Integrated maintenance: Connecting the dots between lubricants, vehicle health and business performance
The right lubricant can help improve operational efficiency, increase fuel economy and extend vehicle life while protecting critical engine components at the same time.
The Challenge
Cost. Performance. Sustainability. Arguably, there was a time when those working in the commercial road transport (CRT) sector could only ensure two of the three when it came to managing their fleet operations. However, times have since changed. In part, this is due to increased regulatory and stakeholder pressure, which means that fleets can no longer afford to overlook their emissions output. It's also partly down to the development of higher quality components, vehicles and the consumables that power them.
The Solution
These advancements are helping heavy-duty fleet operators to balance operational output with environmental impact without compromising performance or TCO. But that balance is only possible when operators adopt an effective maintenance strategy that connects the dots between all of these factors. To explore this relationship in a little more detail, it’s worth taking a closer look at the role of lubrication, which acts as a microcosm for this more integrated view of fleet maintenance.
Why lubrication is a good case study in integrated maintenance?
Though it may not comprise the most expensive part of your fleet spend; lubrication can have a disproportionately large impact on everything from your total cost of ownership (TCO) to your vehicle’s health and your business’ performance.
While the primary role of the lubricant is to lubricate and protect the engine, it provides more than ten different functions across the entirety of your vehicle’s system, to ensure the engine – and other components – run smoothly and reliably over long distances. In this way, your lubricant plays a wide-ranging role from protecting critical components to supporting energy efficiency, improving fuel economy, and extending vehicle life. All of which ladder up to both greater cost savings through reduced maintenance and fuel costs and potential emissions reductions. More than that, however, lubrication can act as a preventative measure too, by helping to proactively avoid issues such as corrosion, contamination, or wear. In short, the role that your lubrication plays – by interacting with, and connecting, so many different parts and processes – is a good example to take when it comes to your own wider view of fleet maintenance.
What is the key role of your lubricant?
To protect the component parts it surrounds. This takes several forms, but generally involves providing a protective film that helps to reduce friction and wear between metal components – especially important at high-pressure contact parts such as in the engine valve train.
In doing so, your lubricant also helps to avoid overheating. This temperature control function is a key part of maintaining component performance since high temperatures can lead to a greater risk of contamination from deposit-forming particles.
Therefore, by reducing friction and controlling temperatures, an effective lubricant is simultaneously controlling contamination and extending the lifespan of your vehicles. In the same way that most fleet managers wear multiple hats at any one given time, this proves that the right lubricant can also act as a solution to multiple problems, by enabling a 360-degree approach to maintenance rather than on a component-by-component basis. Which is significant because, while the former can help tie important drivers like cost, performance and emissions into a single, unified strategy, the latter risks overlooking these connections, leading to future issues down the line.
How do lubricants impact efficiency, emission reduction and expenditure management?
The second way that lubrication can help as part of an integrated maintenance strategy, is by helping to promote efficiency while also being durable. Efficiency remains king when it comes to fleet management, since a more efficient fleet is not only a more productive one, but more cost effective and environmentally friendly too.
This chain of events begins with your lubricant reducing the energy that would otherwise be lost to friction, so that more power is transmitted directly to the functions and components that move your vehicle forward. In turn, your vehicle can demonstrate greater power and responsiveness, helping to improve fuel consumption while reducing emissions. This virtuous cycle is completed by the fact that it requires fewer maintenance interventions – through oil changes or part replacement – and therefore helps reduce maintenance costs.
In practice, this may involve your engine oil providing the protection necessary for cleaner, more efficient combustion, while your transmission oil ensures components – from axles to gears – can operate reliably. Meanwhile, greases are in place to ensure effective manoeuvrability under the harshest of conditions. It’s a joined-up way of working that highlights how important every component of your maintenance strategy is in reducing your overall cost of operations.
Maintenance made more manageable
Though the impact can be huge, switching to a more integrated maintenance approach shouldn’t be difficult. The key is to first find credible maintenance specialists to collaborate with, who can not only identify the right OEM-approved products for your equipment but seamlessly integrate them into your operations, providing you with the confidence you need to remain competitive.
Because we understand how complicated lubricant selection can seem, Shell has created Shell LubeMatch – a web-based tool that makes it easier to find the right oil for every application. And, because we know you’ll sometimes need a helping hand, our specialist CRT experts can then work with you to ensure no part of your maintenance strategy gets overlooked.
Cautionary note
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