their work and make more informed decisions. In a busy shopping centre washroom, for example, footfall will change day to day, or even hour to hour.
Weekends will be busy – weekends before Christmas will be even busier. Then there’s the school holiday period to consider. Whatever the situation, sensors can help quantify when the washroom is busiest, allowing cleaning teams to go in more frequently during busy periods. It’s a waste of resources if cleaners are cleaning the washroom if nobody has used it.
Consider this: If cleaning services are a process, why does it make sense to only see the start, the finish and the result decided by perception? Without visibility into the entire process, true efficiency and effectiveness cannot be achieved.
Robot integration
Robotics provide another key component in the evolving landscape of cleaning solutions. Collaborative robots (cobots) are named as such because they are designed to work alongside humans rather than replace us, as we have seen them do across industrial settings over the past 40 years. They perform with a significant level of autonomy but are only really effective as part of a robot-human team. Vacuum cleaner cobots perform the mundane, time-consuming tasks that don’t require the skills unique to humans. In a hotel, for example, the vacuum cleaner cobot might be responsible for the communal corridors or conference areas, freeing cleaners to focus on more detailed tasks such as cleaning guest bedrooms, dealing with areas inaccessible to the cobots, or assisting as part of the broader facilities management guest experience offering.
The way cobots learn a cleaning route is a great example of this collaboration in action. The machine needs a human operator to ‘teach’ it a specific route in the first instance, but the cobot will continue to learn the route autonomously on each successive occasion, making it that little bit more efficient every time. If the cobot requires maintenance, such as a bag change or battery recharge, it will also alert the cleaner to take the necessary actions.
Still, anyone taking advantage of cobots has a responsibility to ease any anxieties or challenges cleaning teams may have.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
The key is to communicate their benefits to the cleaners, the broader FM operation and the customer. Managers should explain how the cobots can help deliver a better cleaning service, and the results should speak for themselves.
Cobots can also be integrated with the broader smart building operation. The in-built software-as-a-service capability of the cobot captures data and insights for each route. This includes real-time data on dirt levels, frequency of use, an overview of past and present routes, how long they took to run, the number of assists required and maps outlining both trained and autonomously run routes. With this strategic approach, FM companies can gain comprehensive visibility into the whole holistic cleaning process, leading to a transformation which not only enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning operations but also provides an unprecedented level of insight that can be shared with stakeholders.
In the era of smart buildings, the transformation of cleaning operations through comprehensive data gathering and analysis is not just an option – it’s a necessity. The contract cleaning industry is going through a pivotal moment. Companies in the space are experiencing a combination of chronic and acute challenges. The inability to measure performance effectively leaves the service susceptible to budget cuts, while providers are now wrestling with an ongoing staffing shortage.
Technology, especially in the form of sensors, cobots and data analytics, can help in several crucial ways – by supporting understaffed teams, creating a more dynamic service in which providers can find efficiencies at no expense to the quality of the clean, and demonstrating the incredible work that cleaning companies do to keep modern buildings healthy, safe and comfortable.
A technological revolution is coming.
To find out more, please get in touch with the SoftBank Robotics team at the website below.
emea.softbankrobotics.com
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