Martin: Good afternoon Haris, how are you doing?
Haris: Hello Martin, excellent as always. And you, all fine, healthy?
Martin: Yeah, good to catch up again.
Haris: Yes, sure. I missed you.
Martin: Yeah, I missed you too.
Haris: That’s very nice to hear.
Martin: So, anyway, Haris, something has been crossing my mind: what does it mean LUBExpert, and, particularly when I see it like on your shirt, the SDT LUBExpert?
Haris: Well, actually it’s two questions, that should be two questions, because there are two answers. Who is LUBExpert and what is LUBExpert .
Martin: Let’s start with first one, because I kind of like to think of myself as a Lube Expert. In fact, I might even have that on my LinkedIn profile, you know, as a title. Of course, we can all lie on our LinkedIn CV, but the fact is that, you know, being sensible, Lube Expert is a guy who earned his colours, got the T-Shirt the hard way, spent number of years doing lubrication and he is probably even certified through one of the certifying bodies. That’s what I think of as a Lube Expert. What do you see it as?
Haris: Well, aghh… pfffff, I will not speak about certifications, I would go rather more general. LUBExpert is Competent and capable person, … authorised to do the job he cares about.
By competent and capable we consider a person who knows what needs to be done, knows how to do it and have all necessary means to do it.
By authorised we mean that person actually IS in position to do it… and is expected to do it.
By “cares about” part (that’s most tricky part), we mean that person actually wants to do it, out of his/hers beliefs, not because he must do it.
Just to be clear, that happens at all levels … top and bottom, the same.
That’s the reason why you have a grease guy … and Mr. grease guy.
Martin: So, clearly than, it’s about the five “rights”: the right lubricant, in a right quantity, at the right time, at the right place, with a right attitude. And, of course, right attitude is very much down to the person, the right person, if you like, doing the right job for the right reasons. But isn’t it more than just one person, isn’t it team sometimes, there is not just a particular person alone that’s going to be responsible for all that?
Haris: Exactly, absolutely agree with you. As we say, it takes a village to raise a child. Equally, it takes organizational culture, it takes entire organization … to raise an expert and keep him there. So, it’s much more than one person, always.
Martin: Absolutely. So, the second part of the question than, specifically: What is LUBExpert?
Haris: Well, LUBExpert is a Condition Based Lubrication strategy; which is enabling just anyone to become a person that we just mentioned a second before. So, it resolves the problems we mentioned before, in previous episodes, and creates all new environment, because it’s not only hardware and software; it’s Culture, Discipline, Education, Technology, Evaluation, Correction and, at the end of the day, Recognition. In this case, technology is a game changer because it helps all this other stuff to happen.
Martin: That sounds pretty reasonable because, obviously, Time-based maintenance planning is great, but often things get skipped, things get missed, but also you might consider it guesswork, I suppose, and I’ve always been a big advocate of Condition-based. Particularly in terms of Lubrication tasks as something we can do Condition-based. It’s very clear what you target is there: let’s improve lubrication practice to perfection in a way that company benefits, weather it’s financially, or weather it’s through health and safety record, weather it’s environmentally speaking in terms of carbon footprint. But surely, you know, how do we go about getting there, we can’t drive this upwards through the organization, can we?
Haris: In our opinion, and I am sure you agree with that, first step is always a decision. So there must clear decision coming from ”upstairs”, coming from management. That means understanding current condition and understanding desired condition. “This is where we are – this is where we want to go”. Decision means not just declarative “Yes, let’s do it”; it’s readiness to support changes. People don’t like changes very much and very often.
Martin: So it’s going to be more than just paying the lip service to it, we got to actually provide the tools, etc, to get that right. So, where do you think … I mean, obviously, this is something we can talk over number of ice creams, it’s a pretty big subject so, you know, we have to get back to it at some point to discuss that but… your thoughts?
Haris: Yes, we can come back to that again, but once the decision has been made that we need to buy software and hardware, that’s something we start with. Usually, it is not about huge investment. I always see a huge investment in change, that’s a huge investment, everything else is not such big investment.
