What is the critical link between lubrication and operational efficiency in mining?
Michael Longbottom, Global LubeExpert Coach, Shell Lubricant Solutions, explores how effective lubrication programmes can help miners to increase the availability of critical equipment while reducing maintenance costs.
Key Takeaways
With equipment health at the heart of a mine site鈥檚 operations, miners must focus on building maintenance and lubrication programmes to drive operational efficiency 鈥 helping sites to become more productive and more sustainable.
Despite many miners seeing the value in using high-quality lubricants, making the business case to senior stakeholders can be difficult. The sector needs to understand how smarter investment in lubricants can reduce overall maintenance costs whilst improving equipment availability.
Digital tools and services offer a vital way to support lubrication programmes, helping miners to take a more proactive approach to maintenance, reducing the impact of unplanned downtime and repairs to site operations.
Working closely with lubricant suppliers offers a key route to efficiency gains, helping miners to avoid unexpected (and costly) breakdowns of critical equipment while maintaining effective lubrication systems to prevent unnecessary waste through over-consumption.
Michael Longbottom, Global LubeExpert Coach, Shell Lubricant Solutions
With 36 years of experience in the mining industry, Mike drives the global standardisation of Shell LubeExpert 鈥 embedding best practices across the markets where the service is active. His aim is to develop and deliver a unique global offering that provides the mining sector with a team of technicians dedicated to maintaining lubrication systems to drive their performance, increase the availability of each site鈥檚 critical assets and improve total cost of ownership (TCO).
With equipment health crucial to the smooth running of mining operations, effective lubrication programmes have a significant impact on the reliability and cost of site operations. By understanding the benefits that high-quality lubricants 鈥 combined with complementary digital services and expert technical advice 鈥 can deliver, miners can gain buy in from across the business and build maintenance programmes that improve their operational efficiency and support their sustainability goals.
To address their biggest commercial and environmental challenges, miners must improve the productivity and sustainability of their operations. This means focusing on operational efficiency and TCO, areas in which equipment maintenance has a critical role to play. Many sites are struggling to make the case for smarter investment in their lubrication programmes whilst struggling with inefficient processes increasing the risk of costly breakdowns and unplanned downtime.
Making the case for effective lubrication in mining
When it comes to maintenance, miners face a challenge. They are under pressure from shareholders to drive profitability and reduce operating costs but struggle to gain senior stakeholder buy in for solutions to help them to achieve that.
Many mine sites already see the value in effective maintenance and lubrication. As highlighted in 鈥Breaking New Ground: Shaping a Successful Future for Mining鈥 , the latest whitepaper from Shell Lubricant Solutions, they are willing to invest on average 15% more in maintenance solutions that deliver greater value.1 However, six out of ten mining decision makers agree that senior stakeholders at their company do not give lubricants selection and management the importance it deserves.1
It is an area of discussion in which Michael Longbottom, Global LubeExpert Coach, Shell Lubricant Solutions, has decades of experience 鈥 and he is keen to highlight the false economy of overlooking the importance of lubricants selection.
鈥淥ne of the best arguments is highlighting how cheaper lubricants can end up costing you a lot of money,鈥 he says. 鈥淨uality lubricants might cost you more up front but, if you know they鈥檙e being applied properly with the right processes in place, then lubricant spend is going to be incredibly small compared to the wider maintenance budget.鈥
Longbottom points to a typical pin or bush on an excavator as an example of this idea in practice.
鈥淚f you are using a cheaper grease with poor mechanical stability, you need to apply it more often,鈥 he explains. 鈥淔or the sake of argument, it is $1 cheaper than a higher-quality grease. You might be saving on the initial costs, but that pin or bush will probably cost you $20-30,000 more a year.鈥
This perspective is backed by the fact that selecting the right lubricants 鈥 and managing them as effectively as possible 鈥 can enable miners to reduce their overall maintenance budgets by up to 30% each year.2 A positive step when the rising cost of consumables is the number one challenge miners will face over the next 3-5 years.1
Delivering effective lubrication management through digitalisation
Lubricants selection is important, but that is not the only step that miners must take if they want to drive operational efficiency through greater equipment health. They must manage their lubrication systems as effectively as possible to make the most of the high-quality products they use. It is an aspect of maintenance where digitalisation presents new opportunities for greater operational efficiency.
鈥淲e are moving towards technology that allows operators to see a single lubrication point operating in the field and know if it performs as expected,鈥 says Longbottom. 鈥淲e are also trying to move a lot of our inspection reports to digital so, when we get off the machine, we can press a button and send that report directly to the operators.鈥
This can make a significant difference to mining operations when past process would typically see miners receiving an inspection report two or three days after the inspection was completed. Now, they can simply open an app to see information needed to make informed maintenance decisions.
Michael Longbottom, Global LubeExpert Coach, Shell Lubricant Solutions鈥淎pps are a great way to support miners because they put all reports operators need in a central location. They can see everything about the health of their equipment 鈥 including how their lubricants and injectors are functioning. It helps them to identify any components that may need adjusting or changing at the next service.鈥
This can have a significant impact on operational efficiency, reducing the risk of unexpected failures to increase equipment utilisation. Real-time oil condition monitoring (OCM) provides an example of how this can work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an innovation that offers miners a way to prevent unplanned downtime by detecting issues before they become critical,鈥 says Longbottom. 鈥淭he sensors involved generate a huge amount of data, with analysis then carried out on it to give maintenance teams a clear understanding of their equipment health and the ability to act on those insights.鈥
Making the most of lubrication with expert technical services
Supplier support is vital for miners developing lubrication programmes. Eight out of ten agree that lubricants suppliers should have the knowledge and skills to help them thrive amid industry challenges.1
"Lubricants are important, but it also comes down to the technical service from suppliers,鈥 says Longbottom. 鈥淯ltimately, if your products are not performing, it is going to cost you more. It鈥檚 important to have the right support behind you 鈥 helping you to set up the process needed to deliver the greatest value from your lubricant products and dealing with issues that arise.鈥
For example, early failure detection through OCM can help miners to plan for necessary shutdowns. Ordering parts whilst putting the right people and specialist equipment (like cranes) in place 鈥 avoids unplanned breakdowns which impact productivity and increase operational costs.
Michael Longbottom, Global LubeExpert Coach, Shell Lubricant Solutions鈥淚n the mining industry, a Dragline can cost up to $150 million. The downtime costs on those machines can be anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 an hour. So, if a machine鈥檚 down for 10 hours, it can quickly add up. Improving equipment availability and reliability is critical.鈥
Less dramatically, a lubrication audit (inspecting lubricant injectors for over/under lubrication) is another technical service essential for helping to improve TCO and sustainability through reduced consumption.
鈥淥ne incident where I鈥檝e seen an over-lubricating injector was on a drag line excavator in South Africa many years ago,鈥 says Longbottom. 鈥淒elivering roughly 500g of grease, over the course of a year 鈥 this wasted $70,000 worth of lubricant from one injector. Do the calculations on that for a machine with 300 injectors鈥.鈥
This story highlights the value that expert lubricant technicians can bring to a mine site 鈥 even one equipped with high-performance lubricants and the latest digital tools.
Building the right partnerships to improve productivity and sustainability
So, to achieve greater efficiency from equipment operations, miners can explore three key areas: high-quality lubricants, complementary digital services and the technical services provided by their suppliers. Before they can do that, they need to be clear on what it is they want to achieve with their lubrication programmes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about what suppliers can provide,鈥 explains Longbottom. 鈥淢iners must understand their aims, what they want to improve on and then buy into the process of change. They need to put in as much work as we do to deliver projects and make sure their equipment reliability, operational performance and maintenance costs are all heading in the right direction. Ultimately, it is a partnership.鈥
Find out more about the vital role lubricants can play in driving operational efficiency in mining. Read the full 鈥楤reaking New Ground鈥 whitepaper:
Disclaimers:
1 Based on a survey to 561 decision makers in the mining industry across the globe in July 2022. The survey was commissioned by Shell Lubricants Solutions and conducted by research firm Edelman Intelligence.
2 Shell. 鈥Reducing the Total Cost of Ownership in Mining & Quarrying.鈥 N.D.
3 McKinsey. 鈥.鈥 2022.
