MACHINERY LUBRICATION- INDIA NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 | Page 13

COVER STORY
engineer position;
redefining and hiring a
new planner/scheduling
position; and promoting
Matt King, mechanical
maintenance lead, into a
leadership role to continue
driving
lu br ic at ion
excellence.
“My new role is being a
guide for the mechanics,”
King said. “If they need help
or assistance, I help them
through that.”
The facility ported the
engineering to special software
for effective route management
and key performance indicator
( K PI ) t r ac k i ng. Nor ia’s
engineering also identif ied
machines that needed modification
and associated hardware.
When the Winston-Salem facility
had a scheduled outage in November
2017, it contracted Noria to send a
team to help manage 14 pipefitters for
three weeks. Utilizing Noria’s training,
the plant trained its team on how to
commission the lube room and make
machine hardware modifications, which
the Winston-Salem crew undertook by
outfitting dozens of machines themselves.
“Training has been extremely valuable, as
you can’t do the job correctly without the
knowledge, and that knowledge inspires
good work,” Mohn said. “We know the
filtration will pay dividends in extended
lubricant and machine life, and we are
measuring those impacts. Having an oil
analysis program that is configured correctly
to make actionable predictive and proactive
decisions, coupled with having in-house
capabilities to get immediate results, is extremely
powerful.”
In regard to training, Warwick completely agrees.
“The training, as far as our group, has had the
biggest impact,” he noted. “There were only a few
people who really understood lubrication, and the
ones who didn’t who actually got the training, they
realized what they weren’t seeing. It’s like, I know
what you do, but until I actually see what you’re
doing, I don’t understand.”
With all of these changes in place, the Winston-Salem
facility has begun seeing differences in many aspects
of the plant. The facility is now in a transitional phase,
moving from reactive to more predictive and planned
work.
For Warwick, his daily work life has become more
structured.
“It’s what I wanted it to be,” he said. “We had started
seeing fewer failures, but now we see the professional
side of it. (The lubrication technician) has his cart, he
has his lubes, and he’s making his equipment checks
– I like it.”
The facility is also starting to see a time savings as
well.
“If you have a bad lubrication program, it’s a leading
indicator, but if you’re doing OK, it’s a lagging
indicator,” Warwick said. “It’s hard to justify. It’s hard
to measure something so important that people take
for granted. There’s still some fine-tuning, as we’re not
quite there yet.”
In addition to focusing on lubrication excellence, a
bonus of the journey has been the awareness sparked
in the facility.
“In the beginning, when the lube building was going
up, everyone was curious,” Warwick said. “People
would ask, ‘What are you doing?’ We’d say, ‘Building
a lubrication building.’ ‘Well, what do you need that
for?’ ‘Because we’ve got a goal to achieve.’”
A 24-hour surveillance system was installed in the
lube room due to its contents. Surveillance footage
showed that a lot of people were going into the lube
room just to see it. From that point, the curiosity grew
into more awareness of the lubrication program and
its importance for the facility. In fact, the team has
noticed an increase in the work orders stemming from
operator awareness.
“Awareness has been the biggest improvement,”
King said. “Everyone can see what the oil levels are.
Everyone who has their hands in maintenance sees
the benefit of it. Operations is coming around. I know
they’re noticing because we get work orders.”
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