Ascend Chart: Your Proactive Maintenance Roadmap

Today's reliability-conscious world demands a proactive mindset that goes beyond reactive fixes and embraces the aspirational goal of machine longevity.

The Ascend Chart emerges as a robust roadmap for organizations seeking to transition from the reactive to the proactive in their maintenance strategies.

The Shift Towards Reliability

The maintenance landscape is changing, and the focus is shifting from embracing failures to preventing them. The journey towards reliability begins with a commitment to quality at the foundation, ensuring machines are designed and manufactured for sustainable, long-term operation. Precision installation and maintenance become the following steps, encompassing various critical factors such as consistency, accuracy, and lubrication excellence.

Understanding Proactive Maintenance

Proactive maintenance, often misunderstood, is not only about condition monitoring but involves a comprehensive philosophy that addresses the underlying causes of machine failures. Unlike reactive maintenance, which responds to failures at different stages, proactive maintenance aims to avoid or end conditions leading to faults or abnormal wear. It is a mindset change, urging organizations to make lifestyle changes for their machines that extend life rather than only making repairs.

Simple Steps of Proactive Maintenance

Implementing proactive maintenance involves a three-step approach:

Set Your Target for Change: Define measurable and verifiable targets that exceed past practices or conditions. The goal is to be 'okay' and achieve machine improvements like cleaner, cooler, and drier operations.
Implement Targeted Changes: Enact changes that align with the set targets. Whether it's better filtration, improved lubricants, or enhanced inspection practices, the emphasis is on addressing root causes and making persistent changes.
Measure and Verify: Regular measurement and verification are essential. If a target is worth setting and changes are worth implementing, they are worth measuring. This step ensures that the desired improvements are achieved and maintained.

This systematic approach ensures that proactive maintenance becomes ingrained in the organizational culture, leading to tangible benefits and cost savings.

The Power of the Ascend Chart

cre ascend chart

The Ascend Chart is a valuable tool designed to guide organizations through the stages of a proactive maintenance strategy in lubrication. Its six lifecycle stages offer specific opportunities for change and control. Let's explore some examples within these stages:

Lubricant Selection: Matching the correct lubricant to machine specifications is crucial. The Ascend Chart emphasizes the engineering exercise required for optimal lubricant selection, considering factors like viscosity, base oil type, and additive chemistry.
Lubricant Reception and Storage: The health and protection of lubricants during reception and storage are often overlooked. The Ascend Chart highlights the importance of maintaining lubricant quality from when it arrives, as this phase can impact lifespan.
Lubricant Handling and Application: Proper lubricant application, including timely changes and relubrication, plays a pivotal role in machine health. The Ascend Chart advocates for avoiding under-lubrication and over-lubrication, emphasizing the impact even slight changes can have on machine life.
Contamination Control and Lubricant Relubrication: This stage emphasizes the continuous task of keeping lubricants clean, dry, and cool. Effective contamination control and rapid removal of contaminants are critical aspects, with oil analysis serving as a verification tool.
Condition Monitoring, Lubricant Analysis & Troubleshooting: The Ascend Chart acknowledges that machines rarely experience trouble without first signalling the lubricant. Frequent and proper oil analysis and meticulous inspection practices are essential for detecting issues before they escalate.
Health & the Environment: Energy conservation is intertwined with lubrication practices. The Ascend Chart recognizes the potential for significant cost savings through intelligent lubricant choices and established lubrication practices that reduce frictional losses.

Optimization vs. Maximization

The caution against excessiveness in areas such as training, cleanliness, and sampling frequency highlights the potential for wasted resources when pursuing the extreme. Rather than aiming for maximal efforts, the emphasis should be on optimizing reliability – a strategic approach that seeks the perfect equilibrium. This involves finding the delicate balance that maximizes the benefits derived from proactive maintenance without incurring unnecessary costs. By adopting an optimization mindset, organizations can ensure efficient resource use and sustainable improvements in reliability without succumbing to the pitfalls of excessive measures.

Ascend Chart Unveiled

By embracing a proactive mindset and adhering to the three-step approach of setting targets, implementing changes, and measuring results, organizations lay the groundwork for sustained machine longevity and operational efficiency. As we conclude this exploration, it's clear that transitioning to proactive maintenance demands actionable steps, and CRE Philippines stands as a valuable partner in this journey.

CRE Philippines introduces a two-phase Lubrication Program Development created in partnership with Noria to ease a seamless transition towards proactive maintenance excellence. In Phase 1: ASCEND^TM Benchmarking, organizations enjoy a comprehensive assessment of their current lubrication program, benchmarked against industry best practices. Leveraging a 500-point survey and the ASCEND^TM Method, CRE Philippines delivers tailored recommendations to enhance 40 critical elements of the lubrication program. Phase 2: Program Engineering takes a proactive stance, with CRE Philippines designing and standardizing step-by-step procedures for each lubricated asset, ensuring seamless implementation for technicians. The result is a detailed database encompassing improvement recommendations, work procedures, lubricant suggestions, and hardware modifications.

Embracing the success of this program, consider the case study of Blue Buffalo, who, with Noria, achieved lubrication excellence by incorporating comprehensive inspections, contamination control activities, and optimal lubrication procedures from day one of their Richmond plant. This case study exemplifies CRE Philippines' and Noria's commitment to best practices and continuous improvement, making our Lubrication Program Development a hallmark of reliability and efficiency in maintenance.

Embarking on this collaborative journey with CRE Philippines transforms your lubrication program into a cornerstone of operational excellence and sets the stage for a future where reliability is not a distant goal but an integral part of daily operations. Contact us today and take the first step towards elevating your organization's efficiency and machinery longevity.

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