EXPERT ADVICE


COUNTING THE COST OF TRADITION


Cutting pay isn’t the way to lower cleaning costs per square metre, says James White, Managing Director of Denis Rawlins Ltd. He feels you need to Innovate and ‘Chop the Mop’ to become more productive and less stressed.


Our industry has been making headlines as cleaners strike for the Living Wage, notably in Liverpool and London, where the City’s longest-running dispute has finally been resolved.


We can sympathise with their employers as well as the employees.


As contractors win work on wafer-thin margins, the pressure is on cleaning and facilities managers and their teams to maintain standards with reduced resources.


Typically, two courses of action are taken to hit the new ‘cleaning cost per square metre’ needed to make these contracts pay.


In a traditionally labour-intensive business, the first response is often to trim workers’ pay rates or hours, or both. Ethics aside, this isn’t going to be sustainable given the new ‘National Living Wage’, increasing industrial disputes and the possible immigration impact of Brexit.


A somewhat more enlightened response is to hire in some scrubber dryers so a smaller cleaning team can cover more ground. Unfortunately, knee-jerk or desperate measures often result in unreliable and/or ageing machines that break down and are expensive to run.


And the stress on operatives, supervisors and managers only increases. But it doesn’t have to be like this.


As a company committed to science- based cleaning, we understand – and encourage – the focus on cleaning costs per metre. It’s a vital indicator of efficiency. We believe in measuring results, including productivity and cost of ownership of equipment, as well as cleanliness (scientifically – with an ATP meter that measures the presence of bacteria and contamination).


66 | Tomorrow’s Cleaning September 2016


These should be the benchmarks for any cleaning operation. The way to drive down the cleaning cost per square metre is to embrace innovation and adopt modern processes where they are shown to be more efficient. Too many managers stick with traditional ways of doing things that should have been swept away with the ark.


“The way to drive


down the cleaning cost per square


metre is to embrace


innovation and adopt modern processes


where they are shown to be more efficient.”


Hand mopping is a case in point. Our Chop the Mop campaign is highlighting the scientific evidence that mopping spreads much of the soil it picks up. As if that wasn’t sufficient to condemn the practice, mopping is laborious, wastes operatives’ time, can be demeaning, and creates a slip hazard.


There are far more cost-effective floor cleaning options out there. The basic requirement is simply to remove soils and contamination rather than try to disinfect the dirt or move it around.


For example, toilets and washrooms – where microbes, touch points and opportunities for cross-contamination abound – can be cleaned with a ‘No Touch Cleaning’ system that is more efficient and professional, especially from the operative’s viewpoint. It


involves spraying a cleaning solution and wet-vacuuming the washed-off liquid. This approach is up to three times faster than manual mopping.


Alternatively, even the smallest premises can transition from more controlled mopping to a fully automatic system that suctions away the solution, leaving a dry floor, with a ‘Crossover’ cleaning system. This was shown to be three times faster than mopping in tests and it matches the performance of a scrubber dryer at a fraction of the cost, removing 99% of bacteria.


Both systems are based on sound science, with modest investment and rapid payback. The equipment is easy to operate and cleaning outcomes are consistently high. So no need for periodic deep cleans – an admission that routine cleaning is inadequate.


On the same principle, regular and rapid cleaning of escalators and travelators is possible with a hand- held tool, fitted with an engineered sponge, obviating more disruptive and expensive deep cleans.


However, I wouldn’t want to give the impression that we’re against advanced technology. We’re enthusiastic adapters where it’s proven to work and delivers the most cost-effective cleaning service on the ground.


Sometimes a scrubber dryer, for instance, may be an over-complicated answer to a simple cleaning problem. But in other situations the most advanced machine available will be the key to maximising productivity and long-term return on investment.


Like scientific cleaning, the R.O.I and innovation are crucial. These are themes we stress on our new website – to help cleaning managers de-stress.


www.rawlins.co.uk/innovation twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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