Top 5 reasons to outsource your Lubrication Requirements

<click each reason if you want more information>

1. When you need to be sure (its getting done)

2. When you don't have the time, the resources or the in-house expertise required to do it right

3. When you want your highly skilled trades focused on highly skilled tasks

4. When you want to use data to drive improvement

5. When you want to reduce costs

Top Reason to Outsource

#1 

Whether it's poor or non existent documentation practices, or a reliance on tribal knowledge (ie the experienced oiler who just knows what machines need attention), without validation and accountability, its impossible to know if every point is being inspected and topped up at the appropriate frequency.  You don't want an incident or equipment failure to be the signal that a specific location has not been lubed or greased.  Effective oiling and greasing is an essential 1st step in any World Class Lubrication Management Program.

Zimmark gets it done:  

A full service on-site lubrication management program gives us the opportunity and authority to get it done.  Not having production responsibility, our fully trained on-site industrial oilers ensure that each day we are completing and documenting 100% of our responsibility.  Compliance to our control plans are measured and reported daily, with follow-up opportunities built into our service delivery.  Compliance to control plans are located on our web based client dashboards, giving our clients 24/7 access to our daily score card.  No nipple remains un-greased, no sump un-lubed.  

A Story about being sure it's getting Done

In this story, we replaced a very busy oiler.  He had been at this manufacturing facility for over 35 years and knew his routine in-side and out.  The problem was, he had developed some pretty bad habits over time.  With over 200 actives centers that required various lubes, oils and greases, he started only paying attention to the machines that required obvious attention.  While some machines received daily attention, the hard to get to spots got neglected more and more over time.  Through neglect, more and more leaks started to develop, the oiler's day was filled with chasing leaks and responding to operator complaints.  Maintenance knew they had to fix the leaks, but there were so many that they didn't know where to start.  The Oiler was stuck reacting to issues, never able to get ahead of the problem.  Maintenance was busy trying to maintain up-time, so leaks weren't a priority and the problem just seemed to be getting worse.  

It wasn't until this gentleman decided to retire, that our Lube Map Process (LMP) uncovered the locations that had been neglected and were in sorry shape.  Analysis had identified severe wear which helped us plan the necessary maintenance.  By establishing a control plan for each lube point, the plant now had 24/7 access to control plan compliance data as well as a complete history associated with the data and corrective actions associated with each location.  Using the data we were able to prioritize the highest leakers, quantify the costs associated with managing the leaks and then get the appropriate maintenance planned.  Daily, weekly and monthly consumption alerts now quickly identify as leaks are starting to develop so that they can be quickly rectified.

The facility transformed from a reactive state to one where data was setting priorities and driving corrective action. Their technical resources had more time available to focus on high value activities in other areas of the plant and the facility started to improve in all aspects.  OEE improved, costs went down and profits increased.  Poor lubrication practices were identified as the root cause to many of their performance issues, robbing resources as the facility reacted to lube related issues.  Addressing this issue had both a financial as well as cultural impact on the facility and how they approached aspects of the plant where data was not being used as the lead driver for focused attention.

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Top Reason to Outsource

#2

Oiling is important, but not urgent and as a result, unless a facility takes the time to develop a sustainable best practices approach, the existing program often has lots of opportunity for efficiency as well as effectiveness improvement.  For leaders that know the impact of poor lubrication practices on their operating efficiencies and bottom line, its important to get a best practices program in place as soon as possible.  Instead of re-inventing the wheel, an out of the box best practices solution can dramatically reduce the time it takes to implement and start realizing the benefits of a condition based, KPI driven program.  

Zimmark Does it Right:  

Since 1984 Zimmark has been providing on-site technical services, developing the management tools and procedures necessary to ensure that we are following a strict best practices approach to lubrication.  Our experts set-up the customized lube program based on the unique needs of the plant, our systems ensure fully trained personnel execute on those best practices daily, and regular data interpretation ensures that we are using data to drive our corrective actions and continual improvement opportunities.

A Clients reaction to our start-up process

This client had a 3rd party already in place managing their Lubrication systems, however because the "program" relied on the diligence of the on-site service technician, several tasks were not being performed. No one noticed what was not getting done, until one day they had a major quality event that cost the facility over $100,000 in product rejects.  The root cause was due to a Preventative Measure that the on-site technician was several months behind on.  The facility was furious with the supplier and looking for an alternative.  Their concern?  It took 3 months to train their last provider, and with an ISO 14000 implementation looming, they were concerned they would not have the resources available to support a new one.  Through the evaluation process, we demonstrated the tools, systems and procedures we use to get a program up and running quickly.  How the checks and balances, on-line compliance checks and measures protect against tasks going uncompleted for periods of time.  After visiting and speaking with other sites, they decided to proceed with our services.  Within a week we were operating completely independently in the facility.  Working with their engineers to identify and then build initial control plans we established the program quickly.  Using the data and the analytics the control plans started improving right away as new KPI's and priorities were identified.  The client was shocked that within a week we were autonomously running within their facility, bringing value added reporting to their maintenance and production departments.    

Want to see how our program start-ups work?  Fill out this form and we can set-up a web demonstration today.

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Top Reason to Outsource

#3 

Too often expensive highly skilled resources are used in low skill but high compliance tasks.  Misapplication of their skills, combined with poor compliance to low skill non-urgent activities results in a waste of strategic resources and a poorly performing lubrication program.   Your Maintenance Department is the 

Zimmark Keeps you and your technical team focused on your strategic Priorities:  

Since 1984 Zimmark has been providing on-site technical services, developing the management tools and procedures necessary to ensure that we are following a strict best practices approach to lubrication.  Our experts set-up the customized lube program based on the unique needs of the plant, our systems ensure fully trained personnel execute on those best practices daily, and regular data interpretation ensures that we are using data to drive our corrective actions and continual improvement opportunities.

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Top Reason to Outsource

#4 

"Without data you are just another person with an opinion."

W. Edwards Deming.  

The only way to drive sustainable and meaningful improvement is to have the data necessary to focus resources.  Without a fully documented program where top-up's and oil analysis are used to manage and maintain the lubrication performance, a facility is stuck, reliant on Tribal knowledge to operate from.  

Zimmark uses data to drive our daily corrective actions and analytics to drive our Continuous Improvement Initiatives:  

Data driven corrective action is built into every Zimmark program.  It starts with control plan definition which identifies all the KPI's associated with the lubrication program that need to be managed over time.  Using this data together with trend analysis and analytics, lets us keep moving the program forward and improving the process.  

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Top Reason to Outsource

#5 

Whether its the cost of the program itself, the impact on process up-time or the cost of lubricant and associated disposal, implementing a data driven best practices program that looks to optimize lube performance and extend lube life, can significantly reduce costs and improve operational performance.        

Zimmark's relentless focus on cost reduction through process improvement delivers sustainable processes that reduce total process costs over time:  

We get more done with less people, by letting the data drive our activities and  through our efficient execution model.  By focusing on identifying and eliminating the various sources of waste and wasteful activity we reduce program costs, while optimizing consumables cost in our efforts to balance performance and spend.                                                                                                                                                                                             

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