Ã¢â‚¬Å“ExxonMobil solutions help firms to move towards Industry 4.0Ã¢â‚¬Â

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Ã¢â‚¬Å“ExxonMobil solutions help firms to move towards Industry 4.0Ã¢â‚¬Â

Ã¢â‚¬Å“ExxonMobil solutions help firms to move towards Industry 4.0Ã¢â‚¬Â

Interviews
Mar 01,18

Lubricants are used in a wide range of applications across the industries. According to Shankar Karnik, General Manager Industrial, ExxonMobil Lubricants Private Limited, lubricants have become imperative to catalyse growth and improve productivity of companies (irrespective of their size). Being one of the leaders in lubricants, ExxonMobil offers solutions that help machine builders improve equipment reliability, reduce maintenance costs and enhance equipment life. In this interview with IPF, Karnik elaborates on importance of lubricants for industries and emerging trends in the industry.

ExxonMobil is one of the leading players in the Indian lubricants industry. How’s been the journey so far?

The lubricants sector in India is on a trajectory of steadfast growth. This growth has been propelled by infrastructural development and automotive production in the country.

ExxonMobil, with a legacy of over 150 years of lubrication innovation, has catered to the varying demands of its customers, offering them tailor-made lubrication solutions.

With a broad spectrum of products and technical services, Mobil has had a remarkable journey that has been backed by key strategic moves.

The company introduced Mobil Serv Lubricant Analysis (MSLA), a mobile-enabled used oil analysis platform in Asia Pacific. This service is designed to enhance efficiency and simplify the oil health analysis process by replacing a paperwork-heavy approach with a simple, intuitive mobile-enabled service platform that reduces the number of steps involved in the used oil analysis process. The MSLA solution helped manufacturers to move towards Industry 4.0 and digitization. It helps improve equipment reliability, reduce maintenance costs and enhance equipment life while producing reliable results that help guide maintenance professionals to the best decisions for their operations.

Similarly, we collaborate with several equipment builders (EBs) including Micromatic Machine Tools (MMT), Toshiba Machines, etc as the official lubricant partner. Taking the instance of MMT, the collaboration saw Mobil Industrial Lubricants support MMT (India's largest machine tool conglomerate) with the advanced range of industrial lubricant products and services, backed by the leadership and expertise from the company’s EB Group. This helped us understand the issues faced by Indian equipment manufacturers to build technology and innovation centered solutions that address their lubrication needs.

All in all, ExxonMobil’s journey has been enriching with successful strategic partnerships, growth prospects, new products, tie-ups and much more.

How’s been the demand for your lubricants for industrial applications? What is driving the demand?

The demand for industrial lubricants has been directly proportional to various developments in a plethora of industries ranging from manufacturing, mining, infrastructure, steel, plastics, etc.

With these industries undergoing constant developments, the demand for lubricants has increased manifold. Lubricants, over the time have become imperative to catalyse growth and advance productivity of various large companies and small & medium enterprises (SMEs) operating within these industries.

We at ExxonMobil have witnessed a surging demand for industrial lubricants. ExxonMobil offers a comprehensive range of lubricants and greases that are proficiently formulated to deliver exceptional performance and equipment protection for their intended applications. Backed by years of industry expertise, the team behind Mobil industrial lubricants continues to set new benchmarks in lubrication excellence to help its customers. The demand for ExxonMobil’s lubricants has been driven majorly due to the valuable solutions we provide to our customers. The three critical areas of value that we have identified which has in turn lead to wide acceptability and demand for our products are: safety, environmental care and productivity.

Mining and plastics are two of the major sectors that drive demand for Mobil’s industrial lubricants. Few key products that have propelled the demand for Mobil’s industrial lubricants in the mining sector are Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series, Mobil Delvac, Mobilgrease XHP Mine Series, etc. Mobil’s key offerings for the plastic sector are Mobil DTE 20 Series hydraulic oils, Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series hydraulic oils, Mobil SHC Gear synthetic gear oils.

Do you think acceleration in mining and road construction activity will further drive the demand for lubricants?

As the overall productivity and profitability of the mining and construction industry is directly linked to the reliability of the equipment, it is vital that operators have equipment that function at maximum efficiency. Stationary equipment such as impact crushers, processing plants, and conveyor belts play a key role at mining sites. This invariably drives the growth for industrial lubricants in these specific sectors.

With 150 years of lubrication innovation, Mobil industrial lubricants are specially formulated to protect equipment in the harshest conditions. Mobil’s proven products and lubrication expertise keeps stationary and mobile equipment working at maximum efficiency, extending equipment life, oil drain intervals and improving the energy efficiency of equipment.

Mobil has a range of products and technical services within its portfolio for mining. Mobilgrease XHP 322 Mine was specifically designed to meet the needs of off-highway and mining equipment that required exceptional EP/anti-wear performance and which would remain in place even in tough conditions of high sliding, and high temperatures. Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series hydraulic oils provide a high degree of fluid durability and very good hydraulic system efficiency, which can lead to reduced energy consumption for both industrial and mobile equipment, reducing operating costs and improving productivity.

Similarly, Mobil Delvac diesel engine oils are among the broad line of synthetic and high-performance mineral oil-based lubricants for many specialised needs of the mining industry. ExxonMobil Optimized Oil Drain Interval (ODI) process is driven by data, powered by Mobil Delvac lubricants and supported by the ExxonMobil team. This helps the operators to lower total operating costs, generate a higher return on capital and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.

What are the emerging trends in industrial lubricants industry (globally and in India)?

According to a report by Grand View Research, the global lubricants market was 36.36 million tonnes in 2014 and is projected to grow to 43.87 million tons by 2022, at an estimated CAGR of 2.4%. Increasing number of automotives, industrialization and boom in construction activities are some of the emerging growth trends that are expected to propel the demand for lubricants both globally and in India.

Increasing demand for lightweight passenger cars and heavy-duty commercial vehicles has fostered global automotive production, which in turn is conducive to the development of lubricants for multiple applications in this field. Rapid industrialisation in countries like India, China, Brazil, and Mexico has encouraged applications in industrial machinery maintenance, thus driving the lubrication sector.

Lubricants are extensively used in construction and infrastructure sectors for hydraulic oil, bearings, engine oil and wire rope applications. In addition to all this, the demand and acceptance of bio-based counterparts to reduce harmful environmental effects are projected to boost global lubricants industry demand.

What are your growth plans for lubricants business?

Our application-specific expertise and close working relationships with the world’s leading OEMs enable us to provide our customers with products that have global consistency. We will continue to expand our footprint commensurate with growth that this market offers which we are very excited about. We will also continue to grow and invest in programs to ensure that we have the right kind of support structure, technology and application expertise to deliver advancing productivity, reliability and sustainability benefits to our customers.