life of a lubricant: logistics & aftercare

Ensuring that the correct lubricants are readily available for owners as their vessels traverse the globe and dock in various ports presents a logistical challenge.

A seamless and simple process which eliminates extra duties for crews, and which cuts down on paperwork when they need to order new lubricants is vital.

Steven Windels, Global Marine Lubricants Supply Chain Manager at Chevron, explains how the company provides a worldwide, one-stop purchase to delivery solution for the company’s extensive range of lubricants for the shipping industry, as well as the aftercare capabilities which are vital to efficient and reliable operations.

 
Ensuring that the correct lubricant needed by a busy vessel is available at a port around the world is vital for a ship operator, especially as delays with sourcing can create complex and costly problems.

Sourcing lubricants has previously demanded time-consuming checks and substantial paperwork for crew members eager to guarantee smooth future sailings as vessels often criss-cross.

Docking at a port without guarantees that the correct lubricant is quickly available, or in sufficient quantities, presents risks for vessels which may be locked into demanding, time critical schedules.

To combat the risks and enhance the delivery process, Chevron Marine Lubricants offers its OnePort™ customer portal – available from any device – which provides operators, who log on, with a simplified procedure when they are ordering lubricants from the company’s wide-ranging lubricants portfolio.

OnePort™ is a key element within Chevron Marine Lubricants’ ongoing multi-year investment program in digitalization to help customers improve the efficiency of their operations wherever they are in the world.

By simplifying the ordering process, OnePort™ enables crews to concentrate on other duties.

OnePort™ is a one stop solution for lubrication requirements allowing 24-hour access for users. Chevron supplies lubricants at more than 500 ports globally.The portal also allows users to stay within budgets as it allows them to carry out on-line price comparisons and to quickly select the right lubricant for their vessels.

The user can also check availability of lubricants at ports and place orders if required. The need for paperwork is eliminated as the portal stores and displays all documentation including orders, invoices and immediate confirmation of orders which have been placed.

The use of OnePort™ has the backing of Chevron customers:

Shipping company, Eletson Corporation SA said it made time savings using OnePort™ to place orders for their fleet of 36 vessels, with support engineer, Konstantinos Tzagkournis, confirming that he can access the platform from different devices and can easily view important transactional information quickly.

“In my opinion, OnePort™ is the greatest and most complete platform in the marine lubes sector,” according to Marios Argyros, Lubricants Consultant at Aeoliki Marine, which reported improved lubricant management as soon as it began using OnePort™.

Apart from placing orders through the OnePort™ portal, Chevron offers other ways to help its lubricant customers. Customers can also contact the company’s technical services for assistance or the company’s worldwide sales teams, who can take orders via e-mail.

This way the customer can specify which product they need at which port and by a certain date. However, Chevron Marine Lubricants has dedicated teams to create new orders in the system, which is worked upwards through the supply chain. Hence, it highly encourages customers to utilise the OnePort™ system.

OnePort™ also has a chat functionality where the customer can talk with a supply partner or the customer service team directly.

Chevron Marine Lubricants’ appointed delivery agents are an important extension of the supply network and physically supply the products to customers, from where the lubricant is made available to the vessel at the port.

Of course, effectively supplying new lubricants to customers is only one part of the overall service for Chevron customers. The company focusses very heavily on aftercare to support customers through a range of services such as regular monitoring and simple testing and analysis.

The key after care service is the FAST™ family of solutions, which are backed with monitoring tools and technical clarity that will help future proof vessel operations and keep engines running smoothly. Providing vital data reviewed by marine technical specialists, FAST ™ helps customers to better understand what is going on inside a vessel engine and critical onboard equipment.

FAST is a comprehensive lubrication program, helping customers to achieve maximum performance and predict problems before they arise. Customers receive user-friendly reports of routine lubricant samples within 48 working hours and recommendations from technical experts.

With the FAST™ Onboard app, maintaining and protecting customer vessels’ crucial equipment has never been easier.  They can perform comprehensive testing, analysis, and condition monitoring at the touch of a button, onboard or onshore.

The operational life of critical assets can be optimised through the FAST oil condition monitoring service for vessels which not only saves money but also enables ship operators to benefit from enhanced vessel reliability.

The FAST™ OnBoard test kit offers ship engineers a compact and portable set of tests conducted onboard to quickly assess the performance of oils used on vessels.

Greater optimization can be achieved when used alongside the DOT.FAST service which offers operators comprehensive onboard and onshore analysis of drip oil samples.

In addition to tailoring lubricants’ programs to suit each customer, Chevron has ISO Certified oil analysis laboratories in key locations, Antwerp and Shanghai, which enables the company to deal with significant numbers of routine samples simultaneously and quickly - often completed within 48 working hours.

Chevron also provides expert support for customers when they change the lubricant supplier.

FAST on-board sample kits can be ordered with any lubricant delivery through the vessel operator’s account manager and/or customer service teams.