From robotics to UV light rays, innovations in commercial cleaning continue to become more advanced and increasingly efficient.
Here are five cutting-edge ideas for facility managers looking to boost the effectiveness of their cleaning operations while lowering their annual spending.
- Robotic cleaning
According to CMM Online, the need for janitors and custodians is expected to increase 7% by 2028 – faster than the average for all other career occupations. This growing need for cleaning staff presents a challenge to businesses and employers searching for an efficient way to keep their buildings well-maintained.
The introduction of automated cleaning technology gives facility managers an opportunity to meet the ongoing needs of facilities without sacrificing the integrity of a good clean.
Benefits:
- Consistency of cleaning. One of the many benefits of robotics is a predictable outcome, regardless of day, time, or circumstance. When utilizing robotics to maintain your facility, you can count on a consistent level of sanitation performance, time after time.
- Optimize workforce time and energy. Rather than employ your team to perform streamlined tasks that could be automated out, allow them to focus on high-contact areas in need of more detailed attention.
- Lower labor costs. While the initial investment into a robotic cleaning tool isn’t likely to be cheap, the startup costs will pay for themselves over time. By employing a robotic tool to attend to facility maintenance, you will reduce the cost of human labor and experience a return on investment in as little as a few years.
- Smart systems and apps
Long before a facility member arrives onsite to clean or repair, they need to know where to go and what needs done. The rise of digital applications allows cleaning crews and repairmen to clearly visualize and understand tasks ahead of time, so they can arrive prepared.
Cleaning technologies like SpaceWell and Leviy offer facility management platforms that operate as digital dashboards for pending tasks, helping cleaning crews to track projects to completion. By integrating janitorial services across one digital platform, facility managers can clearly see areas of need and mark them resolved once the task is finished.
Benefits:
- Project transparency. Easily read and understand the scope of a task across synced devices and update the status of a task along the way.
- Increased visualization. Clearly see and locate open projects using applications that sync with the floor layout of your office or building.
- Electrolyzed water/electrostatic cleaning
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new challenge to facility managers and cleaning crews looking to optimize the safety of businesses and office workers. One way of thoroughly disinfecting indoor surfaces is with electrostatic cleaning.
By balancing negative and positive ions to create an electrically charged mist, electrostatic cleaning creates an invisible barrier on objects to kill bacteria and viruses on contact. The spray activates around two hours post-application and can last up to several weeks.
Benefits:
- Quick, stress-free application. Applies chemicals in a more efficient manner, eliminating wasted product and covering hard-to-reach areas with ease. Lockers, grates, mesh lining and barred surfaces all receive an even coating, every time.
- Apply to nearly any surface. Electrostatic cleaning is safe for a variety of hard surfaces such as metal, wood, paint, tile, and linoleum, making it versatile and hassle-free.
- Self-cleaning with nanotechnology
High-traffic touchpoints are the leading cause for cross-contamination and allow bacteria to easily move from surface to surface. Nanotechnology, or the use of self-cleaning surfaces, helps reduce the transmission of harmful viruses and dirt on contact points such as handles, railings, switches, and locks.
Powered by light, nanotechnology employs microcrystals to create a surface reaction that traps and destroys containments without additional cleaning.
Benefits:
- Eliminate manual cleaning. By replacing a traditional hard surface with nanotechnology, janitorial services and cleaning crews can clean for surface defects rather than to disinfect.
- Safe and non-toxic. Nanotechnology contains no heavy metals or poisons, making it safe to touch and free of harmful byproducts.
- UV-C light
Designed to kill up to 99.99% of harmful surface and airborne pathogens, UV-C light is an efficient and elegant solution to disinfecting surfaces and entire rooms in mere minutes.
Using hospital-grade UV-C power, janitorial services and office cleaning crews can sustainably eliminate bacteria and viruses such as e-coli, influenza, and coronavirus.
Benefits:
- Reduce labor and clean time. By employing a UV-C light model, cleaning crews can reduce time spent disinfecting surfaces and focus on more detailed high-contact areas and cosmetic cleaning.
- Efficiently disinfect large areas in minutes. UV-C light can be placed in the center of a room or office and be left unattended to disinfect the area.
Vanguard Cleaning Systems customizes janitorial cleaning services that meet your facility’s cleaning requirements.