The emphasis on profitability in any industry-based sector is, understandably, of the highest importance, and the success of any industry as a whole is based on the profitability of those sectors within it. And yet, while heavy machinery is often the main support in providing this amongst heavier industries such as plants, factories and other energy outlets, many seem to overlook the importance of healthy machinery.

This is an understandable flaw when it is considered many employers can overlook the happiness of their staff, failing to realise that when employees are treated well they will perform their best. However, those that have realised this benefit undoubtedly achieve higher profitability.

Many business owners, factory managers or even CEOs often scowl at the thought of investing money before seeing the profitable results, preferring instead to opt for the quicker wins. Yet those with a natural entrepreneurial flair that understand such an approach serves to set a business up for longer standing wins, which ultimately is far more beneficial, are the ones who see more success. Within heavy industries, in particular, looking after machinery can be considered more crucial to its success than employees in that they contribute a considerable amount more to the output achieved than any one worker. Why, then, is it still commonplace to see staggering periods of downtime?

Of course in various walks of life many would agree that prevention is better than cure, and when even just one out of 24 hours of downtime can cost you millions, you would think prevention would be a big priority!

One very simple preventative aspect would be to look after the oil of your machinery as this can be a vital indicator in the health of the machine as a whole. If thought of much like the blood circulation in a human, by travelling round all important parts of the machine it picks up even the microscopic evidence of any wear debris from the machine and so can give the first indication of any fault. Used oil analysis is therefore one of the most important aspects of condition monitoring available in protecting your equipment.

With any condition monitoring approach, almost a sub-industry in itself now based on the advancements in technology, using a combination of different techniques undoubtedly offers the most full-proof coverage. Yet oil analysis alone can give fair warning in detecting a fault or even old age that could cause much bigger problems further down the line, depending on how effectively it is understood.

Although seemingly insignificant when in relation to the heavier industries as a whole, condition monitoring is absolutely vital to making sure the energy industry in particular is as efficient as possible. With oil prices dropping the falling confidence in the related and complex economies has already begun and this could be devastating news for the international oil and gas industries. Not to mention the global economy that relies so heavily upon them. Therefore, unless there is a clear effort to maximise the efficiency across heavy industries there will no longer be the desire to invest and we could well see a devastating effect on our economy.