Visual Lubrication Management... Are You Ready? By Kris Sonne, Trico Corp. Over the last number of years visual lubrication management has been increasing in popularity. Color coding has numerous advantages when applied to lubrication. A technician or operator only now has to look at the color of a lubricant dispensing device and lubrication point tag to identify the specified lubricant to be used. Color coding can also help to eliminate oil cross contamination in machines which can compromise the effectiveness of a lubricant. With the advent of operator basic care (OBC) and pressure to become more reliable and decrease costs driven by the North American marketplace; this is a good time to implement Visual Lubrication Management (VLM). In order to effectively implement a VLM program, the fundamental building blocks of a good lubrication program should already be in place. Building Block #1 In today’s world it is not good enough to put in the ‘specified’ lubricant without knowing who specified it and why. One of the first steps in any lubrication program is in determining the machinery’s lubrication requirements. This is the combination of researching the original specification (generally from an OEM manual); understanding how your equipment operates in the manufacturing process, as well as, the environmental conditions the machine is exposed to. The OEM manual will provide general guidelines for the lubricant, such as the type of lubricant required and the viscosity. The viscosity is usually generalized to the ISO viscosity grade at several ambient temperatures. The OEM guidelines are adequate for most machines in regular service but do not usually take in account temperature extremes or other environmental considerations. With knowledge of the machine components being lubricated, and the use of lubricant viscosity-temperature charts, and if necessary, the assistance of the OEM Application Engineer the lubrication needs can be determined for each individual machine. Building Block #2 An important part of any maintenance strategy is a criticality analysis of some type. For the purpose of lubrication a full blown RCM analysis of the plant would be ideal, but is not required. A mental exercise of what machines or components would bring production to halt or cause excessive
rework will suffice. Knowing how the machines and other lubricated components affect the bottom line will dictate how lubricants are to be consolidated. Building Block #3 Lubricant consolidation is often performed for reasons other than equipment reliability, generally it is monetary or for saving storage space. Often the decision making on what lubricants are stocked is up to the lubricant supplier based on historical usage. Consolidation can produce savings by the purchasing of a limited number of lubricants in bulk quantities, however, it should be a well thought out process using the knowledge from Building Blocks #1 and #2. When the best determined lubricant (Building Block #1) is not being used in a machine, there will be a sacrifice to the reliability of that machine. During consolidation there will be a choice as to where that sacrifice is made and it should be to the less critical machine or component (Building Block #2). If the correct lubricant is not used and the deficiency is known; it can be tracked, trended and monitored thereby limiting any damage that may be incurred. Building Block #4 Often one of the most neglected areas in a manufacturing plant is the lubrication storage area. When implementing a VLM program the lubrication stores is a key area to improve and upgrade. For the program to work there has to be confidence that the ‘red’ lubricant is in the ‘red’ dispensing device. It is important that bulk oil storage area is included in the program as to avoid any risk of cross contamination of lubricants. It is wise to have a selection of appropriately colored paint handy to color code the barrels, pails, hoses, pumps and even filter carts. If possible, security should be enhanced in ensure that no unauthorized personnel enter the area possibly (and unintentionally) contaminating a dispensing container with the incorrect lubricant. There are many more improvements that can be made to lubrication storage areas and this is the time to do them. Improving the stores will improve lubricant quality and get ‘buy-in’ from employees to the new color coding system.
Storage area needs improvements – dirty environment and lubricants labels are hard to read or missing. Building Block #5 Another important corner-stone of any maintenance program is asset identification. Experience maintenance workers know every machine within their area intimately, but for many others that may be given the task of lubrication it is not as easy to identify each machine (let alone each lubrication point). Each asset is to be clearly identified so there can be no mistaking machines and missing lubrication rounds. Each lubrication point is to be color coded as well including fill caps, dip sticks, zerk fittings and any other point of entry for lubricants.
Lubrication point and grease gun are properly identified
Conclusion For any type of program to work, there are more factors involved than what it appears at first. For VLM to work the lubrication requirements have to be known, the importance of each machine in relation to the process has to be known, consolidation of lubricant has to be performed beforehand, the lube stores should be an organized and controlled area and the machines (and lubrication points) have to be clearly identified. If well thought out and implemented VLM can simplify lubrication tasks and help eliminate lubricant cross contamination, if not your organization will gain nothing and still be fighting the same fires. Properly implemented Visual Lubrication Management is a great tool... but are you ready? Trico Corporation 1235 Hickory Street, Pewaukee, WI 53072-3999 Ph 262.691.9336 or 800.558.7008 www.tricocorp.com
