Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/431954
50 | November - December 2014 | www.machinerylubrication.com By suz y hitchcock, icML As a global leader in hygiene and healthcare products with plants in the United States, Germany and Brazil, Clopay Plastics remains a prime example of long-term championing of machinery lubrication excellence. One of the company's U.S. facilities is located in Augusta, Kentucky. This small town of 1,700 people along the Ohio River is known mainly for being George Clooney's hometown, or so it used to be. Each passing day, more people are coming to Clopay's site to speak to its celebrity — Scotty Lippert. While Lippert may have never set foot in a Hollywood studio, he has certainly earned recognition in industry. His plant has been classified as a benchmark for lubrication and has had visitors from Fortune 500 companies and eight countries come to hear about Clopay's lubrication practices. Lippert's role as a lubrication systems leader played a large part in the Clopay site earning the International Council for Machinery Lubrication's inaugural John R. Battle award for excellence in lubri- cation. Clopay Augusta is also the only plant to win both ICML awards, having received the Augustus H. Gill award for excellence in oil analysis. In addition, Lippert was named the Kentucky Manufac- turing Employee of the Year in 2007 and had his name and accomplishments read in Washington, D.C., as part of the official congressional record. This marked quite a three-year rise for both Clopay and Lippert. "Winning the awards was just the cherry on top of the cake, because the actual logic behind what we did was to improve reli- ability and keep people employed by producing a quality product on time, and that makes for future business," Lippert says. "Lubrication is the cornerstone of any successful maintenance program. We have made great strides in reliability at our plant, but continuous improve- ment is always on our mind. When it comes to machine reliability, the competitive world demands it, as do our customers." In Lippert's area, as in many corners of the world, there are a number of industries but a general lack of in-depth lubrication training. "When some local industry contacted our nearby community college for classes in lubrication, the community college asked me to teach a course in lubrication," Lippert recalls. "When I asked them how they got my name, I was told the local industry knew me as certified and having a benchmark lubrication system." Lippert credits a lot of his success to the support he has received from management. "Clopay had performed lubrication for over a half century the same way," he says. "After my training and ICML certification, changing the culture of lubrication practices was challenging. Without the support of management in our maintenance depart- ment, it would be practically impossible to do it. Fortunately, we've had nothing but support from our maintenance manager, who understood that if proper lubrication practices were performed, reliability of the machinery would greatly increase. We have most certainly seen that in our plant." CER TIFICATION NEWS L u b r i c a t i o n P r o g r a m s HOW Clopay Plastics Sustains Lubrication EXCELLENCE