Use of the correct expensive lubricant saves money

Kluber has reduced total operational costs for a major blue chip food processing company on rotary cooker oil without compromising efficiencies, by using the correct, 'expensive' lubricant

Is the cheapest approach to lubricants always the best route, to achieve cost savings? 12 months ago a call for help was received at Kluber, from a major blue chip food processing company with what was thought to be the impossible task of reducing lubrication costs throughout the group without compromising efficiencies.

The agenda put to Kluber was as follows.

1) The need to reduce costs from a purchase view point and apply economies of volume across all group locations.

2) A partner with technical expertise to bring cost and application reductions to the group was required.

3) The rotary cooker oil was identified as a key initial item to review: Cost of the current rotary cooker lubricant was GBP96k per annum for all the rotaries at one site, which was considered too high.

4) High spares parts cost in particular for brass wear strips at GBP100.00 each: the number of strips used per annum was 257 x GBP100 = GBP25700, which also was considered too high.

With 12 cookers operating at an average of 75% duty this equates to a total spares spend on strips of GBP230k and GBP96k per annum on lubricants.

Kluber engineers identified key KPIs for plan and evaluation.

For the Rotary Cooker, the OEM recommended product Kluberoil 4 UH1 460N was put forward as the alternative to that in current use.

The discharge valves were reset to allow a lower lubricant consumption without compromising the wear surfaces.

It was agreed that Kluber would monitor the effect of the oil film on wear strips over a 12 month period and report the results to engineering teams and purchasing departments.

After running for 12 months the following figures have been quantified and qualified.

1A) Previous lubricant 75barrels x 200Ltr per annum = GBP96k.

1B) Kluber 43barrels X 200Ltr per annum = GBP55k.

1C) Saving GBP41k.

2A) Previous wear strip lubricant of 257 strips pa = GBP25700.

2B) Kluber oil at 57 strips pa = GBP5700.

2C) Saving on spares: GBP20K.

If the duty cycle is factored in, the saving would be in the region of GBP162k for all 12 cookers.

Direct savings were achieved of GBP203k from the 2006 maintenance budget.

These savings resulted from nothing more than correct application of the correct lubrication, using the correct lubricant, despite it being perceived in industry as an expensive lubricant.

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