Lubrication management involves the planning and execution of complex processes to achieve maintenance goals. These complex processes rely on effective leadership and project management skills to ensure compliance with established standards and maintain continuous innovation. In this post, we explore leadership and management and how these concepts are critical for a successful lubrication management system.
What is Lubrication Management?
Lubrication management is an integral part of any maintenance plan or strategy. Effective lubrication management extends the useful life of machines, equipment, and other assets. It also provides additional benefits including efficient operations, optimum reliability, reduced maintenance costs, and safe working conditions.
Lubrication management extends beyond lubricant application. It must include the following areas of concern:
Lubricant Selection
Lubricant Reception and Storage
Lubricant Handling and Application
Contamination Control
Condition Monitoring and Analysis
Lubricant Disposal
Management vs. Leadership Skills
Ensuring that the many areas of lubrication management are covered involves essential management and leadership skills. Understanding the basics of these skills helps maintenance and lubrication project managers implement the necessary approach to achieve optimum benefits.
Although closely related, management and leadership have distinct differences. Management is focused on planning, organizing, and controlling resources to achieve set goals, while leadership focuses on inspiring, motivating, and influencing people to achieve a shared goal.
Management is all about imposing order, consistency, and efficiency, while leadership’s emphasis is on innovation, creativity, and adapting to change. For the most effective lubrication management program, you need the right balance of both management and leadership.
Types of Management
There are two main management philosophies an organization can apply for maintenance and lubrication management:
Transactional Management
This management type is where a manager establishes a clear and specific set of goals and expectations. The manager can then provide feedback, rewards, or punishment based on the employees’ performance towards these goals and expectations.
Autocratic Management
This type is where the manager is the absolute decision-maker, exerting strict control over employees and expecting them to comply with a set of rules and guidelines without question. This management approach ensures adherence to set standards but does not leave room for collaboration and innovation.
Management Limitations
Both types of management approaches are valuable in achieving the standards for performance, consistency, efficiency, and other necessary goals of a lubrication management system. These management skills, however, are not enough because of the following limitations:
Discourages fresh ideas – Employees are resigned to only following a set of instructions. They have no room to develop new and better ways of doing things.
Does not allow the inspection of existing processes – Adaptable and innovative processes are only possible if you can evaluate existing processes and identify areas of improvement.
Limits communication – Strict instructions and commitment to upholding standards can limit communication between team members. This limited communication can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and inefficiencies.
Prevents connection and collaboration – Management’s focus on controlling resources leaves no room for developing strong interpersonal connections among team members. These connections are necessary for empowering employees and building a positive work culture.
Missed opportunities – Lack of flexibility and adaptability to change can lead to missed opportunities. Too many missed opportunities can make an organization obsolete over time.
Benefits of Lubrication Management Leadership
Practicing essential leadership skills helps to augment management limitations. Leadership provides the following benefits to achieve success in lubrication management:
Inspiration – Leadership sets a direction and inspires, not forces, people to follow it. As a result, team members not only perform at their best, but even beyond what is expected.
Positive work culture – Leadership fosters a positive work culture that welcomes employee input and fresh ideas. Thus, promoting innovation and creativity, resulting in a flexible and adaptable organization.
Sense of ownership – Employees develop a sense of ownership of their responsibilities, which promotes loyalty to the company. Thus, there is higher employee retention, which in turn lowers lubrication training costs and other expenses that come with hiring and rehiring employees.
Improves efficiency – Leadership improves efficiency in decision-making by allowing team members to collaborate and work together to resolve a frequent problem. The united efforts and cooperation among team members make it easy for leaders because there is no need to consider conflicting options.
Promotes ethical behavior and integrity – Leaders can exhibit these positive behaviors and their employees can follow by example. And this is possible even without the need to impose punishment or offer rewards.
Allows for calculated risks – Leadership lets organizations take calculated risks by evaluating and improving on current processes, brainstorming new strategies, and being open to change. Leadership further promotes risk-taking by having a positive view of failures, in that by learning from them you can guarantee better results in the future.
Manage and Lead Your Lubrication Program with Redlist
A balanced approach to management and leadership skills is the key to lubrication project management success. Control over existing processes is essential, but so is providing room for change and innovation. This is where Redlist comes in handy.
Redlist’s Lubrication Management Software lets you control all maintenance and lubrication processes in one user-friendly interface. With Redlist, lubrication management is more streamlined, transparent, and collaborative. Managers and leaders can use Redlist to issue instructions and create schedules. Every team member can use Redlist to manage their work schedules, submit reports, and interact with their colleagues.
Redlist removes communication barriers, inflexible schedules, and impersonal working conditions. Intuitive and flexible, Redlist can adapt to any user and existing maintenance systems. If your organization is struggling with lubrication management and leadership challenges, this might be the time to include Redlist in your maintenance tools. Schedule a free demo with our experts to experience Redlist today!