Lube Oil Workflow
Introduction
Lube oil passes through the system in a full circle: it is ordered, it arrives on board, it is consumed, a sample is taken from it, the laboratory analyses it, and someone decides what the result means. This document follows that circle once.
The circle crosses modules — it starts in purchasing and ends in the lube oil module — and it crosses sides: the vessel handles the oil, the office approves the analysis. Where a step uses a function that works the same everywhere, it is linked rather than explained again.
Ordering
Lube oil is ordered like any other article, through a requisition and a purchase order. It can be started from the catalog or from the purchasing module; the general path is described in the purchasing workflow, and the lube-oil specifics — working from the catalog, adding further articles to the requisition, receiving the items — step by step with screenshots under Lube Oil Reports.
From receipt to bunkering
This is the point where the two modules meet, and it is worth understanding because it surprises people:
Receiving the items in purchasing writes the bunkering into the lube oil module. Nothing has to be entered a second time. If a bunkering is missing there, the usual cause is that the purchase order was not marked as received.
Consumption
Consumption is recorded per vessel and period. Together with the bunkerings, it is what the stock on board is derived from — so a missing consumption entry does not only distort the consumption figures, it distorts the remaining quantity as well.
The Ship Overview shows the picture per vessel, with navigation between months, so a period can be looked at as it was.
Taking a sample and requesting the analysis
A sample is recorded as an analysis request in the lube oil module. It can also be started from a maintenance job, which keeps the connection between the work carried out and the sample taken from it.
The request appears in the folder requested. An analysis carried out before the system was in use can be added as an existing report, so the history is not lost.
Sending it to the laboratory
Select the request and use Send. The system prepares the mail to the laboratory; the request then sits in sent.
The mail is prepared, not sent behind your back — if you cancel it, the request keeps its previous status and Send can simply be used again.
Recording the result
When the laboratory answers, the result is recorded in one of two ways:
Receive (manually)— the result is entered by hand.Receive (online)— the result is fetched directly from the laboratory, which requires that connection to be set up. For several requests at once there is a variant under More Actions that fetches everything outstanding.
The analysis then sits in received / not checked — which is exactly what the office tile of the same name reports: the vessel has a result that nobody has looked at yet.
Checking on board, approving in the office
The result is checked on board first; the office approves afterwards. This two-step arrangement is deliberate — the people who know the engine see the values first, the office decides what follows.
An analysis can also be rejected, and the reason belongs with it, not in a mail.
Both steps, the statuses, the colour coding and the rights involved are described under Analysis. Two details from there are worth carrying in your head:
- The Analysis Received tick box in the edit window is display-only. A receipt is recorded with
Receive (manually)orReceive (online), never by ticking that box. - Where the configuration says so, only failed analyses need approval at all; passed ones close by themselves.
What is left behind
Every step is recorded in the status history, so it stays visible who sent, received, checked and approved, and when. Comments, reminders and documents hang on the analysis — see Show History, Comments and Attachments.
The reports and the settings that govern this workflow — including which analyses need approval — are described under Reports and Settings.
And round again
The result feeds back into the work: a poor analysis leads to a maintenance job, an oil change, or a shorter sampling interval — and the next bunkering starts the circle over.