Smart cleaning with intelligent robots

As innovations in cleaning reach new heights, equipment manufacturers have ventured to the most advanced cleaning in systems using robots. Dr Ilham Kadri, President, Diversey Care – VP and Officer, SealedAir in an exclusive interview with Mohana M speaks on the award winning sci-fi turned reality that could revolutionise the whole cleaning methodology. Excerpts:

Diversey won two awards – Amsterdam Award for Augmented Reality for the best innovation in its category and the overall Innovation Award of the year. Please share your feeling at this juncture?

We are honoured to receive the ISSA Interclean awards, which is like winning an ‘Oscar’ and that too in two categories – one for ‘Augmented Reality’, a disruptive technology applied for cleaning and hygiene, and another for the best innovation. My team deserves the award for all the hard work put in for more than three years listening to global and regional customers and then developing the right solutions to resolve their pain points and respond to their needs.

 

[box type=”shadow” ]The reason behind acquiring Intellibot is the artificial intelligence. We wanted a machine, which can map a volume by itself and that can learn and re-learn. We are extremely proud of having Intellibot in our portfolio. [/box]

Intelli consult, Intelli flow, Intellibot, Robotics… What is the intelligence behind the ‘Intelli’ concept?

I am extremely dogmatic about bringing more intelligence in the way we do cleaning. First of all, the cleaning industry is the second biggest employer after the government authorities. We believe that this industry employs more than 800 million cleaners with 70% of them being either illiterate or who do not speak their native language. Apart from the few who wanted to remain with the cleaning industry, the majority of the rest have left after finding another job. The industry is facing 70% turnover in human capital which is self-explanatory.

Hence, it is necessary to build the pride in our industry and restore the value of clean. The problem with cleaning is that it is invisible. One can see it when it gets dirty and therefore, it is too late. We want to turn this invisible into visible and honour our invisible heroes – ‘the cleaners’. They are not just cleaning our floor or toilet, they are actually saving our lives. As per statistics, one in 16 in the US is subjected to food poisoning. The foremost reason of food poisoning is lack of hand hygiene. For example, one enters the hospital thinking it is safe and yet catches infection or disease. This is what we call hospital acquired infection (HAI) which is costing the US economy $33 billion and Europe $16 billion every year. Putting all this together, we believed that there is a need to bring more intelligence into the cleaning space and make our cleaners connected with cleaning machines. Intelligent machines have dispensers fitted with chips which tell us the soap levels, water consumption, energy intake, resources consumption and so on. It is intelligent and equipped with GPS to detect obstructions and this way we can manage fleets of our customers.

The reason behind acquiring Intellibot is the artificial intelligence. We wanted a machine, which can map out the environment by itself and that can learn and re-learn. We are extremely proud of having Intellibot in our portfolio. It is a technology, which can save up to 75% of water and energy, make a difference where you have scarcity of cleaning resources or where the dollar per hour cost of cleaning reaches to $20 to $30 like in Australia, New York or Switzerland or Amsterdam and the return on investment (ROI) is less than 12 months.

There have been some industry sectors which intelligence system is directly targeted to, like the food safety monitoring and management in India.

Food safety is now changing from just being a commodity checklist. Almost all players for decades have been focusing on customer inspection and compliance check. What we are bringing into the market is from a very different perspective. Food poisoning has to be prevented before it happens. Once it happens, it is too late. One may have already lost customers and lost reputation. So, we have the intelligent and smart consultancy systems – IntelliConsult – which not only conducts smart and safety inspections but also ensures food waste management from farm to fork. For example, when highly perishable commodities such as cheese, ham, food or meat received in large portions are further cut down to smaller portions, no one gets down to check the expiry date of these portions. This is what we are proposing with IntelliConsult.

We allow the chef, kitchen crew and regular food employees in the retail stores to actually manage their food. The foremost thing is to manage inventory because the big bill in retail store comes from food waste. Today, with all the scarcity of food and water, it is a shame to waste. There should be zero tolerance for food waste like zero tolerance for food poisoning.

[box type=”shadow” ]How do you see these intelligent systems fit in the Indian marketplace?

The Clean India movement started by the government is amazing and it gave me a tipping point in the way I looked at cleaning business, as the standards of hygiene and cleaning in emerging markets like India can be up to 1/10th of what it is in Europe and the US. So there is room to do better. When I see the society now embracing Clean India, there is a shift in the outlook towards healthier and cleaner future. India is now interlinking cleaning, hygiene and health. You cannot have a sustainable and healthier life without good cleaning and hygiene practices. So this is a beginning driven with a purpose in a society and it can thus happen. We directly identify with it, as Diversey is already present in India and catering to thousands of customers.

One of our biggest R&D centers is in Mumbai and we are turning it from being India’s local innovative center into a global one. The Mumbai facility is now exporting innovation and technology to other sectors around the world. India firstly is an opportunity because it has human capital and we have the know how and expertise to invest and export from India. [/box]

There have been some industry sectors which intelligence system is directly targeted to, like the food safety monitoring and management in India.

Food safety is now changing from just being a commodity checklist. Almost all players for decades have been focusing on customer inspection and compliance check. What we are bringing into the market is from a very different perspective. Food poisoning has to be prevented before it happens. Once it happens, it is too late. One may have already lost customers and lost reputation. So, we have the intelligent and smart consultancy systems – IntelliConsult – which not only conducts smart and safety inspections but also ensures food waste management from farm to fork. For example, when highly perishable commodities such as cheese, ham, food or meat received in large portions are further cut down to smaller portions, no one gets down to check the expiry date of these portions. This is what we are proposing with IntelliConsult.

We allow the chef, kitchen crew and regular food employees in the retail stores to actually manage their food. The foremost thing is to manage inventory because the big bill in retail store comes from food waste. Today, with all the scarcity of food and water, it is a shame to waste. There should be zero tolerance for food waste like zero tolerance for food poisoning.

How are you planning to provide intelligent training in India?   

We have developed e-learning system for illiterate people or employees, who do not speak their native language. The e-learning is available in 27 languages sector wise for hospitality service contractor, for kitchen or food service sector, etc. We also have sector based video from 30 second to less than a minute shot in
the perspective of the cleaner or the facility manager and in their language. This has won us the Augmented Reality prize.

Augmented Reality is about looking at your equipment as it appears in 3D and learning how to troubleshoot your equipment, eventually turning an unskilled person into a skilled professional. Augmented Reality has been used in many industries like automotive and aeronautic. When we brought the concept into the cleaning industry three-years ago and started working on it, some people thought that it is a science fiction and not something for hygiene and cleaning as people are very conservative and may not pay for it. But now Augmented Reality is here and is going to cater to many sectors in the cleaning and hygiene industry. In a way it will revolutionise our space and training methodology.

You have turned a fiction into reality. What is the next fiction that you are working on?

For me, it is all about understanding the ‘why’ factor – the purpose of why we are in this business; who are our employees; why are we doing all this. It is not about selling chemicals, machines, tools or equipment but it is about saving lives, about preventing food poisoning in the restaurants or about labour productivity for our building service contractor because 80% of the cost is labour and there is a scarcity for cleaning resources. So the ‘why’ needs to be kept in mind. We will develop more technologies and intelligence systems that will work hand in hand with the cleaners. The robot is going to work with the cleaners and allow the cleaners to do more value added activity. We are going to unveil other opportunities in the cleaning industry.

[box type=”shadow” ]e-learning is available in 27 languages sector wise for hospitality service contractor, for kitchen or food service sector, etc. We also have sector based video from 30 second to less than a minute shot in the perspective of the cleaner or the facility manager and in their language. [/box]

All industries in the world be it automotive, marine, aeronautic or the paint or clothing have gone through that evolution. I believe now comes the time that the cleaning industry and hygiene sector re-imagine itself and create more value for customers and their customers and for ourselves to prepare better and healthier future for our kids and future generation.