Responsible buyers and facility managers should know where savings are coming from. If your due diligence isn’t uncovering optimization opportunities in management processes, then your savings may be more of a shell game than actual, realized cost savings.
Focus on production
With commercial janitorial services, production rate is the single most important factor in determining cost. A production rate is defined mathematically as output divided by input. In the case of cleaning, janitorial service production is the amount of square footage covered (in an hour) divided by the total hours worked.
Two things influence production rates: Human speed and mechanical speed.
Human speed is the rate at which janitors clean. A number of factors determine the rate at which professional cleaners move through the facility, including:
- Cleaning process
- Cleaning technique
- Cleaner’s motivation
- Building architecture and design
- Scope of work
- Management and supervision intervention
Take for example microfiber technology. Microfiber can offer significant production rate improvements by cutting out actions like “saturating a surface with chemical”. The labor required to remove the chemical is reduced, leading to gain in production. It is also much faster and more effective to wipe and remove chemical or soil from a surface than other products like paper or cotton towels.
Want to learn more? Call MaintenX today!
