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Are you really serious about machinery reliability? If so, start looking at “humanware” issues.

Most organizations search for the fast track to reliability. Some try to achieve it through software investments, others through hardware investments. Some fall prey to gimmicks that usually create more problems than solutions, all in an attempt to find the path of least resistance.

While technology plays an important role in achieving machinery reliability, organizations always come around to the fact that even good hardware and software products are only tools and, without qualified and motivated people, are just dust collectors (literally and figuratively).

Precision lubrication is no exception. Managing humanware is the key to success.

Many factors affect our ability to achieve precision machinery lubrication, but none is more important than the manner in which we select, empower and motivate the folks who manage the lube storeroom, change filters, inspect breathers, change oil, grease bearings, sample oil for analysis and the many, many other important tasks of the lubrication technician.

I have identified four important “humanware” factors to achieving excellence in precision machinery lubrication. These factors aren’t discussed in order of importance.

Job title
Titles such as “oiler” and “greaser” have developed a derogatory connotation over the years. Oiler simply is not a job title that generates pride or enthusiasm. Replace it with the title “lubrication technician,” or “lube tech,” which is a more accurate term. A good lube tech understands general machinery engineering, basic chemistry (especially lubricant chemistry), equipment maintenance, reliability methods and technology, and many other skills. Rightfully, someone qualified to lubricate machinery should be called a technician.

Reward structure
Strangely, most organizations inadvertently reward failure. A large percentage of most mechanics’ total monetary compensation is overtime, which is often dependent upon machinery failure. As a consultant, mechanics confide in me their concerns about the machinery reliability movement because they build overtime pay into their lifestyles. If that pay goes away, so do boats, hunting cabins, vacations, etc.

Likewise, when a machine fails and a team of mechanics goes to the plant at midnight on Saturday to repair it and get production back up and running, they are lavished with praise and “atta-boys.”  As a result, we reward failure formally (more pay) and informally (recognition).

Strangely, lube techs — people who eliminate failures if they do their job properly — are usually paid less than mechanics on a per-hour basis. Likewise, companies rarely celebrate or recognize the acts of properly greasing a bearing, changing the oil on condition, and assuring filters are properly installed and delivering the required cleanliness.

It is insane to reward failure. Start paying your lube technicians a decent wage based upon their skill level, and develop an uptime-based reward structure (both money and recognition) for those working hard to keep machines running.

Training and certification
A lubrication technician requires skills to do the job properly. While that may sound obvious, the typical modus operandi is to show the new lube tech where the lubricants are and send the person on his or her way. No procedures, no training, nothing. I once asked a lube tech how he determined if he was doing a good job. He replied, “If something breaks, I get yelled at and I know I need to do something different.”

The lube tech requires training on lubricants, lubrication systems and devices, lubrication methods and best practices, sampling, oil analysis interpretation, machinery operation, reliability methods, and a host of other topics. Likewise, he or she needs on-the-job training on plant- and equipment-specific procedures for lubrication, which means, of course, that these must be created if they aren’t already.

While you are at it, motivate the lube tech to seek third-party certification as a Machine Lubrication Technician (MLT) and/or a Machine Lubricant Analyst (MLA) from the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML), a non-profit organization. Certification provides you with the basis for paying a lube tech what he or she is worth, and it instills pride in the individual who is recognized as qualified by peers and industry leaders.

Commitment
Need I say that management must be committed to precision lubrication? I see two types of commitment failures.

First is on again/off again, or sinusoidal, commitment to precision lubrication. Sinusoidal programs smack of the “program of the day” syndrome. Folks just wait around instead of getting up a head of steam for precision lubrication because they know that management will be off on another tangent next week.

The second lack of commitment is in what I call “lube tech call-aways.”  A call-away occurs when a lube tech is pulled from the lube route to perform some other task, ranging from helping a mechanic perform a repair to planting tulips. I have polled lube techs and discovered that, in some cases, they are pulled away from lubrication tasks 70 percent of the time. Success requires commitment, day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month and year-to-year.

Conclusion
If you are responsible for improving the reliability and operational costs of mechanical equipment, you will come around to focus on lubrication, where you are likely to see plenty of opportunity. Rather than spending precious time and resources looking for the shortcut, go straight to the heart of the opportunity and earnestly evaluate the manner in which you manage your team members performing lube tasks.

Drew Troyer is the senior editor of Machinery Lubrication Magazine. If you have a lubrication or oil analysis question, contact Coach Troyer at or e-mail .

This article appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2002.

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