Whether it’s your neighbors putting in a pool, a new house going up, or the local utility company digging up the road, construction is all around us. Our Mobil™ Experts got together for a roundtable to discuss the latest trends and challenges in the field today and shed light on how our team helps construction companies stay ahead of the curve and meet their goals.

Meet today's Mobil Experts:

• Chuck Friden, Senior Sales Engineer, New York (Moderator)
• Rob Meldrum, Lubrication Engineer, Indiana
• Ahmed Abou El Enein, Industrial Sales Engineer, Nevada
• Joshua Cline, Industrial Sales Engineer, Colorado
• Steve Tate, Sales Engineer, Florida

Q: What are some challenges that our customers are facing?

Rob: Definitely the technician shortage, which is affecting everything from diesel mechanics to equipment technicians and even operators. If a small construction operation only has five mechanics, that translates to a certain number of maintenance hours each year. It’s a math problem. You can budget those hours for schedule maintenance and unscheduled maintenance, but anything that exceeds those hours is beyond their internal capabilities. 
 
So how do maintenance managers keep their machines running? When we start to have that conversation, we can better understand their challenges. Then we start to think about how higher performing lubricants and extending component life translates to less maintenance, and we go from there. 
 
Ahmed: Right, and a lot of customers think “oil is oil.” But when you look at it as a solution that can give their technicians more hours, which ultimately translates to uptime, it becomes a different story.   
 
Josh: Another challenge I’ve been hearing about recently is rising fuel costs. This is a huge issue, especially because a lot of customers are locked into contracts for certain periods of time and will soon be hit with large increases in fuel costs. 
 
We have a lot of good test data around our synthetic engine oils and how those can help reduce consumption when you’re trying to tackle rising fuel costs. In the past, a 1-2% improvement in fuel efficiency may not have resonated, but that becomes really material in the current environment. Extended oil drains also become important as you get the fuel efficiency benefits and you’re not consuming as much oil.

Q: Can you share how the Mobil distributor network has added value to the construction market and your customers?

Josh: Recently, I’ve been working with a customer in North Dakota, where things tend to be different with large temperature fluctuations – it ranges from negative 30 degrees in the winter up to 90-100 degrees in the summer. Reducing the complexity of products tends to be the biggest struggle for construction companies, especially when you’re working in multiple climates. Our distributors have brought value by helping customers look at their products for consolidation, like by running Mobil™ Trans AST 30 in both the transmissions and hydraulics so they can reduce the number of products they have on hand. It helps them go further on drain intervals and reduce the complexity of their maintenance program overall. You don’t have as many operators touching it, and they don’t have to touch it as often.

Q: How do they get our Mobil team involved in these types of recommendations?

Josh: Our distributors have plenty of experience across OEMs and with our products. But with any sort of super consolidation, especially with larger construction fleets, they won’t just make a standard recommendation across the board. Instead, they’ll bring our Mobil team in to help with lube charting to promote compliance and efficiency. 
 
Rob: Given that consolidation is a big piece of the work we do, we make sure to document that process in the lube charts and ensure our distributors have them on file so that when a customer calls looking for hydraulic oil, they can deliver the right product quickly.  
 
Steve: Yes, and for smaller lube charts, we laminate them and put them right in the lube trucks to carry around so when customers are out changing and checking equipment, they can keep it on hand.

Q: What's another service that you’re doing that in the construction market customers seem to appreciate, next to consolidation and lube charts?

Rob: Contamination control, storage and handling, dispensing solutions have become more sought-after. These services require expertise on the distributor side and are great value adds for our customers beyond just delivery services.   
 
Ahmed: Another thing we do, especially for construction happening on mine sites, is work on remote monitoring, inventory management, and product reclamation through filtration. That’s what distinguishes us from competition in the West – it’s our services, not always just our products.

Q: What is one customer moment you're very proud of?

Rob: It’s not always just about the oil — I think something that’s overlooked are the grease opportunities. It’s a smaller volume product. Everyone wants to talk about engine oil, but we can really help customers on the grease side. We’ve had tremendous success with the Mobil Centaur line of products in pneumatic hammers and paving equipment. Our products do wonders over lower quality grease.

Q: Speaking to those grease opportunities — what are some of the common problems customers have with their greases? What are some examples of instant benefits that we've been able to deliver?

Rob: We look at 3 buckets:

  1) Extending component life and helping keep equipment in service for longer.
  2) Reducing consumption. If we convert from a low-quality lithium complex, we use less grease.
  3) Product maintenance interval optimization. With higher quality greases, you don't have to go to the machine as much, and if you exceed the re-greasing interval, you have the extra protection.

Q: What does efficiency mean to your customers? How can Mobil products help to drive efficiency?

Rob: When we’re looking at thermally challenged components – dozers, paving equipment – we like to have a conversation around what can a synthetic or semi-synthetic or product with right viscosity can do for the equipment as far as volumetric efficiencies, reducing heat, extending component and seal life.

Ahmed: There are also the soft efficiencies to consider, like product consolidation, helping technicians use less time to find products, extended ODIs and live condition monitoring. You're opening equipment with less frequency, which equates to more uptime. It may not be improving equipment efficiency, but by spending less time worrying about lubrication, you improve operational efficiency.

Q: Can you speak to the importance of trust between customers and our Mobil field force?

Steve: Yes, we talk a lot about products and services, but one of the differentiators we offer customers is us! We have a strong Mobil expert field force, with lube engineers out in the field when customers need them. Our teams make local calls, so we have a Mobil team that's there to help customers work through challenges, get new equipment up and running, and ultimately improve the reliability of their operation.

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