Operational Guide - 4. Interpreting Monitoring Data
This chapter explains how to interpret the information the Manual Greasing Monitoring Solution presents, and how to use it to identify where lubrication requirements are not being met.
The objective is not to review every grease point every day, but to recognise which results indicate a genuine issue and warrant further investigation.
In this chapter:
- Where Monitoring Information Is Found
- Task Status
- Grease Activity
- Volume Delivered
- Grease Type
- Untracked Grease Events
- Synchronisation and Device Communication
- Compliance Performance
- Historical Trends
- Focusing Investigation Effort
Where Monitoring Information Is Found
Monitoring information is presented in the GreaseBoss Cloud in three main places:
| AREA | WHAT IT SHOWS | TYPICAL USE |
|---|---|---|
| Activity — Events | Every recorded grease delivery | Confirming what was actually done, and when it was uploaded |
| Activity — Tasks | Every task generated by the configuration, with both its requirement and its outcome | Confirming what was required, what was done against it, and whether it passed |
| Reports — Compliance Reports | Task outcomes measured against requirements for a selected period | Assessing performance and identifying exceptions |
Tables can be filtered by date range and exported at any time.
The Tasks view
The Tasks view carries the most detail of the three, because each row holds the requirement and the result side by side. For every task it shows:
| COLUMN | WHAT IT TELLS YOU |
|---|---|
| Location, Asset, Point | Where the task applies |
| Schedule | The schedule that generated it |
| Vol. Requirement | The target volume. A value of -1 indicates a purge point, where any delivery above zero is accepted |
| Vol. Tolerance | The acceptable range above and below the target for this task |
| Status | Whether the task is still open or has closed |
| Events | The number of grease events recorded against the task |
| Start Date and End Date | The window in which the task was due |
| Consumable | The grease type required |
| Vol. Delivered | The total volume actually delivered, summed across the events recorded against the task. Same unit as the target |
| Compliant | Whether the task passed or failed |
This makes the Tasks view the quickest way to answer a question about a single point. A task that closed with no events and nothing delivered was never completed. A task with events recorded but marked non-compliant was completed incorrectly, and the delivered volume and consumable columns usually show why. A task still open has not yet fallen due.
Filtering on Compliant and on Status narrows a period down to the exceptions in a few clicks — closed and not compliant is the list of work that failed, and open tasks are the work still outstanding.
Grease Activity
Grease activity confirms that lubrication has physically taken place.
Watch for:
- Expected events that did not occur
- Points that have not been greased for longer than their schedule allows
- A drop in the overall number of events recorded per run
- Events recorded outside expected working patterns
Activity confirms that work was done. It does not by itself confirm the work was correct.
Volume Delivered
Each event records the volume delivered in cc, which can be compared against the target volume configured for the point. The Vol. Delivered figure on the Tasks view is the same measure, totalled across the events recorded against that task.
Watch for:
- Consistent under-delivery at a point or across a route
- Consistent over-delivery
- Large variation in delivered volume at the same point over time
- Volumes that bear no relationship to the configured target
Consistent deviation in the same direction at the same point often indicates that the configured target volume is incorrect, rather than an operator issue. Random variation is more likely to indicate technique, access or equipment.
Grease Type
Each Head Unit is associated with a grease type, and each point is configured with the grease it requires.
Watch for:
- Wrong grease events at specific points
- Wrong grease events clustered on a particular Head Unit or route
- Points where the configured grease type no longer matches site practice
A cluster of wrong grease events on one Head Unit usually means that unit is being taken to points outside its grease type, or that its assigned consumable is out of date in the configuration.
There is a limit to what grease type monitoring can show. The Head Unit compares its assigned consumable against the point requirement, and has no way of knowing what grease is physically in the gun. A gun filled with the wrong grease therefore produces no wrong grease events at all — the deliveries are recorded against the assigned consumable and report as compliant.
In other words, this data confirms that guns were taken to the correct points. It does not confirm that the correct grease was in them. That depends on gun and grease handling in the field, and is covered in Chapter 6.
Untracked Grease Events
Untracked grease events are deliveries that could not be matched to a grease point.
Watch for:
- Any increase in untracked events
- Untracked events concentrated on a particular route, operator or Head Unit
- Untracked events appearing at the same time as a drop in compliance
Untracked events are excluded from compliance calculations. A run that was completed properly but read poorly will look like a run that was not completed.
Synchronisation and Device Communication
Synchronisation determines whether monitoring information is current.
Watch for:
- A gap between the occurred and uploaded timestamps that is longer than the length of a normal run
- Upload times clustering in the early hours, which indicates the Head Unit is only catching the overnight synchronisation
- A gap that grows run after run
- A Head Unit that has not been seen by the system recently
- Gaps in activity that align with Gateway or power interruptions
Some gap between occurred and uploaded is expected — events are held on the Head Unit until it next synchronises. It is the size and the trend of the gap that matter, not its presence.
Communication issues do not necessarily mean a lubrication problem exists, but they do mean the picture in the Cloud is incomplete. Confirm that data is current before drawing conclusions from it.
Compliance Performance
Compliance summarises how closely completed work matched the lubrication requirements.
Watch for:
- Compliance trending down over successive periods
- A large gap between Right Time and Right Amount, which points to different causes
- Specific schedules, assets or locations that sit well below the site average
- Individual points that are never compliant
Compliance identifies where requirements are not being met. It does not identify why. Chapter 5 explains how compliance is calculated, and Chapter 6 covers investigation.
Historical Trends
A single period rarely tells the full story.
Trends are more useful than snapshots because they show:
- Whether performance is improving or deteriorating
- Whether an issue is recurring or was a one-off
- Whether a corrective action delivered a lasting change
- Whether a point or route has always been problematic
When reviewing any result, consider what changed, when it changed, and whether the condition is getting better or worse.
Focusing Investigation Effort
Attention is best directed toward exceptions rather than toward points that are performing consistently.
Priority is usually given to:
- Critical assets with missed or overdue lubrication
- Points that are repeatedly non-compliant
- Increases in untracked grease events
- Routes that are consistently incomplete
- Any deterioration from previously good performance
Monitoring information should be combined with maintenance records, operator feedback and physical inspection to build a complete understanding before acting.