Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/875060
32 | September - October 2017 | www.machinerylubrication.com Name Frank Sutcliffe Age 50 Job Title Maintenance Reliability and Turn Around (MRTA) Specialist Company Shell Location Atyrau, Kazakhstan Length of Service 20 years Be Featured in the Next 'Get to Know' Section WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FEATURED IN THE NEXT "GET TO KNOW" section or know someone who should be profiled in an upcoming issue of Machinery Lubrication magazine? Nominate yourself or fellow lubrication professionals by emailing a photo and contact information to editor@noria.com. Q: W hat's a normal work day like for you? A: I work both in the office and at the site, so there is no standard work day. My recent focus has been on reliability strategy and building plans with stakeholders for deliver y of that strategy. A key part of that is deepening and broadening reliability skills across the business. Reliability is not achieved solely by people with the word in their job title, so I spend time coaching, mentoring and building technical career skills with the team here. I'm also helping implement a move away f rom reac tive root cause analysis to proac- tive threats and oppor tunit y management. In addition, I facilitate failure analysis using a causal learning approach and will shortly be developing appli- cable and effective maintenance routines for existing and new systems using reliability-centered maintenance. Q: What is the amount and range of eq uipment you help service through lubri- cation/oil analysis tasks? A: I n terms of our equipment, we have a variety of pumps. Like many others in the process industr y, we have more pumps than any other machines. We also have steam turbines, industrial and aero-deriva - tive gas turbines, and electric motors. Q: W hat have been some o f t h e b i g g e s t p r o je c t successes in which you've played a part? A: I n terms of impact, I think I'd have to say the introduction of onsite lube oil analysis by condition moni- toring in Oman. Before that, samples took weeks to turn around, and the ef fectiveness of the program was not what it should have been. That was coupled with huge improve - ments in contamination control and reducing high-temperature trips. In the summer, temperatures routinely reach more than 50 degrees C (120 degrees F). Frank Sutcliffe's talents have taken him all across the world, from the United Kingdom and the Middle East to Russia, Nigeria and most recently Kazakhstan. He has also served in a number of different positions, including as a reliability manager, certified reliability-centered maintenance facilitator, principal technical expert of reliability and operability, compressor performance improve- ment team lead, and category manager of rotating equipment. Before joining Shell, Sutcliffe even worked in the nuclear industry on risk assessment and decommissioning. While in the UK, he once heard an experienced colleague say that proper lubrication is the most important maintenance activity and the most cost-effective way to avoid premature machinery failures. That advice has stuck with him for more than 20 years. Sutcliffe Takes Proper Lubrication Practices Around the Globe GET to KNOW