Machinery Lubrication India Jan Feb 14 10 | Page 4

MLI

FROM THE DESK

Publisher’s
Note
T

he past year has been very
challenging for industry and the
economy of India as a whole. As per
estimates, India’s economy will grow at
less than 5 % in the current year. The
industrial growth, during this period
would be the slowest in many years and
we do hope that the countries planners
would look at the basic flaws in the
system and take corrective actions to
set things in order.
A recent case study performed by a
large multinational organization, has
highlighted the benefits of using this
lean period of business for performing
various maintenance related activities
as well as going ahead with
implementing process changes that
would otherwise be difficult to
implement and test when your facility
is at full production.
Lubrication plays an important role in
keeping the wheels of production
moving. As a thumb rule, the cost of
lubricants in any establishment is
typically 1- 3% of the maintenance
budget, however 60% of equipment
failures are lubrication related.

world class lubrication programs with
a proven, engineered approach is
essential to delivering success rate at a
plant. A good lubrication program
leads to modifying people, modifying
machines,
modifying
lubrication
procedures, methods and frequency,
modifying PMs and inspections and
deploying
vigilant
lubrication
monitoring system. All the above
factors then lead to lubrication
excellence and a knowledgeable work
force that have an intellectual approach
to resolving today’s lubrication
problems.
Readers will also find an interesting
article by Jim Fitch who talks about
tribology as a behavioral science. It has
become increasingly clear that applied
tribology is more about training and
behavioral science than about
engineering and material science and
most companies seem to have a
maintenance culture that is in urgent
need of an intervention strategy. The
article discusses how no amount of
expertise in lubrication and machine
reliability will overcome the destructive
aftermath of bad maintenance culture.

policy on categorizing used oils as
hazardous and the procedure and
processes put in place by the Pollution
Control Board have hugely affected the
way industry will look at the options of
renewal & disposal of used oils in the
days to come.
Noria
Corporation,
USA,
our
associates, are organizing their annual
“Reliable Plant” Conference at San
Antonia, Texas, USA from 22-24th
April 2014.
As usual, we welcome our readers’
suggestions and comments which
enable us to provide you with cutting
edge articles on lubrication and
lubrication enable reliability to our
readers. So please keep these
suggestions/ views coming to help us
service you better. Your feedbacks are
very important to us.
We would also like to take this
opportunity to wish our readers and
advertisers a very Happy Holi.
Warm Regards,
Udey Dhir

The cover story in this issue talks about
5 common lubrication problems and
how to fix them. Lubrication is not a
core competency but developing a

The previous issue cover story on
Managing Industrial Oils-Life Extension
& Recycling generated a lot of interest
among the readers. The government’s

2| January-February 2014 | www.machinerylubricationindia.com