The Economy of Clean

If you were to chart the development of the economy of cleaning over recent years you would see huge increases in the precise measurement of all cost elements such as consumables, productivity, equipment, labour and utilities.

Like most processes drilling into the detail of both the requirement and the cost and quality of the solution provides surprising insights that if acted upon can facilitate significant cost savings. Sophisticated management processes, largely driven by competitive advantage, have evolved to ensure the best possible delivery at the lowest cost base. All elements of the variable may need effecting to achieve the desired result with labour costs versus productivity being particularly relevant.

Any professional supplier to the cleaning sector has had to rise to this challenge. As a result we now see some excellent product and service solutions that could hardly have been dreamed of previously.

The Nilfisk Group is no exception here, tasking their development teams with looking at the development of products from a users perspective with environmental, ergonomic and economic ramifications.

Water is a significant cleaning cost with substantial amounts of water used in addition to chemical agents. Recently there has been an increase in the amount of green cleaning offers from machine manufacturers.

Nilfisk believes however that many such systems neglect cleaning performance, the Ecoflex concept challenges the landscape of sustainable cleaning.

The Nilfisk team developing the Ecoflex system knew they needed to balance the environmental impact with a clean result. Health and Safety considerations remained critical at all times. Many establishments now look to use the minimum amount of chemical but chemical free is not always possible unless the client is prepared to compromise on the result.

The Ecoflex concept allows the operator of the machine to match the machines performance to the level of soiling and the required level of clean.

On start up the machine starts in Ecoflex mode and uses minimum amounts of water, chemical and power. On encountering a soiled area the operator activates a one minute burst of power for extra performance. The machine then moves automatically back into Ecoflex mode retaining the flexibility for more aggressive cleaning when required.

This level of flexibility removes the need to double scrub and guarantees results against alternative one size fits all options.

The onboard chemical dispensing system delivers precisely measured concentrated chemical that is mixed with water at the brush deck. The chemical system can be turned off in an instant allowing plain water cleaning without the need to dump unused solution.

Precisely measured chemical usage removes the old age “glug glug“ issue and minimises operators handling of potentially harmful chemicals.

Another subject that has received considerable economic focus is Day Time Cleaning. Utility costs have escalated and all professional facilities are looking to reduce their usage. Most commercial buildings continue to consume energy throughout the night. Electrical equipment is often left on and heat and power are provided for cleaning and maintenance teams. Introduction of day time janitors between the hours of 8 am to 5 pm effectively eliminates the need for energy use outside of traditional hours.

Complete evening closure can enable a building to be ‘turned off’ for 10 hours at night – 42% of each day.

Needless to say this results in a huge energy saving estimated to be 28%, a total of £173,000 for a 300,000 square feet facility. (0.55 pence per square foot).

There are many other advantages of cleaning in the day; fewer supervisors are required and productivity is usually greater with ‘visible’ staff working within the general building team.

Those who have implemented day time cleaning successfully site a greater feeling of responsibility amongst all employees in the facility. Instead of being ‘out of sight, out of mind’ seeing the work done encourages staff to clean up after themselves. Staff complaints about cleaning standards are much reduced.

The day time cleaning team inevitably becomes part of the greater team. Personnel remain on first name terms and camaraderie develops between them. As a result job satisfaction is higher resulting in longer serving cleaning staff and reduced recruitment costs.

Equipment choice is of course critical and this is where Nilfisk’s development focus has paid off.