Professional Motor Mechanic gets a sneak peak behind the telephones at Morris Lubricants’ technical department.
Providing information, advice, education and support for buyers and users of oils, greases, lubricants and other maintenance products has been part of the Morris Lubricants’ service offering for many, many years. It has always been the underlying philosophy at Morris Lubricants that selling a quality product should be backed up with technical support when required.
To compliment the sales and commercial functions, a dedicated team in the form of the technical services department was set up in the early 1980s, to provide buyers and users with a point of contact, should help and advice be needed. Today, the Morris Lubricants’ Technical Services Department is headed up by Adrian Hill, technology manager, who has accumulated over 40 years of oil and lubricant industry experience.
Adrian leads a team of advisors who have chemistry backgrounds, hands on mechanical experience and various lubricant industry qualifications. It is with this combination of skills and deep practical knowledge that helps the team to provide and deliver accurate guidance and assistance.
Evolving industry
The oil and lubricant industry does not stand still and is ever changing. The OEMs are continually developing new engine designs, harnessing alternative power hardware systems and increasing performance requirements to cope with environmental and legislative impacts. The technical services department not only caters for past and existing equipment and specifications, but also closely follow trends and emerging technologies to ensure that the product portfolio offered is current and can match customer requirements. This vigilance and support not only covers the UK, but also extends across all of Morris Lubricants’ export markets around the globe.
Contact with the department is not all office-based. Rapid correspondence via telephone calls, e-mails, social media DMs (direct messages) and website contact forms, are actioned by all the team, including Ian Haslum, technical advisor. The team also make visits to customer’s premises to assess their vehicles, equipment and machinery to check what oil and lubricant solutions are required. These visits are often managed by Morris Lubricants’ technical support engineer, Ryan Woolley, who can provide hands on help where face-to-face is a preferred form of contact.
Advice can also be sought from the company’s online oil and lubricant lookup tool Whatoil, which can be found on the Morris Lubricants’ website and can therefore be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The correct product can be found on this lookup tool by entering a car or truck registration number, or you can select from a wide variety of different vehicles, equipment and machinery by using a series of simple dropdown menus. Once the vehicle or piece of equipment is selected, various oils, coolants and maintenance fluids are presented.
With the vast array of scientific and practical experience on hand, the Technical Services Department also use a variety of databases and other collected material to provide advice across many generations of vehicles and equipment from the early 1900s to the present day.
Apart from helping with immediate needs, especially if a vehicle is sat on a ramp in a workshop, more extensive and detailed reporting can be employed, especially if equipment lists and multiple vehicle fleet surveys are required. The technical services department can provide advice on how to rationalise product stock holdings whilst maintaining conformity to OEM specifications and best practices.
Oil analysis
The department also offers used oil analysis from an independent specialist laboratory. This is an important role, especially where customers are seeking advice on equipment in service, to diagnose system conditions. With enough data it is also possible to use these tests and analysis as a preventative measure to reduce downtime or predict failure, enabling corrective action to be implemented, saving money and lost productivity. Site visits can also be arranged, especially in industrial environments, to provide training on fluid management and risk control.
The support does not stop at providing technical advice. Another important service offered by the technical department is product training and education. Providing product training on theory and product application to buyers and end users is a vital support role. A deeper understanding allows customers and end users to make more confident and informed decisions on what products to select and use.
Face-to-face is the preferred method of training, although for more remote customers, including those overseas, webinars are of course available. The Morris Lubricants’ Training Academy is run to provide product knowledge and training across all market sectors. The content is designed to provide different levels of detail, from the fundamentals of lubricant theory to deep dives into individual product lines. This of course isn’t set in stone and presentations can be fine-tuned to customer’s needs. There are also many different educational and informative videos on the Morris Lubricants’ YouTube channel. These often include the company’s brand ambassadors, such as Guy Martin and truck racer Dave Jenkins, who ask Adrian some real tricky questions.
The company also partakes and facilitates educational sessions with students from schools, colleges, universities and apprenticeship programmes. The focus is on educating the next generation of users, engineers and employees in the lubricant industry. These educational sessions cover a wide selection of topics ranging from an appreciation of the industry and potential career paths, through to product awareness and specific product training.
As the company has now been trading for over 150 years, Morris Lubricants continues to evolve to meet the challenges and developments of today and the future. Members of the Technical Services Department are often asked to give talks at different industry events and conferences throughout the world. This is to showcase best practice and engage in thought leadership sessions on important industry topics. The company’s ability to push forward, maintaining its presence in existing, established markets and to seek new opportunities isn’t down to individuals, but the collective and collaborative efforts of all its employees.
As highlighted by Adrian Hill, Technology Manager, “Whatever the future brings, Morris Lubricants will be well placed to supply whatever is needed. We are committed to providing the high-quality products, all backed up with the information, advice, support, training and education so that buyers and users are making the correct informed choice and not relying on guess work. At Morris Lubricants we are here to help.”
