“What is a machine?”, asks the professor in the movie 3 idiots. And Rancho (Amir Khan’s character in the movie) answers simply, “A machine is anything that reduces human effort.”
If we think about another question of who or what reduces a machine’s efforts, the simple answer is a lubricant or oil. But if not maintained and managed regularly that same lubricant/oil can cause major problems as experienced by East Word Power station.
At one of their underground facilities, unmanaged dirty lubricant/oil was causing frequent suctions and issues like hydraulic-shuttle-valves failures. And in peak times, the cost of repair would go as high as $200 and sometimes hundreds of man-hours would be lost in the additional labour required to bring back the work on track.
To solve the issue permanently, they called Global Technical Services (GTS), one of the best experts in lubrication management. GTS took stock of the situation and installed an automated fine filtration and onsite condition monitoring system for contamination control.
After that, East Word Power Station saw no such breakdowns and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. And GTS made it a case study of another of their successes. It is just one of their all the best services. The promoters at GTS have 135 years of combined professional experience. To date, they have accomplished thirty-five such big projects and served 14,847 customers.
Recipients of many prestigious awards and certificates, GTS is today the trusted partner big companies from many industries look forward to, for their total lubrication management.
In our endeavour of finding out ‘Best of 5 Oil and Gas Companies’, we met Mr K. B. Mathur, GTS’s Founder & Director and Mr. G.K. Mathur, company’s Director & Chief Executive. Both of them were kind enough to be interviewed by Insights Success. Below are the excerpts from the discussion with the dynamic duo.
Please brief our audience about GTS, its USPs, and how you are currently positioned as one of the best oil and gas companies?
We at Global Technical Services (GTS), are a service providing company in the oil and gas sector. We are in the business of ‘Lubrication Management’.
Good lubrication of machines is the fulcrum to industrial productivity. Good lubrication improves the continuous running of machines without any breakdown for years and years. Hence, it is essential for the growth of production and economy.
Our Total Lubrication Management includes services like lubricant storage, handling and dispensing, leading to a contamination-free lubrication (oil and grease) to machines.
Hence, we play an important role in productivity in the industrial sector, and national economy. This service of lubrication management is very important to improve the profitability of the industry by the way of cost-cutting in manufacturing.
Tell us more about GTS’s offerings and what aspects make it stand out in the cutthroat competition?
Our company was founded in the year 2000 by Mr K B Mathur, who has the background of working with oil industry at Senior Positions.
Subsequently, we approached the cement industry which operates under a highly dusty environment. It leads to lubricants getting contaminated with dust and dirt. Thus, feeding such contaminated lubricants causes damage to heavy-duty machines. To counter this, we established various systems of feeding clean lubricants to the machines.
We introduced Oil Conservation Programme by establishing Central Lubrication Cell (CLC) at every plant, wherever we got the opportunity to work. Each plant where we have a CLC which also contains an Oil Testing Laboratory, Filtration Units, and condition-based oil changing system to save oil.
This has resulted in reducing the downtime in those plants considerably and improving the overall mechanical maintenance. This leads to achieving oil conservation, which is crucial for cost reduction. Oil conservation is also a vital national need for saving import costs of base oils.
Hence, saving lubricants leads to cost-cutting, besides, also saving the environment. Good lubrication also leads to energy conservation by 3% – 6% in the cement industry.
Our company is continuously playing a leadership role in the country. We are providing services of the best lubrication management to the industry since our inception in 2000.
Please brief us about the journey of GTS in the industry and how it is excelling in its niche.
The company working is based on a professional, systematic, and knowledge-based approach. Our Founder Director worked with the oil industry for about 35 years. He was absolutely clear about the way forward, for establishing the best lubrication practices in the cement and mining industry as these industries operate in a dusty environment.
Cement plants have also set up mines, where they mine limestones. It is the raw material that is then crushed to form ‘Clinkers’ which ultimately gets converted to cement. Cement is a very important and basic input material for national infrastructure.
Our company is following key professionals playing a major role in establishing world-class lubrication programmes in the Indian industry.
GTS is a leader and is providing niche lubrication management to various cement companies and mining industries in the country.
Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML is impacting the oil and gas industry and how are you adapting to the change?
Yes. We have developed the ‘Lubrication Software’ which we call Total Lubrication Management (TLM). The Software is based on AI and ML. It is linked with oil testing sensors, reports for machines by incorporating the oil test reports and forecasts machine failures times ahead, leading to timely corrective action.
This projection saves a considerable amount of money in machines’ maintenance besides improving the life of the machine and ultimately saves cost to the industry. GTS plays the desired role in oil and energy conservation by implementing TLM in the industry.
AI and ML are greatly helping service providers like GTS in preventing machine failures and improving the life of machines.
Considering the current pandemic what initial challenges did you face and how did you drive GTS to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?
In our company, there are approximately 165 technical people and technicians. Their health and care are of utmost importance to us. Most of them work at sites of client companies (Cement Plants) who have outsourced their lubrication management to us.
The staff must be very careful in carrying out their jobs efficiently, during the current period of the pandemic. Since all the cement plants are in remote areas of the country and are basically processing plants, it was a challenge.
Most of the technicians work continuously for months, without a break. They have to do their jobs of lubrication, achieving schedule, filtration, oil testing and maintaining various records, required as part of the MIS to be submitted to the plant Managers/Engineers.
Yet, our people have been doing their job very effectively during this pandemic period. The safety distances norms, wearing masks as part of their PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) have been very carefully adopted by them while carrying out their assigned work.
During the pandemic, the work has been going on in the factories, plants and mines, as it was in normal times, but with added care and precautions prescribed by the plant managements. The basic caution is, to be careful and adopt the guiding factors to remain safe from the pandemic.
Like wearing masks and personal cleanliness have been the key drivers which we have emphasized and carried in our work. We have adopted the guidelines provided by the industry while carrying out our job competently.
What would be your advice to the young generation who want to venture into the oil and gas industry?
The oil and gas industry will continue to thrive in the years and decades ahead. This sector is going to be the continued major source of energy for at least two more decades before other sources of non-conventional energy can replace them in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The sector will keep growing at a CAGR of 6% to 8%.
The young professionals must adapt to the new technologies which lead to work in a more efficient way than in the previous decades. And they must adapt to the corresponding professional practices required to implement software-based programmes and digitalization.
Internet of Things (I.O.T.) based working is now the way forward, leading to Industry 4.0. Young engineers/executives will have to embrace and master the new ways to work and progress.
How do you envision scaling your operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?
Lubrication Management has grown in the last 20 years. Before that, there was no concept of lubrication, and its importance was not known to the industry.
With the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of things (IoT), machine-condition monitoring and machine-controlling will become more efficient and easier. The plant control room which occupies large spaces, will shrink to the plant’s desktop computers.
Softwares are being developed to compare similar machines’ operational efficiency and their productivity.
This will lead to far better machine operations, which will improve machine maintenance and improved plant operations – leading to more productivity.
The Dynamic Duo:
Mr K. B. Mathur, the founder-director, is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate and a post-grad in Business Management. He served in the M/S. Indian Oil Corporation for 27 years; M/S. Gulf Oil Corporation as Executive Director for 4 years and M/S. Reliance Petroleum as VP for 4 years, with a combined experience of 52 years.
Mr G.K. Mathur, Director & Chief Executive, is a graduate in Science and has 21 years of experience in supporting the company by bringing in new ideas and establishing oil condition monitoring, establishing the most modern world-class oil testing laboratories in the mining industry and cement plants.
