Spectro Scientific, a global leader in oil analysis technology and advanced lubrication management solutions, has launched a new quarterly, industry-focused podcast called The Oil Tribe.
Join our host, Spectro Scientific’s very own Digital Product Manager Lisa Williams, as she gets the latest insights and knowledge from professionals in their field for every episode. The Oil Tribe podcast simplifies on-site oil analysis with one conversation at a time,” she tells us.
It’s a subject Lisa’s incredibly passionate about. As an STLE member and Certified Lubrication Specialist (CLS) with over 15 years of expertise in reliability engineering and lubricant analysis, Lisa Williams’ results-focused approach makes her a driving force in advanced lubricant testing and reliability practices. What’s more, she’s now on a mission to share that knowledge and expertise with listeners of The Oil Tribe podcast and Spectro Scientific customers.
In the first episode, Lisa speaks to Minone Morse, Spectro Scientific’s Customer Success Manager. Together they discuss increasing up time, how to get the best ROI, oil analysis training guides, how AI and automation can impact lubricant analysis in the future, plus lots more.
Oil analysis and condition monitoring services
“Most customers are used to sending samples to third-party labs, which can take weeks or months to get the reports,” Minone says. Having Spectro Scientific instruments on- site can be a total game changer. “…Customers love having the equipment on site to use and be able to prevent catastrophic failures almost instantly,” she shares.
Catching small issues before they become big problems is all part of the job for Minone and her team. It goes hand in hand with maintaining uptime and ensuring customers get their ROI quickly. “We want customers to keep going… and have the tools they need to be self-sufficient,” Minone adds.
With her background in Technical Support, Minone is always looking for ways to maximize efficiencies wherever possible. “I want to be able to help our customers find the right solutions for them,” she explains.
“Ownership goes on both of us for the equipment,” Minone continues, “My team and I are here to remind them that there’s an annual calibration coming up… when to change wear and tear pump items and how to use equipment with the best practices that we offer.”
Any parts and consumables that can be replaced can be obtained from Spectro Scientific. While it’s worth noting that most of the instrument manuals contain part and consumable information, customers can also contact the support team if they are having difficulties locating these parts.
Oil analysis training guide
For Minone and her colleagues, part of unlocking a customer’s potential starts with building new knowledge within their team. This is where the Spectro Scientific Fluid Management Academy comes in. “The courses that we offer… all those things help the customer understand what they purchased,” says Minone.
With a wealth of onsite training and online classes to choose from, this education portal provides further information on lubrication and oil analysis fundamentals, radiation safety training, operating-specific systems or equipment, and more. Customers can even request training sessions tailored to their team or organization.
“Fluid Management Academy (FMA) effectively captures the subject matter expert information, is easily accessible to our entire customer base, and formally documents proof of concept,” explains Lisa Williams.
“It’s where I’d send almost everybody to get that foundational knowledge in there,” adds Minone. “Once they feel confident with that, and they have more questions… they feel excited and they want to continue with their education, and we take it from there.”
The future of oil analysis and predictive maintenance
“It’s a really exciting time for customers,” explains Minone, “and I think it starts with AI and automation.”
“Once we’re able to incorporate a lot of that into our data analytics, we’ll have actionable insights not just for us, but for our customers,” she adds. “It will enable users to better understand their equipment and what the data is telling them, so they can develop their own programs in place of that, so they can start working towards more efficiency within those programs.”
A good example of this is within oil sample testing where the Spectro Scientific team has worked to simplify and automate the system to handle a variety of processing tasks, from a bottle of oil to producing the final chemical analysis results. You can read more about this process here.
Future innovations also include using advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to allow the system to automatically translate chemistry data into maintenance tasks. It really could revolutionize the way we work today.
This, of course, includes the potential for better feedback. “That’s what will move the scale for us too, right?” explains Minone. “We take that feedback in, we apply those changes and it’s a win, win for everybody, right?”
“The sky’s the limit,” confirms Lisa.
Episode 1 of The Oil Tribe Podcast is available To Listen