On May 6, the International Council for Machinery Lubrication held its first French-language certification exam at the Lonza Braine S.A. plant in Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium.
The ICML Machine Lubrication Technician (MLT) Level I exam session was sponsored by I-Care and Lonza Braine. Prior to the exam, candidates attended a training course instructed by Fabrice Brion.
The on-site course and exam took place at Lonza Braine's plant just outside of Brussels. This site specializes in research & development and custom manufacturing of therapeutic peptides.
Lonza Braine, formerly UCB-Bioproducts, was acquired by Lonza in the first quarter of 2006 and has been active in chemical peptide manufacturing for more than 20 years. Currently, this site offers liquid-phase chemistry, solid-phase chemistry, purification (various HPLC columns from small up to large scale) and lyophilisation. Additionally, Lonza Braine has global reach in peptides, world-leading process development and production expertise to serve its customer base.
© Lonza Ltd., Basel, 2007
Bottom-line Impact
It is a proven fact that maintenance activities - and, more specifically, lubrication activities - have a direct impact on an organization's bottom line. With a significant percentage of equipment failures in industry being linked to lubrication-related issues, it should be easy to identify that the human factor (technicians) is of great importance to the success of any program; however, many companies still fail to support and value their technicians. Lubrication personnel tend to be one of the last (if not the last) to be considered for training. That's puzzling since lubrication technicians can make a tremendous difference in terms of cost savings.
Every dollar saved in maintenance directly hits the bottom line. Avoiding human error-related failures easily diminishes the dent an otherwise unskilled lubrication technician places on the organization's profitability in terms of costs tied to breakdowns. Often, such failures are avoidable through proper qualification and assessment of the lubrication personnel.
© Lonza Ltd., Basel, 2007
ICML Spans the Globe
Lonza Braine has seen the value in training and certifying its technicians for improved reliability and profitability purposes. We at ICML congratulate this corporation for its pioneering vision, and trust that other Belgian companies will follow suit by seeking to dignify the lubrication technician's job in this country.
With the addition of French, ICML now offers its exams in eight languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Since 2001, ICML has certified more than 4,500 professionals from 67 countries.
Is there another language or area for which ICML should be serving? If so, contact us at info@lubecouncil.org. ICML will be glad to investigate the possibility of bringing certification exams to your area of the world.
About ICML
The International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML) is a vendor-neutral, not-for-profit organization founded to facilitate growth and development of machine lubrication as a technical field of endeavor. Among its various activities, ICML offers skill certification testing for individuals in the fields of machine condition monitoring, lubrication and oil analysis. ICML is an independently chartered organization consisting of both paid professional staff members and volunteer advisors. It provides lubrication and oil analysis standard development support, scholarship, skill-based testing and certification, and recognition of excellence.
