After having been in business as SOS Oil for the last 20 years, it never fails to amaze me how the Directors and Senior Managers of companies treat the lubrication and maintenance needs of their company’s production equipment compared to their “company cars”.

The luxury car will never miss a service and always get the best possible lubricants and servicing attention, including the use of synthetic oils, no matter the cost.  You will hear them say “Oh but the car comes with a Maintenance Contract and therefore there is no cost to the company or me”.  Nonsense!  The cost of that maintenance contract is part of the price of the vehicle, and it only covers the first 2 years or 40000 kms in most cases and in some cases 3 years and 60000 kms at best.  Thereafter, you pay for the servicing and this can cost up to R10000.00 per service, depending on the car.

On the other hand, the production equipment must make do with erratic maintenance at best, and more often these days, breakdown maintenance and the cheapest lubricants available to the company.  The use of synthetic lubricants in production machinery is seldom considered because synthetic lubricants are “too expensive”.  But, while synthetic lubricants may cost more to purchase, they have up to 8 times the service life of a conventional mineral oil and give up to a 30% increase in component life.

Surely it is the output from the production machinery that pays for the cars and their maintenance and the overall profitability of their company.  Makes you think, doesn’t it.