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(Olaolu OLUSINA) The journey towards lubrication excellence may have begun in earnest in Nigeria with 11 Plc, (formerly Mobil Nigeria), championing the ambitious move to ensure lubrication excellence in the country’s cement plants.
The move, according to the company, was borne out of the realisation of the importance of lubrication to the smooth running of every production plant.
The lubricants giant therefore unfolded its mission at it’s maiden seminar on Cement Plants organised in Lagos in the second week of August 2019. The well-organised and high-profile event was attended by about 30 plant and maintenance engineers from cement plants across the country as well as a few distributors of the company’s products.
Welcoming participants to the August inaugural seminar, which eventually turned an eye-opener for many at the event, Managing Director, 11Plc, Dr. Adetunji Oyebanji, said the meeting was meant to further inform and educate the engineers on recent developments about the company’s products and their applications as well as well as to create a great opportunity to bond with them.
Senior lubrication engineer and Manager, Lubricants Sales & Field Engineering Service , Steve Ezendiokwere, who coordinated the event with his team members, assured the participants that 11 Plc was fully interested in their success and would strive to ensure the smooth running and growth of their operations through the delivery of premium quality products and services.
He explained that the event was earlier scheduled to hold in June but was shifted to August because of some internal challenges. Urging the participants to make the best of the opportunity, Ezendiokwere promised that his company would continue to hold such periodic seminars to update the engineers, who are in the frontline, on new developments in line with its ultimate goal of ensuring excellence in the industry.
Maintaining that oil is the lifeblood of the equipment, he informed the participants of the introduction of MobilServ, a new lubricant analysis service, saying this replaces the former Technical Services Department. He disclosed that MobilServ, a 48-hour online lubricant analysis service that is unique and flexible, differentiates Mobil from the competition.
Ezendiokwere said the service is meant to follow-up on customers to help trouble-shoot issues faster.
“It used to be done in Egypt but it’s now done in The Netherlands, which is closer than Egypt in terms of logistics.Turn-around time is now three/four days from seven days, that’s is the beauty, ” he explained, urging the participants to avail themselves the opportunity of the new service.
According to him, “It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
The essence of the meeting was however captured in the main lecture of the day titled, Lubrication Excellence, delivered by the Director, The Maintenance Institute Africa, Jonathan David. Describing lubrication as the bedrock of a reliable plant, David said, “Lubrication excellence helps us to know how a plant can fail and helps us know the point at which the plant can fail and therefore prevent that.”
David, who also doubles as the CEO, Epsilon Reliability Solutions Limited, maintained that, “In the real sense, equipment don’t fail because equipment is made up of components,” adding, “If we elongate and prolong the life-span of the components, the equipment will last.” He therefore advised the participants to focus on the components rather than the whole equipment.
Explaining the need for the bold step towards ensuring lubrication excellence, David said, “Mobil is a world-class company with world-class products but you need world-class practices to match world-class products,” adding, “that’s why we are organising this kind of seminar.”
According to David, “lubrication excellence is one of the most effective processes towards being proactive,” even as he urged the engineers to move from reactive maintenance to proactive maintenance, saying, “training and discipline take you to higher levels of excellence.”
Speaking on a topic titled, Busy Works Slip, the Technical Support Specialist, 11Plc, Felix Nnalue, said not paying attention to little things that matter really contributes to asset reliability challenges.
He stressed the need to “improve our knowledge of handling lubricants and lubrication equipment,” saying good house-keeping is key to preventing or reducing contamination, which, according to him, may be physical, human or biological.
Another interesting session at the event was the one handled by Owoyemi Adeboye, the Plant Engineer, Lafarge Ewekoro Operations, in which he shared the outcomes of a lubrication improvement project, saying all the inputs into the project were entirely local with no foreign input whatsoever.
According to Adeboye, who eventually got an award from Lafarge global headquarters in France because of the (lubrication) transformation at Lafarge Ewekoro, “after house-keeping, the next most important thing to look after in a plant is lubrication.”
While agreeing with David that “training is key to lubrication excellence,” Adeboye disclosed that the implementation of the seven-month project at Lafarge Ewekoro “is in progress and the changes are there for all to see.”
Adeboye listed some of the lessons from the Lafarge Ewekoro transformation project, which he initiated and supervised, to include the following:
– Lubrication points should be periodically audited for safety
– Oil analysis can complement/validate findings from other condition monitoring techniques.
Adeboye also stressed the need for continuous training, saying “Certification of lube technicians will ensure sustainability and confidence as we continue our journey towards lubrication excellence.”
The questions and answers session provided an avenue for a feedback from the participants with most of them expressing satisfaction at the event, urging 11 Plc to make it more regular rather than a one-off event.
A participant suggested that top management staff such as General Managers, Plant Directors, Procurement Managers and others should be invited to subsequent seminars to enable them understand the lubrication challenges better and key into the need for lubrication excellence.
For the Plant Manager, Obajana Cement Plc, Obajana, Bello Olawale, the seminar couldn’t have come at a better time as he expressed gratitude to 11 Plc for the opportunity, saying the meeting was really an eye-opener for him.
Clement Inyang from Lafarge Holcim Plant, Mfamosing, Calabar, said 20, 000 tons of cement are churned out everyday from his plant powered by Mobil lubricants, even as he disclosed that the plant achieved additional 10,000 hours with Mobil. He, however, stressed the need for 11 Plc to look into the feedback mechanism on a constant basis, saying customers relationship with the distributors is very key to achieving lubrication excellence.
Responding to Inyang’s concerns, a distributor at the event, Amaechi Franklin Okwose, Managing Director, Lubeserve Engineering Limited, said the plant and maintenance engineers are the real users of the lubricants and should feel free to relate with the distributors on their experience in the application and use of products supplied.
In his closing remarks, General Manager, Lubricants, 11 Plc, Umesh Malik, expressed gratitude to the participants for the success of the event, promising that his company would immediately follow-up on some of the issues raised by them.
He assured that the company was always at their service with quality products and he would not mind to personally visit some of the plants whenever the situation demands.
…This article was first published in Nairobi, Kenya-based Lubezine Magazine (www.lubezine.com) Issue 30, Page 20.
