentation can help to ensure all projects, work instructions and general lubrication tasks are performed the same way regardless of the individual, shift or department. It also leaves a footprint on the program for future team members to know where it has been in the past, what obstacles have been overcome and the planned overall direction of the program. Among the key areas to focus on with program documentation would include identi- fying a criticality matrix, tying components to maintenance strategies, and enhancing the plant's maintenance planning and scheduling strategy. A criticality matrix should determine the component's overall value to the site. It should begin as a complete asset list and include factors such as criticality to the process, cost to replace, likelihood of failure, possibility of catastrophic failure and what the associated downtime would be if the asset failed. After the criticality matrix has been created, it is time to put it to use to decide which maintenance strategies to employ. If a piece of equipment has a low criticality score, costs very little to replace and does not have a significant impact on the plant, it might be a good candidate for reactive or breakdown maintenance in which no work is performed on the equipment until it fails. A large percentage of the plant's equipment likely will fall in the preventive maintenance realm. ese pieces of equipment require attention on a set frequency. One overlooked concept behind this strategy is utilizing historical data to drive the frequencies at which the tasks are performed. Adjusting these timeframes can eliminate wasted down- time and labor as well as allow better use of the associated maintenance time. Predictive maintenance strategies should be employed on more critical equipment where it is imperative to address failure as soon as it happens, while proactive maintenance strate- gies should be utilized across all areas of the plant to resolve problems and minimize the number of issues that occur. Keep in mind that an asset may have more than one maintenance strategy associated with it, and each strategy should be documented in the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). 76% of lubrication professionals say their organi- zation has attempted to change its lubri- cation culture, based on a recent survey at MachineryLubrication.com