Edward Dsouza, President, ServiceMaster India
This interview pulls out all the stops. If there is any one place to acquaint yourself with the most modern approach towards Integrated Facilities Management, it is this. Edward Dsouza, President, ServiceMaster India opens up about everything from new-age disinfection techniques to protecting the staff that performs them, reducing machine downtime to how digitisation helps achieve this. What’s more, he offers a window into the future of FM itself.
What new approaches have you adopted for cleaning and hygiene?
ServiceMaster successfully rolled out the Smart Surface Disinfection Program (SSDP) during the first wave itself, replacing the traditional mop-and-bucket system of cleaning. This technology incorporates the latest microfibre carts with pre-wet systems, replacing standard cleaning agents with lab-tested disinfectants to ensure an infection-free, hygienic environment. This is validated through a digital swab test method to verify the sterile status.
We have also introduced the Antimicrobial Surface Treatment ‘Life Shield’. Once properly applied, this potent technology keeps the space sterile and infection transmission-free for the next 90 days. This is again validated through an instant swab test to verify microbial load per square inch.
Additionally, ServiceMaster offers Indoor Air Quality solutions by harnessing the power of UVC in the HVAC and air filtration system, sterilising the air that we breathe in an enclosed, centrally air-conditioned environment. For individual, isolated and people-concentrated areas, ServiceMaster has launched Upper Room Germicidal UV which creates a mesh above 8 ft and decontaminates the air of suspended microbes.
How are your various services integrated on a digital platform?
With our CMMS-based management software, managing a company on a single platform can be not just efficient but also low-cost, productive and more streamlined. Although CMMS is mainly used to manage maintenance and repairs, it can also efficiently manage human resources, budgets, service requests and maintenance activities, and generate the necessary reports.
It automates every minute aspect of facilities management, leaving the user with more time to dedicate to the organisation. It also gives managers a better view of the real-time efficiency of the facility and workflow bottlenecks on a single screen at
any time.
What is your strategy for predictive machine maintenance??
Energy management is not about making drastic changes to your manufacturing environment. It is about making small and sustainable changes that help the organisation and the environment in the long run. This is where predictive and preventive machine maintenance (PPM), both proactive in nature, are carried out in the wake of machine upkeep to eliminate risk of breakdown.
Let us say our team prepares a 52-week PPM schedule and tracker for each machine, which is fed into the CMSS automated operating tool for real-time status monitoring and to set alerts and reminders for execution. The necessary work order and approvals are system-generated for better accountability and records.
Pre-defined predictive maintenance procedures/tests are fed in to guide the technician during execution. Change of spares/details of activity/parameter settings etc are recorded in the PPM completion report.
Post this, PPM reports are reviewed by our subject matter experts for internal validation and remarks. The real-time PPM status is notified to the concerned team to ensure safe usage of the machine. Before and After PPM results are compared to gauge machine performance.
Tell us about a major challenge the company encountered recently, and how it went about overcoming this?
We serve 400+ hospitals in India. Serving the healthcare sector during the pandemic is challenging. Our real-time response and strategy included:
- Arranging essential services pass orders/PPE for employees to attend duty.
- Disinfecting and sanitising private transport in-house during lockdown.
- Creation of Covid welfare fund for staff and family to keep them motivated on financial grounds.
- Setting up a Covid response team locally to extend quick emergency support to client/staff and family.
- Periodic online training on Do’s and Don’ts at work and home.
- Arranging on-site food and accommodation for employees to avoid unnecessary movement.
- Priority RT PCR testing of suspected symptoms to control possibility of spread.
- Setting up an early vaccination drive.
- Arranging transport for our janitors, security staff and maintenance team to attend their duty when the public transport system was not functional. We hired dedicated transport and sometimes used sanitised personal vehicles for routing man and machine.
- Arranging replacements for staff who fell sick or migrated to their villages, particularly when the existing service agency stopped supporting the customer.
What new offerings can we expect from ServiceMaster in the coming days?
- CMSS and automated IFM business operations
- Technology shift from cleaning to hygiene
- Including air cleaning & hygiene over surface/floor cleaning
- Segment-specific services and SME solutions
- Per square foot service model for every segment
- AMC/retrofit projects
- ESCOs consultancy and remedial project executions
- Data centre-specific IFM service solutions
- Solar panel mass cleaning and maintenance program
- Open access power solutions
- Residential Inventory Management Application
What is ServiceMaster’s roadmap for the future? What segments will drive growth?
Our Vision 2025 is based on a delivery shift from services to solutions. This encompasses delivering a complete package of IFM through self-delivery model and zero outsource, owning complete accountability of service delivery at customer spaces.
We are closely targeting the manufacturing, retail, hospitality & healthcare, education & residential segments. Our SIS group companies have a footprint and 251 branch offices across 630 districts in India. The company offers monthly equated value addition back to its customer, directly or indirectly through service deliveries, which is a unique return back proposition to SIS companies’ customers.
2.42 lakhs of our frontline employees are double-vaccinated within a reasonable timeframe; this shows our preparedness to battle any adverse situation which may hamper our customers’ business. We are there to protect our customers in every domain.
