Ask the Expert
Tomorrow’s Cleaning presents our resident expert, Mark Bresnihan, Managing Director of Industrial Cleaning Equipment, who considers cleaning on an industrial level.
equipment and pallets of goods stacked at varying heights that need to be manoeuvred around; fork lift trucks moving back and forth; and busy delivery and loading bays to contend with.
Q: A:
My company has conventional offices, but it also operates factory and
warehouse facilities – how can I keep these industrial sites clean?
You wouldn’t use a chainsaw to open a tin of baked beans because it’s not
the correct tool for the job, and the same rule applies to flooring. The right equipment for the relevant surface is a must, alongside the proper specialist training for your cleaning operatives. Companies that work from multiple-use sites – for example, ones that house offices alongside manufacturing facilities – need to ensure that their cleaning and maintenance regimes are flexible and appropriate for each individual location within that site.
Cleaning hard floors in factories puts heavier loads on motors and bearings than commercial cleaning in offices, and metal waste makes life harder for vacuum cleaners than the odd paper clip or discarded staple in an office. Making sure that you understand the issues associated with each surface before you purchase cleaning equipment or employ the services of a contract cleaner is, therefore, a must.
Industrial flooring issues Storage facilities, warehouses, factories, distribution centres and manufacturing plants can all come under the industrial heading, and each one will have specific issues that cleaning regimes need to take into account. There may be shelving/racking systems, specialist
The type of building to be cleaned needs to be assessed carefully so a site survey is an excellent place to start – whether the site is for single or multiple use. By answering some specific questions you should quickly get a good idea of the type of cleaning equipment you will need. What sort of work is carried out at the site? What sort of waste is created – for example, is the floor littered with metal swarf, oil or sawdust? How many floors does the building have, and do lifts operate between floors? Do the doorways vary in width, and is there evidence of trodden-in dirt at key delivery/entrance points?
Multi-tasking machines for multi-use sites The cleaning equipment that is required and the frequency with which the cleaning is carried out will depend on the type of floor, the traffic across the floor, and how much dirt is trodden in. Thankfully, cleaning equipment manufacturers have been quick to incorporate the latest technology to develop multipurpose machines that can be used to look after several different floor types.
Some commercial grade vacuum cleaners now also incorporate HEPA filters. This adds value in that, as well as keeping carpets maintained, they also help to minimise airborne spores and organisms that could spread infections. For hard floors, single disc rotaries and burnishers are available in various speed options. When used with the correct brush and/or pads applicable for each speed they can be used to perform
REGULAR 26 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | The future of our cleaning industry
a number of different cleaning tasks, including scrubbing floors, spray cleaning and buffing, or adding a glossy finish to smooth surfaces.
Industrial facilities often operate shift systems so there is more chance that cleaning has to be carried out when employees are still working in the building, raising health and safety concerns. Therefore machines that wash hard floors need to do their task thoroughly and quickly, leaving surfaces clean and ready to walk on safely in as short a time as possible to minimise the risk of slips. Cordless, battery-powered machines are also favoured as they have no trailing leads, guarding against the possibility of trips and falls, for the cleaning operatives themselves and staff or visitors still in the building.
Whatever business your company is in, sustainability and green issues cannot be ignored, so cleaning equipment that takes this into account could also be more attractive. The latest environmentally friendly cleaning systems are cost effective and minimise the economic impact of health problems, whilst reviewing energy consumption and waste recycling can also bring down costs.
To sum up, whatever type of flooring you need to clean, there is a solution – and a trusted equipment supplier can be a useful ally in making sure that you get the right one.
www.ice-clean.com
If you have a question for the expert, please email:
charlotte@opusbusinessmedia.co.uk Your question could be featured in the next issue of Tomorrow’s Cleaning.
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