What a Difference Seven Years Has Made

On January 26, 2001, almost exactly seven years to the day this article is being written, five oil analysis practitioners assembled together in Biloxi, Mississippi with a common objective: to test and prove their oil analysis skills. Although a small group, it already represented the mission of the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML): to better the lubrication and oil analysis industry globally while dignifying the professions of lubrication technicians and oil analysts worldwide.

On that day, the small, yet diverse group, comprised of practitioners from the United States and abroad, sat for the first ICML certification exam. After three hours, ICML had certified its first group of Level I machine lubricant analysts (MLA I).

ICML Milestones

Just the Beginning
By mid-April 2001, ICML had launched its second exam type with a group of four practitioners attending the first session of the Level I machinery lubrication technician (MLT I) exam in Houston. By September, only eight months from the first exam session, ICML administered its MLA I exam for the first time in a foreign country: five practitioners in Perth, Australia, took the test.

The news was slowly spreading and practitioners worldwide, needing a means to benchmark their skills through an application-based certification program, began seeking ICML credentials.

Sharing the Opportunity
The next step for ICML was to move on to foreign languages in order to bring exams to every part of the globe. ICML vowed that wherever a practitioner wanted to demonstrate that his/her skills were at par with his or her counterparts in America, Canada, the United Kingdom, etc., ICML exams would be administered. In mid-February 2002, only one year after the first exam, ICML offered its first Spanish exam in Monterrey, Mexico, with 18 practitioners attending the MLA I in their own language. Only three months later, the third exam type, Level I laboratory lubricant analyst (LLA I) was first administered in Caracas, Venezuela, also in Spanish.

In another six months, 15 South Korean practitioners in Daegu were taking ICML's first Asian language exam in Korean. By the end of its second year, ICML already offered three of its five exam types in three different languages.

Portuguese was added in 2004 when 10 practitioners in Brazil sat for the first ICML MLA I Portuguese exam in the city of São Paulo. That was followed by ICML's second Asian language, Japanese. Exactly five years to the day of its first exam, ICML made its debut in Japan with eight people taking the exam.

In 2006, ICML extended its Asian presence to China, where in August a group of 16 practitioners took the MLA I exam in Shanghai, in the Chinese language, completing the six languages that ICML exams presently offer. ICML's first Italian exam is scheduled for March 2008 and French is expected to be added to the list soon thereafter, bringing ICML languages up to a total of eight.

Dedication Pays Off
ICML's story is one of vision, determination and, above all, passion. In only seven years, these motivations have brought a small organization with humble beginnings to the place of "de facto" world standard (at least where certification of lubrication personnel is concerned). From January 2001 to January 2008, ICML has expanded from one exam type, one language, one country and five certified professionals to five exam types, six languages, 52 countries and more than 3,300 certified professionals worldwide. It is an honor to be involved with ICML and watch the dedicated staff and volunteers accomplish so much, with so little, in such a short amount of time. 2007 marked for ICML a total of 1,400 candidates tested in one year, taking exams in 147 different locations worldwide.

ICML is a volunteer-based organization. Had it not been for the vision and determination of its founding members, the support and commitment of the companies involved, as well as the obsessive compulsive dedication of its permanent staff of two and its volunteers, seven years may not have made that much of a difference. But then again, that would not have been ICML.