Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1356397
6 | March - April 2021 | www . machinerylubrication.com 6 | March - April 2021 | www . machinerylubrication.com AS I SEE IT But maintenance and reliability are vast concepts, the subjects of hundreds of books. ere are so many "controllable" choices to navigate. What should one do first, second, third etc.? Where exactly are those elusive silver bullets and big bang-for-your-buck opportuni- ties? eir discovery is the mission of today's lubrication and reliability professionals. 3. Find the Hidden Plant Every plant has a hidden plant that must be found. What does that mean? Basically this: within every plant there are assets and resources (including people and energy) that go unutilized or underutilized for consider- able periods of time throughout a work year. e extent of unutilized or underutilized assets and resources defines the magnitude of the hidden plant. is is usually where denial creeps in. Many in the maintenance field say they are already "too lean" for there to be a hidden plant. ey might also say, for this reason or that, that they can't operate production at a higher capacity and certainly not near 100% capacity. A good place to start in solving this paradox is to take a careful look at metrics like planned work versus reactive work for unmet opportunities for change. Back to proactive maintenance. ere are three simple steps to successful implementa- tion that we have gleaned from hundreds of case studies. ese are listed below, using the example of lubricant cleanliness to provide context: 1. Set target cleanliness levels needed to achieve the reliability objective (e.g., a 2X machine life extension). 2. Through contaminant exclusion and removal, achieve the target cleanliness levels. 3. Routinely monitor fluid cleanliness to verify that target cleanliness levels have been achieved. I am guessing that fewer than 10% of maintenance organizations follow these three steps. ose who say they do are unknowingly failing at the most important step: No. 1. Machine life extension is achieved by setting targets significantly lower (cleaner) than historical averages and typically even lower than OEM and laboratory recommendations. I've been involved with the ICML since it was but a germ of an idea, back in the year 2000. Today, the ICML is world-renowned and is arguably the largest certifying body in the reliability space. It proudly cele- brates its 20th anniversary of service to the lubrication and oil analysis community world- wide this year. In 1999, on the sudden passing of my dear friend and colleague Peter Ball, I was appointed the position of Convenor of Working Group 4 (tribology) for the ISO con- dition monitoring committee TC108/SC5. We met once or twice each year in such places as Nanjing (China), Vienna and London. The international membership of my working group was extensive. A new standard was under de- velopment and later published, now known widely as ISO 18436-4 related to training and certification of machinery lubricant analysts. However, with that standard there was need for a certifying body to develop and administer testing around the world. That need led to the inception of the ICML. Since then, I've served on the ICML's Board of Directors, and over the ensuing years we have added many certifications and awards. The most recent is Ma- chinery Lubrication Engineer (MLE) which is the ICML's flagship certification. In my opinion, the MLE is the most prestigious lubrication dis- tinction on the planet. The development of the MLE was long and ardu- ous, starting with the Body of Knowledge, then the Domain of Knowledge and finally the large bank of test questions. Many lubrication experts shared their time and skills to bring the MLE to fruition. Recently, the ICML's Executive Director, Leslie Fish, informed me that they have updated their records and currently have over 26,000 individuals who hold one or more certifications. That is an exceptional feat to say the least. Hats off to the hard- working and outstanding team at ICML! From Dream to Reality Proactive maintenance is NOT achieved by trying to catch and control "unusually high" contamination levels (a commonly held misconception). Instead, proactive maintenance is achieved by a controlled state of "unusually low" contamination levels. at single concept is the real magic behind proactive maintenance, which can be applied across numerous machine failure modes (root causes) in addition to particle contamination. erein lies the hidden plant. 4. The #1 Cause of Failure We've all heard it. Lubrication is the No. 1 cause of machine wear and failure. If we fix lubrication first, we don't have to fix the machine later. As someone once told me, the vast majority of reportable alarms from routine vibration anal- ysis are rooted in poor lubrication. is includes dirty, wet, aerated oil and so much more.