As the cover story in this issue of Machinery Lubrication magazine shows, a strong commitment to machinery lubrication pays off in many ways. For INVISTA, one particular way was being recognized by the International Council for Machinery Lubrication as the latest recipient of the John R. Battle Award. INVISTA joins other industry visionaries such as Clopay Plastics, Valero Energy, Cargill Corn Milling and Eli Lilly Company as a winner of this prestigious award, which honors excellence in machinery lubrication.
The Battle Award – like its counterpart, the Augustus H. Gill Award for Excellence in Oil Analysis – was developed by ICML for the betterment of industry in a number of ways.
- The awards criteria outlines critical areas in which companies need to focus when developing or improving their machinery lubrication and/or industrial oil analysis programs.
- It benchmarks industry by identifying role model companies that have exhibited excellence in applying machinery lubrication or oil analysis in machine and lubricant condition monitoring.
- It further recognizes champion organizations and their staffs, which naturally become mentors for other companies and staffs looking to improve the quality of their maintenance organizations, and consequently their machines’ reliability and overall asset management.
- By focusing on facilities that have achieved this through the application of machinery lubrication and oil analysis, it highlights the direct impact of such programs on the bottom line.
What’s in it for You and Your Company?
The ICML awards bring to light what’s in it for companies that elevate the profile of lubrication and analysis personnel.
The awards recognize lubrication and oil analysis as not only required, but a valid and important technical field. They demonstrate the need and the benefits associated with disposing of “oiler” roles and installing skilled, educated professionals who are supported by their companies in technical development.
Trained and certified technicians are respected and recognized by these employers for their (and lubrication’s) crucial roles in the maintenance organization and the company at large. Such companies recognize that maintenance technicians (lubrication and oil analysis ones included) are the walking, talking human factor of reliability and asset management, ultimately holding the key to cost savings that directly hit the bottom line. These firms have achieved by dignifying the role of personnel involved in lubrication and oil analysis and, as a result, have committed professional, capable technical staff with buy-in (and the required skills) to elevate their organizations to a best-in-class level. That means rewards to the individual, the maintenance department, the company and to society as a whole.
Here’s Your Call to Action
ICML hopes its mission will bring about the “retirement” of oilers, lubricators and lubies and the advent worldwide of valued, respected, supported, trained, certified and fairly compensated lubrication technicians and oil analysts. It believes in the power this has to not only better industry, but to better the careers and lives of lubrication and oil analysis practitioners around the globe.
The awards are open to companies worldwide, independent of any involvement with ICML. There is no fee to apply for the awards. However, it is imperative to note that ICML cannot nominate a company. ICML instead requires that the nominations come from industry, with plant personnel nominating their facilities by submitting an application.
If you know of someone doing a great job in the areas of machinery lubrication and/or oil analysis – be it your own team, peers, customers or industry in general – let them know about the ICML awards and encourage them to get this most deserved pat on the back. Also, let us know who they are so we can follow up with them. ICML can only facilitate the betterment of our industry to the extent that we all participate, so do get the word out and help the council recognize worthy programs.
For more information on ICML or the awards and criteria, or to download an awards application, visit www.lubecouncil.org or e-mail info@lubecouncil.org.
John R. Battle Award Criteria
- Commitment to education
- Maintenance culture and management support
- Lubrication selection
- Preventive, predictive and proactive maintenance effectiveness
- Metrics and performance tracking
- Lubricant storage and handling
- Routing sensory inspection for lubrication effectiveness
- Sampling for oil analysis
- Contamination exclusion and removal
- Application systems of oil and grease
- Continuous improvement
Battle Award Recipients
- Clopay Plastic Products Company (Augusta, Ky.)
- Valero Energy Corporation (Port Arthur, Texas)
- Cargill Corn Milling (Wahpeton, N.D.)
- Eli Lilly & Company (Indianapolis)
- INVISTA (Victoria, Texas)
Augustus H. Gill Award Criteria
- Commitment to education
- Maintenance culture and management support
- Performance measurements
- Proactive/predictive maintenance
- Standardized procedures
- Integration of condition monitoring
- Contamination control
- Lubricant management
- Lube analysis strategies
- Use of information technology
- Plan for continuous improvement
Gill Award Recipients
- Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station – Arizona Public Service (Wintersburg, Ariz.)
- J.R. Simplot Smoky Canyon Mine (Afton, Wyo.)
- Georgia Power – Southern Company (Branch, Ga.)
- Kennecott Energy Maintenance & Reliability Group – Rio Tinto (Meeker, Colo.)
- Clopay Plastic Products Company (Augusta, Ky.)
- Great River Energy Coal Creek Station (Underwood, N.D.)
- Energizer Battery (Maryville, Mo.)
