by Mark Shierman, Corporate Director, Client Services
The word “actionable” is being used a lot these days. But what does actionable really mean? The basic dictionary definition is if something is actionable, it is capable of being acted on, but you may wonder how does this apply to oil and lubricant testing and analysis.
“Actionable” in Financial Markets
Let’s start off with an analogy from the financial market, specifically around investing. Typically, people start off with an investment strategy and corresponding goal. They will then invest based on that strategy to achieve the outcome they want. However, in the financial markets, your success is not guaranteed, and this may lead to changes to your strategy along the way. For example, you may start with “I’d like to double my money”, but then it changes to “I’d settle for 5% per year”, and then “at least let’s not lose all my money.” Even if your strategy is solid and the underlying ideas are valid, you may still lose money if your conviction is shaken, your timeline is too early or too late, or if your idea is not adopted or accepted widely by the masses (e.g. family or friends).
In this environment, many companies and consultants will offer advice to help you achieve success (i.e. buy this or sell that), and they promote the idea of ‘actionable’ insights. While these companies do offer value, it is important to stress that your success is not entirely based on the outcome of a particular trade. It is often more important to choose a financial planner that understands your goals and can help you navigate turbulent markets over a long period of time. The more that financial planner understands your needs, and has skills and insights to achieve those goals, the better your outcome will be. You trust that a financial planner has a solid decision-making process that fits your needs. Fundamentally, it is important to review HOW decisions are made by your financial planner and how they can help you act on those decisions to have a higher chance of success.
Applying this Concept to Oil Analysis
Now, let’s apply this concept to used oil and lubricant testing and analysis. Maintenance and reliability teams start off with a goal for their oil analysis programs and structure their testing needs around that goal. For example, they may want to identify, plan for, and minimize failures; drive contamination control; maximize oil longevity or increase reliability and up-time. As with investing, your success is not guaranteed, and goals often change along the way. For example, you and your team may start with the lofty goal of “I’d like to have 100% uptime,” but then change to “I’d settle for 95%,” or settle with at least “I don’t want to get a phone call at 2:00 am to fix something.”
Even if your plan for testing is solid, you may still not get the outcome you’re looking for if your conviction is shaken (e.g., a missed failure), your timeline is too early or too late, or if your idea is not adopted widely by the masses (i.e., your boss pulls the plug on the program). In this environment, there are many companies and consultants that will offer advice to help you achieve success such as upgrade your oil, filter, seal, etc. or monitor oil, vibe, thermography, etc. They may also promote the idea of ‘actionable’ insights.
While these companies do offer value, it is important to stress that your success is not entirely based on the outcome of one save or a quick fix. For example, based on that one actionable insight, you repair a pump early before catastrophic failure, but had to shut down next week anyways for another reason. What is more important is to surround yourself with knowledgeable and credible partners who know their craft (i.e. experts in lubrication, oil analysis, vibration, filtration, operations, etc.) that understand your goals, and can help you navigate turbulent operating conditions over a long period of time.
The more that you connect with your network of contacts, the more those people can deploy their expertise to your specific problems, the better your outcome will be. Based on demonstrated commitment, and repeated success with different situations, you have the trust and confidence that your network of contacts in condition-monitoring has a solid decision-making process that fits your needs. Fundamentally, it is important to scrutinize HOW decisions are made (i.e. the decision-making process) in order to have a higher chance of success versus just getting an “actionable insight”.
Bottom Line
In both examples, success is not based on a single decision, but rather a lifetime of continued positive outcomes. Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen!!
P.S. Fluid Life has a lot of GOOD PEOPLE! Talk to us today!