Organised Lubrication under Management Control

WHEN WE CONSIDER that about fifty per cent of all energy produced in the world today is lost through undesirable friction it is easily understandable that millions of dollars annually could be saved by industry through well‐organised lubrication practices. In the aerospace industry, the so‐called “austerity program” is forcing management to review costs again and again. The squeeze on profits plus the increasingly tough competition has sparked investigations into almost every area where more economical practices, without risking harm to some vital function such as quality, service or reliability, could be accomplished. Plant lubrication is one of these areas under scrutiny. This is only one place among the many to save money, but it is a very important one. For some unexplainable reason it is natural for management to assume that lubrication routines are satisfactory and unless a production crisis occurs—one that might be traceable to lubrication—the emphasis is usually on getting things running again, rather than to find time to evaluate the benefits of a properly managed lubrication program.