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Transitioning to a New Lube Supplier
John Baron P. Eng., R&M Superintendent, Pioneer
Grain Company Limited
1. I would give supplier B samples of Supplier A's products and
ask them to verify (in writing) whether or not there are any compatibility
issues between the two various products. Ideally this should have
been done as part of the selection process.
2. If there were no compatibility issues on the smaller top up
and change out drives, I would simply continue to do this once
all of the old product was used up. If there were some issues
with them, I would develop a plan such that some could be swapped
over to Supplier B's products in advance of the normal time to
spread out the work workload and get all of the concerning ones
done in an orderly fashion before the old supply runs out. Care
would have to be taken to ensure no admixing occurred during the
change over period.
3. On the larger units that are condition monitored and changed
only when needed, I would salvage as much of Supplier A's product
as I could and use it to carry the systems through to the "normal"
change out time. If there were no compatibility issues, you might
be forced to top up with Supplier B's product, but I would take
an oil sample just before, and just after that new lubricant was
added, so that a base line is kept during the transition. If there
were compatibility issues, a complete change out would be needed,
taking care to thoroughly flush out the system.
4. I would follow a similar process for the greases. In all cases
good documentation would have to be followed. Should tag each
gear unit with specific instructions as to how to proceed with
the change over so mix ups are minimized.
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to this Readers Challenge.
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