Tony Chazhoor
Customers now make an informed decision about cleaning machines and tools, matching their requirements to the features of a product. Tony Chazhoor, MD, IP Cleaning India draws the connections between educated choices and economics.
As offices and commercial spaces reopen, areas that require special attention are high footfall areas and frequently touched surfaces. In order to provide effective and safe results, systematic cleaning and sanitisation at workplaces and in public transport will require trained housekeeping personnel. Time management is another critical aspect, given the additional sanitisation and disinfection tasks that are to be performed to mitigate health risks. Technology in housekeeping can further help deploy the resources in an optimised manner and increase efficiency.
Modular machines like retrofittable vacuum cleaners, auto scrubbers and sweepers that can be used not only to clean but also spray sanitisers and disinfectants over small or large areas, will be in vogue.
Steam cleaners clean without the need for aggressive chemicals. Steam has degreasing, sanitising and disinfecting action on the surfaces being cleaned. It drastically reduces the microbial load on a surface. The use of steam cleaning equipment is both ecologically friendly and economically sound. Hence, steam generators shall be the preferred choice in eateries, hotels, hospitals, and public places.
In healthcare facilities, the risk of cross-contamination and nosocomial infections remains high. To prevent such scenarios, hospitals and related facilities are shifting from regular mops to disposable mops, employing pre-treat systems and smart and instant disinfection suite trolleys.
Microfibre cloths and mops have an excellent quality/price ratio, strong cleaning power and effectiveness as compared to traditional cleaning methods. They are highly effective on micro-grime, and also very effective in removing large amounts of bacteria from smooth surfaces when used with water. Microfibre will see an increase in demand.
Automation ensures reduced operational costs, that man-hours are used with maximum efficiency, and that resources are used in the best possible configuration.
Employing machines with tracking systems helps monitor the machine fleet and keep track of parameters like location, machine usage time, productivity in terms of area cleaned, machine downtime, battery usage and charging cycles etc. The monitoring team can analyse the data and plan workforce and fleet deployment schedule and maintenance.
Another option, which is economical, is to have SD cards fitted into the machines, which can be taken out and have machine usage data analysed on a computer.
The increased mechanisation methods employed by large FM players are not only making cleaning more productive, safe, and reliable but also gradually eroding the taboo associated with cleaning in India.