ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION
Transforming work environments
Softbank Robotics’ Stefano Bensi explains how collaborative cleaning robots are tackling contemporary challenges.
The cleaning industry finds itself in a rapidly evolving state of change. Previously unanticipated contemporary challenges are presenting themselves in ways that are forcing organisations to integrate new processes to continue delivering their services. Both cleaning providers and customers of cleaning services need to expand their adoption of new ideas in a bid to keep standards high and operations tight.
For customers, there is the expectancy of a high-quality delivery of cleaning that is consistent, visible and provides measurable improvements to spaces. These are not outlandish or overreaching expectancies, as someone paying for a service. These are arguably the bottom line of service delivery. What impacts this, however, are the challenges and pressures currently faced by both cleaning teams and cleaners alike.
According to research conducted by Ecoserv Group in September 2023, the commercial cleaning industry in the UK is facing its worst staff shortage since the late 1990s, with workforce job vacancies sitting at around 97,000. The knock-on effect this has on the deliverables of cleaning businesses cannot be understated.
Think of it as a domino effect from the bottom up. Cleaners are strained, become stressed and overworked. As such the quality of their work understandably takes a dip. As such the quality of the cleaning delivery of the business drops, making the customers of the cleaning company frustrated and displeased, potentially hurting the bottom line of the overall business and damaging its reputation.
So, what can be done to improve the quality of working life for cleaners but also uphold business practices delivering high- quality and consistent cleans? Well, such as in many areas of our lives, developing technologies are here to save the day.
42 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING Cobotics
Collaborative robots (cobots) are automated solutions which operate alongside workforces to help support, uplift and enhance everything from deliverables, all the way through to quality of working life. By their very name, cobots are not a replacement for workers (as much as the cliché of the ‘robots taking over’ drum is beaten), more so they’re here to work alongside workers safely and in shared workspaces.
In this instance, cobots support cleaning teams by doing the hard, time-intensive and repetitive work, such as cleaning large floor surface areas day-in, day-out. This is a great example of why they’re ‘collaborative’. They’re not stealing or taking away from the cleaner’s job: they’re enhancing it by taking on these not-so-desirable tasks.
With those tasks taken care of, cleaners can tend to more specific areas of cleaning such as hard to reach areas, or focus on specifics where they know value is added for the customer. Equally to this, opening up the time and resources for cleaners to undertake upskilling opportunities is such a vital part of developmental and stimulating work for cleaners that will only help improve retention, help redefine job roles, and as such hopefully attract more people into the workforce.
Reflecting on the pandemic, where hot desking within offices was common, offices and organisations that deployed cobotic cleaning solutions allowed their cleaners the time and capacity to monitor and specifically target the needed areas for a more thorough and specific clean. This still translates to today’s modern day of working, tackling the mixed occupancy office.
With fluctuating footfall throughout spaces, rooms left unused and peaks and troughs in particular spaces, this presents a whole new operational structure for cleaning organisations to deploy their workforces into. Previously a rigorous schedule of a cleaner’s time and resources could largely be put down to a planned schedule. This is where
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