Oil analysis is an important tool in your maintenance toolbox for reducing maintenance costs, improving reliability, and reducing your company’s environmental impact. The more you become involved in your oil analysis program, the more you will understand what is happening inside your equipment.
Deciding to start doing oil analysis is an important first step, just as important is the implementation of the program to ensure long-term success. Many companies start oil analysis programs, but there are also many that are not effective long-term because of the lack of upfront preparation.
Let’s take a dive into the eight key steps necessary to set up a successful program. Consider using a modified PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) / RASCI (Responsible-Accountable-Support-Consult-Inform) chart to help with project management.
- Build the Foundation: A successful oil analysis program starts with a strong foundation, especially if you’ve never implemented an oil analysis program before. Consider an independent review of your current maintenance processes and practices by conducting an Oil Analysis Audit (also known as a Sample-Point Audit) where the auditor will review your current lubrication program and processes, assess the equipment and operating conditions, and identify the sample points and recommended fittings. This audit can identify gaps in your processes and build a framework for goal setting and implementation.
- Set Goals: Based on the Audit recommendations, you now need to decide how you will measure success. You may decide to implement a program across all your assets or “start small” with a critical product, process, line or major piece of equipment, Either way, setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound) goals will help you stay on track. Simply saying “we want to reduce maintenance costs” is not enough. An example of a solid SMART goal is to set up a predictive maintenance program by second quarter that uses custom alerts to monitor wear debris and contamination based on trended monthly SEM-EDS analysis for a series of critical gearboxes that have a history of failure due to manufacturing conditions. Your goals can, and will, change over time and should be adjusted to meet new maintenance or business requirements as necessary.
- Determine the Right Testing: Once you’ve set your goals and understand the gaps in your analysis needs, it’s time to create the testing strategy to meet your goals. The Oil Analysis Audit helps to identify the right test packages and individual tests and recommends the sampling frequency and locations. For example, while a routine Plant 1 test package can identify abnormal component wear and trend over time, the addition of SEM-EDS analysis over the first six months could improve understanding of current failure modes through a deeper dive into the composition of wear particles.
- Set-Up Processes, Procedures and Databases: Next is getting processes and procedures documented and your program database set up. During this phase, document proper sampling, registration and shipping procedures and have personnel involved in the program are trained. This will ensure consistency of sampling and reporting is maintained. Make sure you assign roles to staff from who will take samples to who will interpret the data and implement the maintenance work orders. Also, during this phase you need to set up myLab for sample registration and reporting purposes. Accurate oil reference and equipment databases make a big difference to your sample results – the more information provided, the more we can cross reference against our database of nearly 10M sample records. This ensures your new sample results can give you the information you need to make solid maintenance decisions.
- Find those Quick Wins: Effective oil analysis programs require that everyone involved – from maintenance personnel to management – see the benefits and have a solutions oriented, continuous improvement mindset. Finding the “quick wins” where oil sampling prevented significant downtime or catastrophic failure can go a long way toward creating buy-in.
- Get Trained: Empower your employees through ongoing training both on-the-job and more through more formal channels. The more you become involved in your lubricant analysis program, the more you will understand what is happening inside your equipment. When a piece of equipment fails, take the opportunity to examine the parts. Talk with the operators to find out what warning signs were present just before the failure. Listen to those making the repairs and ask questions. More formally, certification courses in lubrication fundamentals, webinars, and seminars on oil analysis program management, and on demand tutorials on sample data interpretation are all available. With this foundational knowledge it becomes possible to truly understand and improve your program.
- Seek out Solutions: Consider the three stages of oil analysis response: Interpretation, Decision, and Response. If you’re having difficulty interpreting your sample data, you may want to gain perspective from equipment manufacturers, oil suppliers, or other expert sources on how to respond to results. If recurring problems are occurring, you may want to consider improvement projects such as flagging optimization, criticality analysis, or process mapping to resolve the issue.
- Revisit Regularly: As with any ongoing continuous improvement initiatives, you should be regularly reviewing the effectiveness of your oil analysis program and corresponding maintenance strategies and procedures. This Fluid Insights article provides a number of thought-provoking questions to consider when doing a review of your program.
Unlocking the full potential of your oil analysis program comes from enabling management and staff to become used to the new sampling and reporting processes and in learning how to integrate sample results into current maintenance planning processes. While it’s easy to start sampling and getting results, it’s not as easy to maintain an effective program if you don’t put the work in upfront. An ineffectively implemented program can trigger premature or ineffective work if all variables are not taken into consideration and program goals are not constantly monitored with reasonable expectation.
Fluid Life can help – contact a Fluid Life representative today and find out how we can support our oil analysis program set up.?
Originally published on fluidlife.com August 23, 2021.
