Nissan Plant Wins 2013 Battle Award

Nissan North America’s stamping plant in Smyrna, Tenn., has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML) John R. Battle Award for excellence in the application of machinery lubrication. Chad Crane, the plant’s reliability maintenance supervisor, and his team accepted the award during the recent Reliable Plant 2013 conference and exhibition in Columbus, Ohio.

ICML congratulates the Nissan team and all those involved in the lubrication program at the Smyrna stamping plant.

The John R. Battle Award was designed to motivate companies to improve machine reliability and maintenance quality through development, implementation and management of a best-in-class machinery lubrication program.

ICML executive director Suzy Jamieson presented the John R. Battle Award
to the Nissan team at the recent Reliable Plant 2013 conference and exhibition.

To become an award recipient, an organization must demonstrate a solid lubrication program, supported by multi-disciplinary efforts and approaches, with sustainable results and continued improvements. Among other factors, the John R. Battle Award criteria will include the following:

• Commitment to education and skills competencies
• Maintenance culture and management support
• Lubricant selection, lubricant performance standards and lubricant consolidation
• Preventive, predictive and proactive program design and effectiveness
• Lubrication program metrics and overall performance tracking
• Lubricant storage, handling, safety and conservation
• Lubrication PM optimization, work plan management, scheduling and documentation
• Oil analysis program design, test slates, lab selection and setting of alarms
• Oil analysis sampling frequency, sampling hardware and procedures
• Contamination exclusion and removal
• Oil and grease application methods and hardware deployed
• Continuous improvement

The focus of the ICML awards, which includes the John R. Battle Award as well as the Augustus H. Gill Award for excellence in oil analysis, is not just to identify award recipients but to encourage performance of excellence and create a means to share best practices among user organizations on a global scale.

ICML awards are open to organizations worldwide, and a company does not need to be involved with ICML in any way to receive the award. At present, there is no charge to participate in the awards process. However, in order to avoid bias, ICML has chosen a policy by which it does not nominate companies. Nominations must come from the companies directly via an application for an award.

If you know of an organization that deserves to be recognized for its machinery lubrication or oil analysis program, encourage them to apply for an ICML award.

To submit a nomination for one of ICML’s recognition of excellence awards, email your plant information to info@lubecouncil.org. For additional information, visit www.lubecouncil.org.