Managing Challenges

Managing a mall of the magnitude of Ambience gives immense satisfaction,” says Vijay Aima, Vice-President, Operations, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon.

What are the challenges faced in mall maintenance?

Mall management is a new concept in India. People from all over, even from cities like Chandigarh flocked in when the first mall opened up in Gurgaon. The coming up of Ambience as the biggest mall – an atrium and almost a kilometre of mall area with different shops all under one roof – was something people had not visualised in India before. There is a minimum benchmark – be it stores, housekeeping, security, the entire facility management or overall upkeep that has to be maintained. A lot of planning goes into this so that a quality product, along with quality service is provided to the customer. There are challenges that go with having footfalls as high as 100,000 people over weekends, which involve cleaning round the clock. The big challenges and stress points are in the food court and the washrooms which require specialised maintenance. We use products from Diversey and others – R3 for glass cleaning, R4 for polishing and R5 for spraying. The marble floors too demand special processes and chemicals. People with the expertise and aptitude are involved in the cleaning process.

What cleaning equipment are being used?

We have the ride-on machines which are used inside the malls. We are planning to invest in bigger models of ride-on sweepers and scrubbers with a capacity to clean up to 10,000sqm per hour. These machines brush and suck the dust as well, so they leave the place clean, especially outside and the basements. We also use high end vacuum cleaners with special brushes, special chemicals and scrubs for cleaning escalators. The Articulating boom machine has been procured involving an investment of `40 lakhs, for cleaning at heights. The ‘Z’ bend of the lift enables better cleaning. At present we are using a US-made straight vertical machine that goes up 40 feet, used just for glass cleaning purposes. Besides maintaining the mall, maintaining these machines in the hands of trained operators is equally important.

We do not use any chemicals that are not good for the environment. Earlier, a lot of water being used for surface cleaning in the basements and outside has now reduced. Our intent to invest on these machines is not just to increase the level of cleanliness, but also to pay attention to the environment.

What about your washrooms?

There are totally 83 washrooms (32 gents, 31 ladies and 20 handicapped) in the mall. The water that is used in the washrooms, except for hand washing, is recycled water. We have treatment plants put up for this. There are quality compliance checks and other specific checks to determine the appropriate level of hardness in the recycled water. This helps us conserve and save water. Air purifiers, fresheners and exhaust systems are all in place. We have customers of different temperaments and different backgrounds and it is one of the biggest challenges in the malls to keep the washrooms clean.

You may be outsourcing most of your facility management requirements?

For the planning part, we use the consultants, be it the integrated facility management or soft service or just security. As it is, we have four vendors in housekeeping alone. Sheel Real Estate and Facility Management Co, Jupiter Hospitality Services(P) Ltd, Corporate/Sachan Security and Varsed Services (P) Ltd.One vendor is only for cleaning glass façade from the outside. Another takes care of the periphery/perimeter outside of the mall. Two vendors are engaged in cleaning with in the mall.

Cleaning is divided into two segments. When we select a company, it is not just for its capabilities, but we also look at the way workers are groomed. It’s not only that they have to be skilled in cleaning; they also have to look presentable as they are moving about in the mall. Our internal teams of executives, managers, specialists and supervisors monitor all the activities. The janitors outsourced are not on our rolls but they work hand-in-glove with our staff as a team. Jones Lang LaSalle, the mall consultant for Ambience, does critical analysis. They also audit and monitor the schedules.

You have levels of supervision internally?

Like any organisational structure, we have different levels of hierarchy – houseboy, supervisor, executive, senior executive, assistant manager, manager, chief manager, DGM and GM. Each level is well structured so that all the operations are carried out and the duties are well defined. Each person knows what is expected from him or her. We value our employees because they are a precious resource, who keep the place up and shining.

As a policy, the welfare and well being of employees is always a priority. For example, when we ask the boys to clean the facades, we insist on necessary certifications of the equipment we procure. Every day as the boys come down, the rope and the harness he wears are inspected. The safety of the boys is not compromised come what may. Extreme care is taken to ensure the safety of the staff working.

Can you throw some light on the SOPs followed and the SLAs?

All the details of operations are put down in the SOPs. For example, what a person does from the time he gets on to the job, when and how he does it, are all well defined. Appropriate training for using and maintaining equipment is given to operators. For example, the mechanical sweepers, we define the number of times the machine should go over a spot or the number of times it has to go around the outer area every day. How often glasses are to be cleaned, how they have to be cleaned, what tools are needed and the right concentration of chemicals to be mixed are all specified and scheduled. They just can’t take up a cloth and start cleaning. So it is the planning, the procurement of material, the mixing of chemicals, getting the right people, training and keeping them motivated that has to be taken into care.

The SOPSs are based on the professional knowledge and skills that have a scientific have been put together by experts based on top hotels benchmarks. The SOPs form the basis of the SLAs which are subsequently determined with the different service providers to maintain and sustain those standards. We also have our teams who act as auditors and carry out periodic checks to oversee the implementation of the SOPs in totality. As an organisation, we go to a great level and invest heavily in maintaining those standards.

For example, deep cleaning is defined in the SOPs. One type of deep cleaning is done every night. The same duties that were done as spring cleaning during the day, is done thoroughly at night. During the night, the whole floor is scrubbed in a different manner. Then there is a periodic level of deep cleaning. There are certain activities for certain areas such as glass in the high rise buildings or in the atrium that require thorough cleaning once a week, or a fortnight or in a month.

After all this planning, do you still see any gaps?

You see, this is an activity that never ends. Our team keeps it spotless and then you can have a child who comes along and drops an ice cream on the floor. It may take seconds or even minutes before someone even notices that an ice cream has fallen down on the floor, and it may be another minute or so before a houseboy comes to clean it. We try and minimise this delay by defining how frequently a houseboy will be traversing that area. It may take a few minutes, but it is all planned and will not take a long time. On Saturdays and Sundays it becomes a task to keep the floor area clean.

There are about 350 to 400 people employed in the three different shifts, though it is not uniformly distributed between shifts. The night shift where deep cleaning is done has fewer workers. Morning shift has the highest number of workers, as they have to get the mall ready for the day. In the afternoon and evening shifts workers sustain the level of cleanliness. The numbers remain the same and all the seven days the standards of cleanliness and housekeeping are the same. We are in the service industry where the customer comes first. The customer may not even know that he is doing something that he shouldn’t be doing. Other than making a request, we really don’t do much. But from what I see, the people who come here are educated, so our challenges on that account are not that bad. But we have thousands of children visiting and we have our own built in mechanisms to take care of that. It is a continuous process and there will be challenges.

This mall prides itself on the commitment that the management has defined. Our Chairman cum Managing Director, Raj Singh Gehlot, and Director, Dayanand Singh Gehlot had a dream of setting up this mall. It is nice to see hundred thousand people one Sunday and again on the next Sunday.