contractor success Operationally Sustainable Cleaning Services It’s not about the best price; it’s about the best manager and the best toxic-free cleaning program from the most innovative company. A By: Vince Elliot After over 40 years of helping buyers evalu-ate and hire cleaning contractors, a few observations about how purchasing and buyer folks make choices have become evident. Sometimes, choices are made are “by the book,” exclusively following the purchasing bible word for word; this is called a success by some. And indeed, it is a success from a buyer perspective. Yet, at what point is operational success integrated into the decision process? Further, how does that buying decision impact on-going operational success? It’s a focus on achieving operational sus-tainability through the art of buying. Let’s start with a goal. Would anyone accept “value” over “sav-ings” as a fundamental end for the buying effort? Is there a way to buy that comes with the promise of operational success for appearance, occupant health and envi-ronmental improvement — and offers re-duced cost? tices in the art of finding and hiring the best of the best cleaning service providers. It’s not about the product or service that is specified by the buying process or the re-quest for proposal (RFP). It’s about implementing a buying pro-cess that is inclusive and builds consensus around what is important to all stakeholders in the organization — all those who are im-pacted by the service and those who impact the cleaning service. What does an operationally sustainable buying model look like? Here is a brief review of the important milestones of this idea. Building Consensus Here is one perspective from an emerging model that might help guide buying prac-Operational sustainability is about implementing a buying process that is inclusive and builds consensus around what is important to all those who are impacted by the services being performed. 34 Image Courtesy of Jakub Jirsák/iStockphoto/Thinkstock CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • September 2013
CMM – Archives September 2013: 34
