By: Allan Zieser, STLE, CLS
The lube room, you know, that area of the shop that you have been meaning to clean up and organize for a while now. We all know that keeping your lube room clean and organized will help save you time and money in the long run. But who has time to take everything out and clean it properly? Well, you should!
The key to getting any job done is to break it down into smaller tasks. Take a few minutes and review everything that needs to be done to the lube room to get it organized. Now, break those down into tasks that you can complete in twenty minutes or so. This seems attainable now, right?
Now when you (or your team) are waiting between other jobs or if you have a half an hour while you are waiting for something else, look at your task list and knock one of those tasks out. After a couple of weeks, you may just find that you have completed the reorganization of your lube room.
Here are a few suggestions for organizing your lube room and keeping it organized.
- Color code and label your lubricant containers. Why not make it easier to find the correct lubricants by color coding and labeling all your drums and fill containers as well as pails? Some small labels and markers can take care of this in a few minutes and prevent costly mistakes in the future.
- Sort your lubricants by brand and type. For example, put all the motor oils together, group the transmission fluids in another area, etc. By keeping these oils grouped by type, you can avoid the mistake of adding the wrong oil to a piece of equipment.
- Make a floor diagram of your lubricant areas. Make sure that new oils are placed in those areas.
- Keep the room clean. Use oil specific wipes and floor cleaning products.
- Label your cabinets. You can have external labels for at a glance recognition. Label the inside shelves as well to keep it clear where everything should go so it’s easier to identify when something is misplaced.
- Make sure the middle of your room is clear. This allows easy access to all your lubricant products and prevents work room hazards like tripping when your workspace is clean.
Remember once you get it organized, spend a couple of minutes each day keeping it that way. This will not only help keep it organized in the future, but it will alert you to the amounts of lubricants you have in stock and let you know when you need to re-order.
Need more help or advice? Call your Ottsen Expert for more tips on keeping your lube room organized and stocked.
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