THE Do's AND DON'Ts OF SETTING CONTAMINATION CONTROL OBJECTIVES

It is pretty well understood, or at least widely stated, that what gets measured gets done. So it should come as no surprise that contamination control objectives should be implemented; they are our means of measuring the effectiveness of our equipment relubrication processes, not to mention how many of our other contamination control measures are going. When we set these objectives, though, we need to keep a few things in mind: consider this the Do's and Don'ts of setting contamination control objectives.

- Jeremie Edwards

More about this ASCEND™ Factor

Factor: C3M - Contamination Control Objectives

Level: Management and Training (M)

Stage: Contamination Control & Lubricant Reconditioning

About: Implementing contamination control objectives and goals increases machine reliability. Highly critical machines should have stringent objectives.

Learn More: noria.com/ascend/

DO

Do set measurable and achievable goals.

Having solid goals that you can actually hit makes a huge difference, not just for the equipment but also for the entire reliability team. How frustrating would it be to have a goal that can never be achieved? Look at your process, operating conditions, lubricant demands, machine demands and criticality, and see what makes sense for your capabilities and reliability goals. "Pie in the sky" dreams are great, but we live in the real world, and we need real goals.

DON'T

Don't  set a blanket statement and make it "the goal." We can't just say, "I want clean oil in all of our equipment," and call it a day. We can't measure this in any meaningful way, and we don't even have a definition of "clean" to shoot for. ISO cleanliness codes are a simple way to start on this.

DO

Do create a standard for how we are going to go about reaching the goals.