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(Olaolu OLUSINA)
The ongoing campaign for lubrication and service excellence in Nigeria is intensifying with the passing of each day . The game is also changing with advocates really upping the ante as they strive to leave no stone unturned in their mission.
With an avowed commitment to ensuring excellence in every aspect of lubrication and engineering service, The Maintenance Institute Africa, last November in Lagos, hosted Maintenance, Assets and Reliability Managers, working in different sectors, in and around the state, to a seminar tagged, Maintenance Managers Connect 2019. The event was fully sponsored by 11 Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria).
The Managing Director/CEO, 11 Plc, Dr. Adetunji Oyebanji, set the tone for what to expect in his opening speech.
“Our desire is to bring top Maintenance Engineers under one roof and share ideas. Our goal is to share with you our vision, that is, to blend and sell first-rated lubricants,” Oyebanji said.
Welcoming the engineers to the event, the Managing Director informed them that “The Maintenance & Asset Leaders Connect was conceived by The Maintenance Institute Africa and 11 Plc,” saying, “11 Plc intends to produce first-in-class lubricants.” He stressed that “At the end of the day, we would have provided you with answers to issues that bothered you as Maintenance Managers.”
Oyebanji also disclosed that renowned motivational speaker and Life Coach, Fela Durotoye, was brought into the programme because “Leadership, also, is important, aside the technical issues.”
Durotoye, who thereafter, challenged the participants to always strive for excellence, took them through a highly interactive session as he spoke on “Delivering Excellence through Transformational Leadership.”
According to Durotoye, “We need to be innovative to be able to excel,” as he urged participants to “be the change that you want people to be.”
Maintaining that “We’ve mastered the art of procurement, we know how to build roads, but maintenance has been the issue,” he said, “We have a crisis and it is maintenance crisis.And it’s a crisis we don’t have to pass on to our children,” even as he challenged them, saying, “We’ve got a big challenge.”
On transformational leadership. Durotoye said, “Experience might not be the best teacher, disruption is everywhere, transformation is that kind of change.”
According to Durotoye, “Every time things get remarkably different, we call it transformation. We need transformation thinking and mindset to produce transformational leaders that will ensure the transformational change that we need.”
Senior lubrication engineer and Manager, Lubricants Sales & Field Engineering Service , 11 Plc, Steve Ezendiokwere, took the participants through another interesting session, titled, Lubrication Solutions: Focus on Failure Modes. Explaining the various types of Maintenance Approaches, Ezendiokwere challenged the Maintenance Engineers to always think ahead, saying “The trend now is to follow condition-based maintenance through Predictive Monitoring (PdM) ,” adding, “Increasing plant productivity requires increasing focus on greater asset availability and data-based decision making.”
Ezendiokwere also spoke about Mobil’s used oil programme, which according to him, is a PdM tool, describing it as a winning proposition that helps to determine if the equipment is working properly as well as detect contamination .
“For us at Mobil, our oil analysis solution is MobilServ Lubricant Analysis, ” he disclosed, saying “It’s an online oil analysis programme that is unique,” stressing that “This is our winning proposition in the market.”
Maintaining that 11 Plc was interested in addressing whatever challenges the Maintenance Managers might have in lubricants use and application, he said, “Our aim is to drive good lubricant values.”
The General Manager, Lubricants, 11 Plc, Umesh Malik, put it succinctly.
“For Mobil lubricants, it’s all about high performance. That’s why we are running this programme.
“As Maintenance Engineers, we are the ones that take strategic decisions for optimum performance,” Malik said, while answering some questions from the participants.
Another interesting session handled by Joel Mukollos, a retired Manager, Maintenance at the NNPC – Warri Refinery & Petrochemical Company, Ekpan, Warri, dwelt on Maintenance Modelling Principles. Describing maintenance as a challenge and “a war,” Mukollos said “Maintenance is the act of maintaining,” stressing that the basis for maintenance is “to keep, preserve and protect.”
Nlaliban Wujangi, a service expert from Ghana, also added a voice as a rappoteur at the event, saying “What makes us difference is our ability to excel.”
The chief host of the event, Engr. David Jonathan, Director, The Maintenance Institute Africa, who also doubles as the Director, Epsilon Reliability Consult, expressed satisfaction at the success of the maiden edition of the event even as the participants advised that it should be made an annual event.
He said the main driving force behind the efforts of his company is the passion for excellence . David expressed gratitude to 11 Plc for the sponsorship of the event.
Though the event, that was fully sponsored by 11Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria), may have come and gone with the year that just passed, the importance and significance, as well as the thrills and frills, will continue to resonate for quite a long time to come.
