bidding & estimating Technology Steals The Show Emerging trends and themes from ISSA/INTERCLEAN Amsterdam. By: William R. Griffin T The ISSA/INTERCLEAN Show in Amster-dam ended on May 9, 2014, with an offi-cial 29,325 people attending the four-day event to visit the 696 exhibition booths and five seminars. Overall it was a great show that was well attended and full of examples of evolving and new technology. Two of the subtle yet key emerging themes I noticed were communications and transparency. As for communications, the concept is that machines, workers and spaces are be-ginning to be connected via cell phones and wireless networks. As for transparency, the reality is that there is no place to hide; smartphones, GPS modules, sensors of all kinds and video/ audio monitoring are now able to track, re-port and analyze a growing number of in-put data points about the work being done each day and the cleaners doing it. The reason that I attend the ISSA/INTER-CLEAN Amsterdam and other international shows is that the technology, chemicals and equipment on display at these events end up being promoted as the latest tech-nology by manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. over the next three to five years Here’s what you can expect to see over the next few years in a janitor closet near you. Beyond that, consider the equipment being able to analyze the water coming off the floor and adjusting the speed, pressure and detergent concentration automatically or remotely. Take another leap and have the service technician troubleshoot problems and be able to tell you what repairs or adjustments are needed via your cell phone or onboard display screen. At one booth in Amsterdam, I watched as the company’s technology expert pulled up a screen on his iPad showing the loca-tion of sweeping equipment in operation around the world. We honed in on Southern California and could see which machines were cur-rently operating along with a location tracking map showing the exact location of each piece of equipment over the last 24 hours. Worker Tracking Another company was offering and dem-onstrating an iPhone app that tracks a worker’s location as he or she goes from room to room throughout the building during their assigned shift. Forget the time clock, when you get within 15 feet of the sensor on the wall your presence is automatically recorded and sent to the main computer. To keep costs down, many newcomers to the market are using bar or QSR codes that require the cleaner to scan them into the system, but as technology progresses and sensors get smaller and less costly, you can see where it’s headed. ing a pair of Google glasses with an app known as “ExpertAtHand” that allows the wearer to send back photos or video of cleaning problems to their boss and com-municate in real time for advice and prob-lems solving. In my discussion with the company’s technology guru, he explained that the idea was to be able to deliver training and other information via the glasses. He admitted that the glasses weren’t quite on the market yet, but at $400 a pop he was confident that leading edge com-panies would find the product a good in-vestment. Back to the future, you need to realize that the University of Washington has de-veloped a contact lens that is internet ca-pable. Just let your mind wander a bit and you can literally see where this is going. What we often forget is that technology is moving faster and faster all the time and what used to take 40 years to develop and become commonplace has now shrank to under 10 years and will soon be five years or less. Once you’ve been to one of these shows, you will see your world of cleaning differ-ently. I look forward to seeing you there. Fleet Management Imagine an auto scrubber, extractor or vac-uum cleaner with wireless capability that sends real time information via the internet as to its exact location, with tracking maps, hours of use and information on any num-ber of conditions such as fluid levels (water, detergent, oil, fuel, battery condition, etc.) and whether it needs service or not. Expert In Your Eye Alpheios International won a “Show In-novation Award” for and was demonstrat-June 2014 William (Bill) Griffin is the president of Cleaning Consultant Services Inc. and president of the International Custodial Advisors Network (ICAN). ICAN is a nonprofit association comprised of industry professionals providing free consulta-tion services through the Cleaning Management Institute (CMI) and their Ask The Experts page. Comments and questions about bidding and estimating are encouraged: (206) 849-0179 or [email protected]. 12 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ®
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