Cinderella goes to business school

Cleaning facilities may not be a Cinderella service anymore, but how do you ensure it’s cost-effective? By measuring productivity and testing cleanliness scientifically, says James White, Managing Director of Denis Rawlins Limited.

In just about every type of building, from schools and hospitals to offices and shopping centres, cleaning no longer tends to be seen as a Cinderella service.

Increasingly it’s recognised that this is an essential service, fundamental to the safe, smooth running of any facility, business or organisation. And cleaning regimes are being planned, monitored and managed accordingly.

The industry is to be commended for its rising standards of professionalism, but can we take the next step? How do we know, and show, that cleaning is cost-effective?

On the cost side, it’s relatively simple to track and tot up what’s spent on labour, materials and chemicals. For floorcare especially, it’s easy to divide by the area cleaned to get a fair indication of productivity and average unit cost.

But the true effectiveness of cleaning is harder to gauge objectively. Also, how do you factor in the effect of cleaning on the life of a flooring surface and its maintenance costs? And what about equipment running costs and benchmarking different cleaning systems?

Based on our 40 years’ experience advising and supplying facilities managers and cleaning contractors, we at Denis Rawlins Limited help clients answer these questions and rise to the challenge of cost-effective cleaning.

A facility audit is the cornerstone of our approach. This includes a review of existing floor cleaning processes and machinery.

As for cleaning effectiveness, we test for cleanliness scientifically. We do this with ATP testing equipment, which accurately measures levels of adenosine triphosphate, the universal marker for animal, bacterial and mould cells.

Based on the results of our audit and testing, we can then make recommendations on cleaning processes and equipment that will save on costs and improve cleaning performance.

This free service also includes a demonstration of the recommended machinery on site, so its effectiveness can also be tested.

As an independent cleaning equipment supplier, we have tried and tested a wide range of cleaning machines and materials. Denis Rawlins Limited is not wedded to one system, so we can recommend the best solution for each situation.

As we campaign for a more professional, scientific approach to cleaning, we have found a new ally in Kaivac, which is leading the way in the US with science-based, cost-effective cleaning.

The Kaivac No Touch Cleaning^® system has been shown to be both highly productive and effective in eliminating the potentially harmful pathogens that dwell on floors and other surfaces.

In a single platform, this system combines pressure washing, chemical spraying and wet vacuuming of the rinsed residue, along with other tools.

In tests, No Touch Cleaning^® proved to be up to 30 times more effective at eliminating bacteria than microfibre mopping; and double that for traditional mopping. And it took between a third and half the time taken to mop the same areas.

The system is also multi-purpose, and can be adapted for carpets as well as hard floors. Different Kaivac models cater for the cleaning needs of facilities, according to their size and how intensely they’re used.

We also recognise that the cleaning needs of some facilities evolve, depending on various factors, including in-house expertise and, of course, budget. The OmniFlex™ cleaning system, also developed by Kaivac, makes it possible to customise a cost-effective cleaning system for virtually any building or flooring surface in it.

OmniFlex™ is a ‘crossover’ system that allows the user to build from simple, sound manual floor cleaning to a mechanised hygienic system, while keeping tight control of costs.

The foundation is a versatile Trolley-Bucket that avoids the pitfalls of traditional mopping. It dispenses solution accurately, reducing chemical costs drastically, and it improves results by ensuring only fresh, clean solution is used.

The OmniFlex™ Trolley-Bucket can be upgraded with full-featured micofibre cleaning, pressure-washing and wet/dry vacuuming capabilities as the cleaning regime evolves.

In conclusion, we believe our approach and these cleaning systems enable managers to make informed decisions that balance the costs and effectiveness of floorcare in their facilities.

www.rawlins.co.uk/kaivactcfs

Published in Tomorrow’s Cleaning Floorcare Supplement – March 2015