Face-to-Face: Dr. Y.P.Rao
With operations primarily in the Automotive and Industrial segments, and a leading presence in the open market through a stellar distributor network, Gulf Oil Lubricants supply directly to OEMs and other B2B customers. Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd (GOLIL), part of the Hinduja Group, is an established player in the Indian Lubricants Industry. In an interview with Jhumpa Mukherjee of Machinery Lubrication India, Dr Y P Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Gulf Oil International, talks about his journey in the field of lubricants and what it means & takes to operate in the region.
Dr. Y.P.Rao joined Gulf Oil International Group in 2004 and has 36 years of experience in the fuel and lubricant Industry. Along with his team, he is responsible for development of over 1500 product formulations and obtaining around 600 Global OEM approvals. Dr Rao is the current Chairman of Lubricants Sectional Committee and he has also been serving as a Convener of Fuels committee of Bureau of Indian Standards for over 25 years. Dr Rao earned his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
What are your views on technical up-gradation & improvements in lubricant field since you entered this industry?
In today’s engines and equipment, lubricants are subjected to very severe conditions due to downsizing and reduction in sump capacities while the power densities increasing progressively. Further, consumers especially commercial vehicle operators and industrial customers continue to demand extended oil drain intervals to reduce the cost of lubrication. During last decade or so, globally engine oils have gone through major technology upgradations to support the changes in engine designs and protect after treatment systems to meet the ever-stringent emission and fuel economy regulations. To improve the air quality, Govt. of India had decided to leapfrog from BS IV to BS VI emission norms by skipping BS V starting from 1st April 2020. To meet BS VI emission norms, after treatment systems became essential in all vehicles. This change calls for a new class of engine oils having lower SAPS (Sulphated Ash, Phosphorous and Sulphur) as none of the engine oils having normal SAPS used in BS IV vehicles are suitable for BS VI vehicles.
Our government is pushing for the growth of electric vehicles in the country. How is Gulf Oil preparing for this shift? And what will be the impact on the sales volume.
Global warming is becoming a bigger issue and that is the major reason why Government is pushing for electric vehicles and also for increasing the electricity generation from renewable sources like Solar, Wind etc. The main reason for global warming is carbon dioxide emitted from burning of fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, besides helping in reducing the green-house gases, would also help in improving the air quality as they don’t emit any noxious gases/particulate matter. I strongly believe that electric vehicle will do a lot of good for the country as long as the carbon intensity of grid power is reduced.
Gulf Oil have been studying the impact of electric vehicles on lubricants consumption very carefully. As we are in a business of selling lubricants, we are focussing on the fluids that are required for both hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV). While HEVs will continue to use engine oils, BEVs do not require any engine oil as there is no engine. However, both HEVs and BEVs will continue to use transmission oils, coolants and greases designed for such vehicles. As the penetration of EVs increases, it will have some impact on engine oils, especially in passenger vehicle and 2-/3- wheeler segments in the next 10 to 20 years. The extent of impact depends on the rate of growth of EVs, which depends on so many factors like cost of battery, range, charging infrastructure etc. Transmission oils will not be the same though existing HEVs/ EVs are using the fluids being used in ICE vehicles at present. Very soon these are going to be optimised suiting the conditions prevailing in HEVs/BEVs. We are working on the fluids required for HEVs/BEVs. In electric vehicles the major issue is thermal management as they generate lot of heat. Electric vehicles bearings require grease. Grease also needs to be re-designed. We are also looking at the areas where we can participate in the entire value chain of electric vehicles.
Research & development plays an important role in any sector, more particularly in lubricants. Would you like to tell us about the R&D efforts taken in Gulf Oil?
We believe that the development of differentiated lubricants is extremely important in the highly competitive environment. As a part of this strategy and to meet future challenges, we had expanded our R&D facility and set up a state-of-the art R&D Centre at Chennai in 2018. In India, for the last twelve-thirteen years, we have been having a double digit CAGR while industry grew around 2 to 3% in the same period. The major reason for such a spectacular growth, among others, was the development of long drain oils in both M&HCV and Motorcycle segments and strategic OEM tie-ups. Gulf Oil was the first company to double the drain interval way back in 2006 in these segments and continues to hold a leadership position. These initiatives helped us to reach the position where we are standing today. We continue to expand our foot-print in growing segments like Construction, Mining and Fleet and strengthening OEM tie-ups through differentiated products and services, where R&D plays a very critical role.
How do you support the customers for oil analysis and interpretation services?
Oil analysis forms a very important part of the entire value chain. Condition monitoring plays a critical role to understand the equipment condition and to extract the full value from lubricants. Condition monitoring becomes a central part of providing lubrication solutions to the customer especially when it comes to B2B, fleet, mining and infrastructure customers.
In case of automotive vehicles, we establish the drain intervals by validating lubricants in different operating conditions. In the case of industrial customers, accessibility is very difficult, like in the construction and mining segments. Ten years ago, we launched a portal called ‘Gulf Care’. It is the basic platform through which we offer end-to-end oil condition monitoring service to our esteemed customers by providing standard sampling aids, bottles, labels etc. and arranging tie-ups for despatching samples to our laboratories. Customers are provided with log-in facilities through which they can access the historical data and understand the health of their equipment by looking at the used oil properties.
Industry 4.0 is a buzz word today; most of the manufacturing companies are trying to incorporate it. What are your views on this front?
I keep hearing about industry 4.0 and how it evolved from industry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. Most of the companies started looking at it seriously.
This is not an overnight procedure, defined process and ecosystem is required. Because costs and investments are involved, one needs to see the return on investment. We are also trying to help the industry to move towards industry 4.0.
In addition to lubrication, we are also working towards improving machine reliability. There are different ways of doing that; one of them is reducing human intervention. We are evaluating the opportunities to monitor the lubrication in critical/ inaccessible equipment by employing the latest gadgets. We have tie ups with few international players which help us to implement these ideas. We have already started doing it in India with a couple of customers on a pilot basis. For example, we have implemented certain mechanical devices for our windmill customers which would supply a lubricant in right quantity at right time. So if, let's say, if the temperature of the bearing goes up or the noise levels increases, it activates the device and supply the lubricant. A similar logic is applied to other equipment as well. Likewise we have proposals in place for the major steel customers. There are bigger and aggressive plans moving in that direction.
Lack of knowledge at the customer end (like storage handling, contamination control, sampling, testing, disposal, etc.) is a big issue. What do you think on this?
Storage of lubricants plays a very critical role. Before lubricating, if the lubricant gets degraded half of the life is already over. We conduct continuous trainings at various levels for our own employees, sales force, distributors, and B2B customers on how to store lubricants, how to take the samples and how to label the samples. The most common mistake is interchanging of the labels. Like how we pay attention when we give a blood sample, we check and try to see if our name is written properly on the sample bottle. We sensitise our customers on these lines during training programmes and customer interactions.
What are the major product / service differentiators (technically / technologically) that Gulf Oil Lubricants can be proud of as compared to other major and popular lubricant manufacturers?
We are the first to develop and introduce a long drain product into the country, both heavy duty and motorcycle segments. We continue to do that. Similarly, we brought long life hydraulic oils. Hydraulics is one of the major segments in the industrial arena. We have got variety of hydraulic oils depending on the application, depending on indoor or outdoor activity. ‘Gulf Care’ is a platform where we provide a condition monitoring and other facilities. There are many important features like product knowledge programs and customer’s value proposition programs. We are in touch with the customers 24x7. We are into air desiccant breathers and some of the other devices that would help with predictive & preventive maintenance in a more advanced manner than the general practices that are followed in the industry.
What do you have to say to the reliability community? How can one go from basic to benchmark lubrication?
One needs to understand the starting point i.e., what are the best practices for a given industry. You cannot say that cement factory, steel factory, and automobile workshop will work in the same manner. There is a gap analysis. What is the gap between ‘me’ and ‘the best’ globally? Today in a competitive world, you need to be the best. To assess that gap, try and plan a program which can reduce the gap. To be the best in the world, one should move with that aspiration. By following a simple basic process and system one can reach that level. Simple things go a long way in getting optimum life from the lubricant and equipment.
In simple layman’s term we keep explaining our customers that using the right lubricant, in the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity will be able to demonstrate a value that will be better than extremely expensive and high-end lubricant. We truly believe in this phenomenon. We have experienced better performance by following these fundamental principles. We have developed our own niche across all the segments. Last but not the least, one may have best products and best processes but at the end of the day execution is very important. Faster the execution you are winning the game already. Execution plays a very critical role; probably that is the one of the major reasons of our success.
