Preeti Redhu, Deputy General Manager, GWS & Property Management, CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd
Preeti Redhu, Deputy General Manager, GWS & Property Management, CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd was given the mandate of reducing reliance on manpower-based interventions. Here’s how she achieved it.
What was the problem that needed to be solved?
We specifically looked for alternate solutions to have less dependency on manpower and at the same time, increase efficiency.
How was the problem being handled earlier, and why was this not satisfactory?
Until now, the cleaning industry has functioned in the traditional way of being labour-intensive. The manual cleaning method has always been associated with disadvantages like human error, the need for constant supervision, attrition levels and the necessity of tracking the efficiency of people.
While not everything can be addressed with technology, there is tremendous scope for optimisation and bringing in efficiency through technology. Even today in our industry, there has been very little focus on technical solutions. This thought process is now beginning to change as companies of all sizes and across industries are looking for solutions that can optimise their cleaning programs.
How did you assess potential solutions?
We assessed the different areas in which technology could be successfully utilised to the customer’s benefit. After careful evaluation and our vast industry experience, we collaborated with our partners to curate and introduce solutions that could help us in adding value to our service deliverables by meeting sustainability goals, improving levels of hygiene, better monitoring and an improved supervision mechanism, and reduced manual dependency.
What technological interventions did you choose, and why?
Digital checklist: These checklists enable you to monitor all activities on a real-time basis, thus resulting in better safety, compliance and efficiency. The checklist appears at a click of a button and can be digitally customised as per the site requirement. Not to mention, the biggest advantage of going paperless is the contribution to the environment. One can see the overall picture of the site at any given point in time with the help of insightful dashboards.
Shift from a headcount-based model to outcome-based services: By leveraging technology through IoT. This has truly revolutionised the way cleaning tasks were performed. There is a switch over to a demand-based approach to cleaning to ensure optimal levels of hygiene; planned cleaning instead of scheduled cleaning.
Optimisation and timely replenishment of refills has helped eliminate waste by reducing the likelihood of premature refills.
Configurable Alerts for Proactive Maintenance have taken maintenance to another level; from proactive to predictive maintenance, lowering maintenance costs. Internet-connected customer feedback devices can alert cleaning teams in real time when a problem occurs.
Cleaning robots: We have been able to successfully bridge technology and cleaning through robotics. This technology has been a game-changer through improved efficiency and cost reduction, and brought performance management and analytics to real-world tasks. There is also the added benefit that proven performance data will help elevate and standardise the health and cleanliness of all properties.
