Efficient Plant Sept./Oct. 2019 - 25

feature | lubrication strategies

ICML Sets Standard for

Best Practices

The International Council of Machinery Lubrication has
introduced ICML 55.1, a new standard for lubricationmanagement programs.

Ken Bannister, MEch Eng (UK), CMRP, MLE
Contributing Editor

IT'S USUALLY AN occasional, yet significant, event that prompts the beginning of
meaningful change and results in a wholesale
paradigm shift in thought and behavior. Once
such event in the maintenance world was
the January 2014 introduction of ISO 55000,
the world's first universal asset-management
standard. Loosely based on the original
British Standard Institute's public available
specification, PAS 55, which focused mainly
on physical/fixed assets (machinery), the ISO
55000 standard has truly revolutionized maintenance-department thinking about the value
and importance of maintaining its interrelated
non-traditional, or "soft" assets.
As good as the ISO 55000 standard is, it is
a high-level document that requires extensive interpretation to make it a practical
implementation tool, especially in the area of
lubrication-program management. In recognition of this requirement, in May 2019 the
International Council of Machinery Lubrication (ICML), Broken Arrow, OK (lubecouncil.
org), released its own groundbreaking ICML
55.1 Standard Part 1: "Asset Management-
Requirements for the Optimized Lubrication
of Mechanical Physical Assets." Developed independent of, but aligned with, the ISO 55000
standard, this is the world's first standardized

SEPT/OCT 2019

Rolled out in May
2019, ICML 55.1
can be purchased
at lubecouncil.org.

practical blueprint for the implementation of a
best-practice lubrication program.

UNDERSTANDING ICML 55.1
The ICML is an international, vendor-neutral,
not-for-profit certification body, founded
in 2001, to serve industrial-lubrication and
oil-analysis practitioners and global industry
as the world-class authority on machinery
lubrication. Developing the 66-pg. ICML 55.1
Standard Part 1 took several years with input
from 45 leading lubrication experts.
Similar to ISO 55001, ICML 55.1 supports
and employs the Schewart/Deming Plan/
Do/Check/Act (PDCA) management system
for deployment of its 12-part interrelated
lubrication-program elements. The standard is
broken down into seven major sections:
Section 1.0-Scope: The first section
defines the scope of the standard as it pertains
to a corporation's rotating, reciprocating, powertrain, and hydraulic-system physical assets
to which lubricants are applied to
reduce friction, corrosion, wear, heat and
energy transfer/consumption. The scope also
includes the use of finished tribological fluid
products that include lubricating oils, fluids,
and greases, and the organizational assets that
support lubrication of physical assets. These

include lubrication personnel, policies, procedures, and management support.
Section 2.0-Reference Publications: This
section references all publications used to derive and/or support development of the ICML
55.1 standard. These include a long list of the
standards (ISO, ASTM, API, BSI, EN, IEC)
and referenced publications that also make up
part of the ICML domain of knowledge used
in the newly introduced ICML Maintenance
Lubrication Engineer (MLE) certification
program, ICML's highest designation.
Section 3.0-Terms and Definitions: The
section defines many of the technical terms
used in the standard.
Section 4.0-Lubrication Management
Objectives: Describes the 55.1 standard's
objectives.
Section 5.0 Lubrication- Management
Plans: This is the meat-and-potatoes section
of the standard. It maps out 12 interrelated
elements of a practical lubrication-program
plan, in which each element requires its own
unique lubrication-management plan. Collectively, the elements build a complete strategic
lubrication-management plan that facilitates
the implementation and sustainability of a
best-practice lubrication program.
 Element 1: Skills. To ensure program
EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM |

http://www.lubecouncil.org http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Efficient Plant Sept./Oct. 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant Sept./Oct. 2019