Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/704613
This process also allows the asset to remain in service during filtering with no loss of uptime. In fact, it is desirable to have the drive running to get contaminants into suspension in order to remove them. Desiccant breathers have been installed on the oil reservoirs of outdoor equipment. This helps keep moisture out of lubricants, and there is always plenty of moisture in a water plant. Another interesting situation concerned failures in a group of mixer worm drives. These units sit out in the elements exposed to heat, precipitation and cold. The initial failures were caused by using an oil of higher than recommended viscosity. The viscosity was corrected. Then water was detected in these drives during oil analysis. The oil was changed, and desiccant breathers installed. Factory-supplied oil windows were also replaced with a bubble-type oil port, which allowed visual inspection of the oil level and condition. It was noted that the oil still looked "milky," so it was drained, and the drives flushed with a new load of oil before a final fill. A week later, when oil analysis was performed again on these drives, water appeared in the sample reports. The percentage of water was less, but it was still there. Prior to this experi- ence, personnel might have let the matter drop after the first oil change and waited for the next oil analysis interval to discover the water. In all likelihood, these drives would have failed before the next oil analysis. As the lubrication program expands and matures, more stakeholders are buying in. From upper management to junior technicians, it is becoming evident just how much of a foun- dation good lubrication practices provide. Lubrication is no longer looked upon as a messy job but as the life blood of critical assets. KPIs Reveal Improvements In analyzing work orders, the facility began to see more detail in the notes. These details have helped, but they don't necessarily provide quan- tifiable results. The graph on page 24 shows how emergency work has declined over the years. While this improvement cannot be directly attributed to better lubrication, it reveals a trend of avoiding emergencies and toward greater equipment reliability. A continuous reduction in the number of oil samples showing a critical condition has also been observed. This represents cost savings and greater uptime. It is believed these improve- ments are directly linked to better lubrication practices, desiccant breathers, training and pride. Better lubrication practice is a corner- stone of reliable equipment. Improving Work-order Histories After moving to the new CMMS, the plant was better able to record and store work- order histories. The "fly in the ointment" was that the organizational culture had not been prone to record details for work-order history. Often the only finalizing comments written on the electronic work order were remarks such as "fixed it" or "overhauled." There were few comments on the cause of failure and how the corrective work was performed. One impediment to capturing this information was a lack of keyboard skills. Another was the trepidation of technicians to express themselves in writing. There had been no reward for sharing details, so trade technicians had become somewhat reticent and by turn laconic. Over the past 10 years, a concerted effort has been made to engage and draw out this vital infor- mation for work-order histories. The pursuit of world-class lubrication has provided a direct method with immediate and recogniz- able benefits to show trade technicians that sharing repair history makes their lives easier. It has afforded endless opportunities to compliment technicians and show them the value of their knowledge. To make work-order histories more useful, the facility has added close-out codes to iden- tify the type of failure. This helps ferret out the bad actors during data analysis. Root cause analysis investigations are actively performed and documented when critical assets are involved. With the lubrication program running and stabilized, attention is now being turned toward precision maintenance. The single most important aspect in achieving accurate work-order histories is interest. In other words, people in the mainte- nance planning office must show interest in details. When those details do not present themselves, maintenance planners must go out and hunt them down. It may take some effort to establish a working relationship and get these details, but the rewards are immea- surable. Remember, a single person can start a cultural change, but it takes many people to sustain that change.