Creating Reliable Plants

There is a greater understanding and implementation of preventative maintenance and reliability practices in the food and beverage (F&B) industry. Using high-performance H1 lubricants, F&B manufacturers can better handle the harsh and difficult operating conditions, reduce their operation and maintenance costs and enjoy greater reliability in their day-to-day operations.

The recently launched and patented Clear Grease Guns by Lubrication Engineers (LE), for example, enable plant operators to easily identify various greases, therefore avoiding costly grease cross-contamination issues. In addition to the clear tubes, these grease guns come with assorted color-end caps, making it easy to match the grease gun tubes to grease points by color, which further eliminates mishaps and ensures better identification.

The labeling of equipment ensures that the appropriate lubricant is delivered in accurate quantities to targeted applications in the food plant. This is achieved with a detailed lubrication survey of the plant and implementing regular oil analysis to safely extend the drain intervals of the gear, compressor and hydraulic oils.


A group of consultants is seen working on a reliability-centered maintenance (RCM)/ reliability assessment.

Reliability assessment
By performing a reliability assessment as part of a reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) program, plant operators will be able to consolidate the use of various lubricants for the machinery. Plant managers should consider the following when working on the assessment:

• How many types of lubricants are there in the inventory?
• Are the lubricants stored in an organized and contaminant-free manner?
• How many inventory locations store the lubricants?
• Does the plant run out of lubricants when they are needed?
• Was there a case when a wrong lubricant was used on a machine?
• Are the lubricants purchased from multiple suppliers?
• Was there a time when a wrong lubricant was ordered by mistake?
• Do the operators know the lubricant specifications needed for each piece of equipment?


The labeling of equipment ensures that the appropriate lubricant is delivered in accurate quantities to targeted applications in the food plant.

Food processing plants that lack the expertise to perform this survey can engage a certified lubrication consultant or company to do the job, which usually consists of five steps:

1. Perform a reliability assessment;
2. Analyze for lubricant consolidation;
3. Set up a contaminant-free lube room;
4. Purchase lubricants; and
5. Begin the lubricant conversion process.

Consolidating lubricant use
Lubricant consolidation enables plant operators to reduce the number of lubricants used to a few, resulting in a variety of benefits such as those below.

• Minimizing cases of lubricant misapplication
With more lubrication products, the plant has a higher risk of making costly mistakes such as using the wrong lubricant in its equipment. Plant operators might be inadequately trained in the use of the various lubricants and the equipment might not be clearly labeled. The use of the wrong lubricant type or viscosity can create unplanned downtime, and this can be extremely expensive to correct.

• Better vendor management
Staff and departments that purchase the lubricants may not be the actual users, and they often are not well-versed in lubrication standards or equipment viscosity needs. This potentially creates miscommunication among them, the users and suppliers, resulting in making the wrong orders. If such a mistake is made during a critical production time, it could result in downtime. Lubrication consolidation will help limit the occurrence of these mistakes and reduce the amount of time employees spend meeting their suppliers, expediting purchase orders and negotiating lubricant pricing.

• Reducing inventory and associated costs
There are many opportunities for food plants to consolidate lubricants and/or suppliers. A plant can, for example, use various gearbox original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that recommend a variety of commercial lubricants when one product can possibly meet all of the plant’s requirements. The gear oil can potentially be used in multiple locations across the plant, providing an order volume that enables better pricing from one supplier, and streamlines the purchasing process.

There would also be fewer inventory costs when there are fewer lubricants for the plant to manage, freeing more resources for other purposes and minimizing potential losses due to contamination, obsolescence and spoilage.

• Simplified storage and handling
With more lubricants in the plant’s inventory, it is more difficult to keep the room clean, organized and contaminant-free. More processes are also needed to purchase, stock, monitor and maintain the lubricants in the room.

Plants that do not have a lubricant storage room often place the lubricants throughout the plant, making the inventory management process difficult. This also increases the risk of running out of a particular lubricant when it is needed.


The recently launched and patented Clear Grease Guns by Lubrication Engineers for example enable plant operators to easily identify various greases, therefore avoiding costly grease crosscontamination issues.

Conclusion
A contaminant-free, well-organized lubricant storage room is important in a RCM program. Many companies are now recognizing this and are refurbishing their lube rooms. When budgeting for such a program, it is important to ensure that lubricant consolidation is part of this process.

When this process is successfully implemented, plant managers can enjoy extended lubricant drain intervals, reduced consumption and maintenance of the lubricants, and lesser energy consumption. These benefits will result in reduced operating and maintenance costs, thereby contributing to profits.

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Less is more

US-based FPL Food LLC is one of the largest privately-owned, fully integrated beef processing facilities in the southeast of the country. With an aim to build an efficient lubrication storage room and reduce cross-contamination risks and control inventory, maintenance manager Ed Noland wanted to consolidate and organize the lubricant storage room and prepare for a major audit from an independent agency. Passing this audit would help the FPL to secure a contract to sell its beef products to Wal-Mart.

After a reliability assessment, lubrication consultant Mark Jones surveyed the 20 lubricants used in the facility. About 11 lubricants were needed after the implementation of a RCM program. FPL’s planner Cory Ashley also stopped receiving late-night phone calls on the correct lubricant-equipment use, thereby improving efficiency.

In Australia, the maintenance teams of Penfolds Wine wanted to improve the reliability of their bottling plant by consolidating the lubricant inventory and reducing the number of lubricant suppliers they have to deal with. After a reliability assessment, their lubrication consultant Bill Gommers found that the facility buys 28 lubricants from 11 suppliers. After the implementation of a RCM program, the company found it needed 10 lubricants from one supplier and the number of food-grade lubricants was reduced from 12 to five.

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