In this article I will summarize some of my major learnings throughout my career in regard to running a lubricants plant. Additionally, I must gratefully acknowledge my teams across organizations for letting me freely experiment with my inspiration.  

People and Morale

Attitude Matters. A positive attitude is a key driving force for lubricant plant leadership, day in and day out. Whether you know it or not, you are being watched by your colleagues, and the way that you respond to challenges sets the tone for your entire team.  

One of my HR colleagues demonstrated the importance of a can-do attitude by developing a “Skill-Will Matrix,” which essentially weighed the skill of an employee against the will, or attitude, of that person.  In short, the matrix demonstrates that skill is not everything in the workplace—although it is important. “High will” people are invaluable—sometimes even at the cost of “low skill”—because skill can be developed but attitude sometimes cannot.  

Always demonstrate a positive attitude to both internal and external stakeholders. Essentially, every obstacle can be conquered, and your attitude should mirror such thought. In my experience, some impossible sales orders could be delivered with this attitude, and some difficult decisions could be implemented. 

Long-Term Morale Matters. Hard decisions will need to be made from time to time, but authentic and honest communication helps. Be transparent as much as possible. One of my senior leaders shared with me many years back the importance of looking out for milestones and celebrating them when they occur. Every such occasion energizes the team and makes it proud of its work and the organization. 

Customer Focus    

See the Beginning and End in All Actions. The plant or factory exists because of its customers and their orders. It is important to connect the dots from customer to supplier and relish the various interactions. A carton packed, a drum filled, or a pail damaged all send a message to the customer. You want to make sure you send a good one. 

I once heard one of my colleagues jokingly recollecting his interactions with one of his sub-contractors, who gave a habitual “no” for an answer to seemingly every question. In fact, when my colleague wished him a good morning, he would say “no.” Such negative behavior stays in your mind even after decades. 

Delight in Entertaining Customers and Visitors. This was the most interesting and enjoyable part of my job. Almost every day there would be a customer or general visitor to the plant. Our plant had become so inviting that our sales leaders would feel welcomed even at short or no notice, which is generally not a standard practice in a typical plant. As time went by, I understood that some deals were won by these visits, and they set us apart from our competitors. Fostering such an environment is an important part of the leadership role. 

Operations and Process

Do it Right the First Time. There is a first time for every process, and there is no point in rushing through it and making unnecessary mistakes. Take your time when you start afresh. Sometimes, out of excitement or anticipation, I might have been eager to finish a process quickly to see the end result. 

So whether you’re creating a “home-grown software” to track production processes or setting up a new SOP (standard operating procedure), the first run-through needs to be long enough to set up consistently repeatable and improvable processes. Slowing down in this way was frustrating sometimes, I confess, but it was truly rewarding when I look back. In the end, the process I set up could then be replicated by others, and innovations and improvements could be incorporated thereafter. 

Keep Improving Every Day. Several CI (continuous improvement) terms are in vogue right now, but keeping it simple is vital. Just improve a little bit every day. 

Furthermore, remember that “What gets measured, gets improved.” Public display boards, however crude they may be, could be a great trigger for motivating the shop floor. Highlighting records created and records broken can be a natural motivator. It’s important to not get trapped in deeper and complicated score cards maintained only in computers, visible only to the elite few. What is not visible to those involved will never get improved action. 

Figure 1. Leading a Lubricants Plant

Communicating day to day performances through meetings, visuals and celebrations is key. Never be shy to publicize your achievements. After all, it is the team that gets charged with their achievements, even if you are the driver. I will never forget a phone call I received one morning from a completely unconnected remote colleague when my team was announced as winners of a prestigious national business excellence award. She expressed how proud she was to just be a part of the company. What a satisfying moment that was! 

Spend Time on the Shop Floor. My opinion is that “Seeing is believing.” I will go one step further and say that “Seeing is learning and believing.” One of my former bosses used to demand from every one of the leaders—managers, supervisors and foremen—that they be on the shop floor for more than half of the time. “Get out of your seat,” was his dictum. I fully vouch for this, especially in modern times when it is all too easy to work from a distance. 

As a manager or supervisor, one is often involved in various team meetings across the organization, and those can easily fill up your calendar. My recommendation is to prioritize these meetings and feel free to accept meeting invites only if you must. In essence, make time to get to the shop floor, as it has plenty of benefits, including creating relationships with the team, bearing the pain and pleasure of the work together, and mastering the art of production. 

Lube Plant Operation Is More than Just a Process Industry. A typical manufacturing and process control operator is focused on pressure, temperature and vacuum in most cases. Lubricant operations are all about efficient and effective flow right across the plant supply chain (and beyond). In recognizing and achieving this smooth and unconstrained flow lies the success of the lubricant plant’s operations. The winner of the game is the one who successfully runs the full race and gets the product through the pipeline quickly. Enable the flow to enjoy the win.

Costs and Resources

Be Conscious of Cost. Like all businesses, good management of cost and resources is fundamental to business prosperity. Every point of interface has a cost element in lubricant plant operation. Optimize the batch size, optimize the inventory, optimize the leftover stocks after a sales order execution, and remove, reduce or recycle the flush or changeover.

What differentiates better from best in regard to cost is how quickly action is taken and how focused the line functions are on not creating an inefficiency to begin with. Most plants and functions that I know of are good at creating task-based projects on a periodic basis to clean up, but only a few don’t create the mess in the first place. 

Have a “No Waste” Focus. Waste, as a lever, has attained significant importance as of late, especially when costs are under serious pressure and in this sustainability-focused era. Waste includes all resources: materials, time, space and effort. Anything that does not add value to the operations must seriously be challenged. 

Ask yourself how the formulation can be challenged within the operable limits, how automation can be effective on repetitive tasks, how orders can be shipped out as soon as they are produced, and how blend and fill times can be reduced. 

Visuals on display and a continuous improvement focus, as we touched on before, can be useful tools in cutting back on waste, but leaders must exhibit “chronic unease” to identify waste and to remedy it. 

Conclusions

When all is said and done, leadership in all situations requires continuous re-evaluation and improvement. After all, the leadership journey is one with no real ending.

To illustrate this point, I refer back to the story of Alex. In the sequel to “The Goal,” the novel I mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this article, Alex is offered an exciting promotion to a new leadership role based on his exemplary work. 

“Your track record in the past few years is very impressive. That’s why we decided to appoint you as the new executive vice president, in charge of all the divisions we acquired recently,” Alex is told in the book. Essentially, Alex is tasked with an even more challenging role resolving the possible sell-off and/or acquisition of companies after increasing the net worth of the company. Just when he thought he had things figured out, the game changed, and he must, too. 

So good luck to all the Alexes of the world, who are on a journey of leadership and constant improvement! I hope that your well managed business will bring you greater personal satisfaction as well as business excellence and renewed team energy. 

I very fondly remember the day when my team was told that we had won a very prestigious national Business Excellence Award. It was an ecstatic feeling that was worth all the hard work we had put in—a day to cherish for my entire life! I wish the same success and good feelings to those reading this article.  

Ganesan Ganapathi has 40 years of experience as a supply chain and manufacturing professional with leading oil companies such as BP, Shell, Total and Bharat Petroleum. While leading operations, supply chain and plant management with these companies, Ganesan has noteworthy contributions in the space of Strategic and Master Planning of Supply Chain and Manufacturing. He can be contacted via LinkedIn.