Industry Outlook: Increasing Customer Competitiveness

High-performance Mobil-branded lubricants are used everywhere, in nearly every industrial operation on the planet. Across all industries we serve, ExxonMobil has had a long-standing tradition of increasing our customers' competitiveness by helping to improve their productivity and maximize equipment life—regardless of the condition of the economy.

As an example of how we're helping customers get through the current downturn and build toward a sustainable future, let's look at one of the most important sectors we serve—food and beverage processing. Here, as it is in all of the other industries we serve, the combination of market-leading technology in our products, coupled with the application expertise of our sales staff and relationships with OEMs provides end-users with a compelling proposition that helps reduce their overall costs.

Food and beverage successes
Our recently introduced line of Mobil SHC Cibus oils and Mobil SHC Polyrex greases, are perfect examples of how our synthetic lubricants are designed to meet the most demanding of requirements. Designed specifically for the food industry, these products are formulated to help companies benefit from longer lubricant life, reduced energy consumption and increased equipment life.

Productivity is directly related to asset availability, machinery and labor, as well as the avoidance of defects during the production process. In the context of the food industry, this means meeting production targets at minimum cost—and minimal generation of finished food products that are unsuitable for consumption. Reduced energy consumption per unit of production is also a critical factor.

By using long-life lubricants, such as our Mobil SHC Cibus oils and Mobil SHC Polyrex greases, companies can help enhance the performance of their equipment and reduce the downtime and labor requirements associated with more frequent oil changes. An example of how our family of Mobil SHC fluids is helping do this was recently documented in a sugar beet processing plant.

This facility had been experiencing consistent equipment problems with another lubricant product, including frequent bearing and grease distribution failures in a high-temperature, wet and heavily loaded machine. After consultation with our technical experts, plant managers elected to try Mobil SHC Polyrex 462 to see if it could alleviate these issues—it did. In changing over to the Mobil SHC Polyrex 462 grease, the plant has been able to generate more than $20,000 in annual cost savings.

Meeting demands everywhere
As a global supplier with a robust distribution network, we have outstanding ability to meet customer's demands in all major markets. One of our primary goals is to drive flawless execution of our own manufacturing and supply logistics all with the intent of optimizing our customers' experience. Our track record in working with our customers is excellent in this regard. Through our global Equipment Builder Engineering Group and range of technical experts who make up our Field Engineering Service teams, we work with customers to intimately understand their operations and production goals.

In many cases, we leverage our unique application expertise to recommend process improvements, the goal being to help increase asset availability, reduce defect rates, minimize costs and optimize the availability of labor for alternative tasks. Our experience shows that our customers are able to set increasingly challenging production targets—and our process knowledge, lubricant technology and application expertise play a key role in helping them achieve those goals. MT

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