Shell Lubricants Solutions for Manufacturing Efficiency
In today’s competitive manufacturing landscape, efficiency, reliability, and sustainability are key to long-term success. Shell Lubricant Solutions empowers manufacturers to unlock greater productivity, reduce operational costs, and prepare for the future. From expert maintenance strategies and digital technologies to carbon-neutral lubricants and training programs, Shell delivers end-to-end support tailored to your production needs. Explore how our solutions can help your business thrive—today and tomorrow.
By showing businesses worldwide the impact of proper lubrication on Total Cost of Ownership, we’ve helped them make $139 million in savings. Find out how we did it.
Manufacturing Total Cost of Ownership
Our experts have helped customers make $139m4 in savings worldwide1. Together, we can help you by considering the end-to-end impact on maintenance budgets and processes, as well as costs related to lost production during equipment downtime.
In manufacturing, the impact of lubrication on maintenance costs is critical. There are two ways in which you can lower your total cost of ownership2: ensuring that you use the most appropriate lubricant for each type of equipment; and understanding and implementing effective lubricant management.
With productivity being paramount, customers are seeking to increase output capacity by minimising unplanned equipment shutdowns and extending maintenance cycles3. Machinery is required to work under higher temperatures, greater power density and higher operating pressures. Shell’s experts work to meet the demands of changing machinery, ensuring that the right lubricants and lubrication practices are in place to reduce the total cost of machinery ownership for customers.
At Shell, our expertise goes beyond producing high quality lubricants: Shell Lubricant Solutions has long-standing relationships with many OEMs and a portfolio of products which now has over 3,000 approvals or equipment manufacturer recommendations; our technical specialists can help you to optimise your lubrication management, and ensure that your workforce is trained in this essential discipline. This will maximise equipment efficiency, help reduce energy consumption and operating costs, raise productivity, improve product quality and equipment uptime, and extend component life through highly effective lubrication.
Shell’s experts ensure that the right lubricants and lubrication practices are in place to reduce the total cost of machinery ownership for customers.
1 Based on savings delivered to Shell Lubricants customers.
2 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is defined by Shell Lubricants as the total amount spent on the equipment, incl. cost of acquisition and operation over its entire working life, and costs from lost production during downtime.
3 Based on research commissioned by Shell Lubricants, conducted by Edelman Intelligence (Nov - Dec 2015.)
4 The savings indicated are specific to the calculation date and mentioned site. These calculations may vary from site to site and from time to time, depending on, for example, the application, the operating conditions, the current products being used, the condition of the equipment and the maintenance practices.
Is your business making the most of its equipment? Learn how these three simple strategies can help unlock its full potential.
How to Get the Most from Your Manufacturing Equipment
Your manufacturing operation is only as productive as the machinery you use. And that machinery requires ongoing attention to ensure it is operating consistently at the peak of its potential.
Consider these three tips for optimising your equipment and see which areas of your business might require action.
1. Invest in Your Maintenance Strategy
Effective maintenance should be the foundation of your operation. Downtime can be disastrous for both deadlines and finances, so limiting it is vital. But with so many moving parts in play, it can be challenging to stay on top of your entire equipment portfolio. A holistic maintenance strategy – that takes an end-to-end approach to operations – can help to tie together thinking throughout your business. Selecting the right lubricant for the applications at hand is a key first step. But this must be followed by ongoing maintenance practices, such as oil condition monitoring (OCM), in order to identify and prevent potential issues before they become business critical.
2. Review Your Technology
Once your strategy is in place, it’s time to consider how it might be improved by the introduction of maintenance technologies. If digital processes are already in play, it can be worth checking that you are getting the most possible out of your data collection or that systems are set up to optimise your equipment rather than hinder it. Alternatively, there may be an opportunity to make a new investment. The onset of Industry 4.0 has put a whole host of capabilities at our fingertips; from connected equipment to remote sensors, digital integration can go a long way to making your equipment more productive, more energy-efficient and more profitable. For more on how Shell could help, explore our services portfolio.
3. Prioritise Skills Development
Even the best plans can fall down if your people are not equipped with maintenance or technology best practices. Whether you’re upskilling current staff or onboarding new members, a workforce needs consistent training in order to maximise your operation’s productivity. To help answer this need, Shell LubeCoach is an expert oil training programme that has been designed to provide your staff with high-quality training materials. With a modular format that can be delivered online or in-person, you can tailor the content to the needs of your staff. The courses and workshops will set your team up for success when it comes to optimising the application of lubrication and maximising productivity.
Shift your maintenance strategy with solutions that help in driving digitalisation and lower carbon emissions at every step.
The manufacturing industry has largely been quick to integrate new practices that can help to boost overall productivity. The emergence of Industry 4.0 has seen several digital technologies widely adopted, with robotics, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) used by many companies.
However, the next significant frontier in this journey towards meaningful progress is sustainability. In line with wider societal priorities, manufacturing companies are increasingly building sustainability goals into their business plans, meaning that – if progress is to be deemed successful – it must take into account both digitalisation and sustainability considerations, and how the two can combine to boost business from top to bottom.
Upgrade Your Digital Capabilities
For many businesses across the manufacturing ecosystem, Industry 4.0 technologies are well established:
- Robotics help to increase production line speed and efficiency
- Automation protects worker safety
- AI and machine learning allow greater operational cost control
However, as external tensions emerge – from labour shortages to trade uncertainties – the next logical step is to leverage these digital capabilities to strengthen business agility and scalability. Areas like cloud computing and advanced analytics can allow companies to adopt “flexible factories” that are better positioned to identify emerging opportunities and deliver scalable results.
Grow Your Sustainability Credentials
Just as digitalisation helps operations become more adaptable to changing conditions, it also helps them work towards sustainability goals, by streamlining processes and maximising efficiencies throughout the supply chain. And this holistic approach is key, as sustainability measures need to be present in each link of this chain to be effective, from the lubricant selected to the maintenance services employed.
As potentially the greatest challenge of our time, Shell Lubricant Solutions is helping customers build out their sustainability strategy by offering a range of solutions, including:
- Our portfolio of carbon neutral lubricants
- Our Shell Naturelle range of biodegradable lubricants
- A variety of maintenance services that can help promote energy efficiency