At the December ICIS Pan-American Base Oils & Lubricants Conference near New York City, Solomon Associates Jamie Brunk gave one of the best presentations Ive ever heard. Jamie had analyzed 16 years of data on lubricant base oil refineries worldwide – plants that represent about half of the worlds base oil capacity – to identify the four best. Best was measured by Solomons key metrics of competitiveness and efficiency. Then he compared those four to all the rest. While the companies remained anonymous, one is in Europe, one in North America, and two in Asia. The worlds best are not always the best at everything, Jamie said, but they dont have flavor-of-the-month programs. They have sustainable practices.
While the worlds four best are larger, taking advantage of economies of scale, they include two with solvent refining and two with hydroprocessing technologies. Good performance does not require the newest technology, Jamie said. And there is no correlation between age and performance. What they do is control cash expenses better than the rest of the world. The worlds best lube refineries have operating expenses that are half of the others.
Anyone can cut maintenance costs, but its not sustainable, Jamie continued. At the best refineries, plant managers improve the percent of time the refinery is available to operate, and costs come down. The worlds best plants manage turnaround costs; they are not stretching turnaround intervals; they havent cut personnel to the bone although they operate with half the workhours; and the best plants have relatively more technical people.
I heard that Jamie Brunk will be on the agenda at the ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants Conference in London 24-25 February. Dont miss him!
Its my great pleasure to welcome EMEAs new art director, Ricardo Lianez, to LNG Publishing Co. While Cardo has spent the past eight years as creative lead for Rosetta Stone, hes no stranger. He was one of the first designers to work with us when we launched our flagship publication, LubesnGreases, 17 years ago, and we are thrilled to be working with him again.
The magazine youre holding continues to grow, both in frequency – eight issues this year – and circulation – over 8,700 audited, qualified subscribers! Managing editor Tim Sullivan, art director Cardo Lianez, and all of our colleagues at LNG join me in thanking you for your support, and in wishing you a prosperous and peaceful 2011.