Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1378657
www.machinerylubrication.com | May - June 2021 | 11 B efore the events of 2020, reliability and mainte- nance teams around the world were already oper- ating with lean teams and tight budgets. After 2020, those who made it through have learned to adapt, looking to better knowledge and better data to hit 2021's targets. ese days, we might assume new insights must come from advanced IIoT monitoring systems or AI platforms, but actionable insights do not require high-tech tools. Simply learning something new about your assets or how to care for them (as opposed to operating based on assumptions or incomplete knowledge) can lead to big improve- ments in reliability, decreases in costs or both. John Cla nc y, Ma intena nce Inspector at the Argos Cement Plant in Newberry, Florida, understands the power of knowing — and how quickly that knowledge can spread. He is part of the Methods Depart- ment, the plant's reliability group, and has been working with Noria to improve lubrication at the plant. "In the Methods Department, which was started in 2015, there were originally five of us: two inspectors, two planners and one coordinator," John said. "We have now moved up to three inspectors, three different planners, a coordinator, two first- level inspectors and two lube techs." This process did not happen overnight, but the journey to better lubrication at the Newberry plant began when a former supervisor took John and another inspector to a conference where they met a Noria expert and got his business card. "W hen we came back, our company was wanting us to move for wa rd with our lubrication program," John said. "We remem- bered meeting Noria and liking what they had, so we dug up the business card and reached out. From there, it just flows right into meeting Devin." Devin Jarrett, Customer Success Manager at Noria, has helped many plants improve lubrication, but Argos was different from most other plants. "Argos has dedicated inspectors — that is what their jobs are," Jarrett said. "ere aren't a lot of plants out there that have people who are dedi- cated to just inspection tasks." is emphasis on inspections is just one of the ways that the Argos plant did things a bit differently from most organizations. It is part of what has helped the plant implement lubri- cation improvements so effectively. e other aspect was its corporate team's involvement in the process. CORPORATE SUPPORT e first thing that Noria does for clients looking to improve lubrication is assess their program. While many lubrication assessments are focused on simply consolidating lubricants (usually to fit a certain lubricant supplier's offerings), Noria's Ascend ™ Assessment is compre- hensive, holistic and aligned with international standards (learn more at noria.com/ascend). John remembers the moment when he heard the Newberry plant's Ascend Assessment score — it wasn't what he or others in the Methods Department expected. "Devin asked us, 'Where do you feel your lubrication program is right now?' And he took all of our opin- ions on it," John said. "I think we said some 70s, some 80s and things like that." e Ascend Assessment is scored out of 100, but what may surprise some is the average score across industries. It turned out that the Argos Newberry plant was right in line with this average score. "Devin came back and said, 'No, you're more like a 30 right now,'" John said, laughing. While this was not what the Argos Newberry team had hoped to hear — it did represent a significant opportunity that the corporate team recognized. "e methods department team at the Newberry plant were very open and receptive to the knowledge we provided them during the Ascend Assessment," Devin said. "Even their corporate team in South America was involved in the process, so they got to hear firsthand what we were doing with John and his team." Having the corporate team involved in the process sends a strong message to everyone at the plant that lubrication is an important part of the larger reliability program. John said that the involvement of the corporate team was essential to getting the job done. "Without their support or influence, we couldn't have achieved any of this," he said. ML John Clancy is a Maintenance Inspector at the Argos Cement Plant in Newberry, Florida.