Surviving A Reduction Environment Sound management strategies that managers can use to accomplish more with fewer resources. By: Kevin Harris I In today’s cleaning environment, K-12s are making some drastic changes to their cleaning programs. Many of these changes, aimed at reducing the bottom line, simply lower the level of cleaning. Even in a reduction environment, there are some sound management strategies that can either low-er cost or increase productivity using existing bud-get and resources without lowering quality. Diversify Existing Labor, Reduce Cost And Improve Quality Kevin S. Harris is the director of maintenance and operations for the Clear Creek Independent School District in League City, Texas. As an in-house cleaning manager I consistently re-view and weigh the services that we contract with the services we perform in-house. We look for a service that can be brought in-house, performed with equal or improved quality and at lower cost. We did that with gym floor refinishing. We were spending right at $120,000 every sum-mer for contracted gym refinishing. All else being equal, low cost determined which contractor got the bid. In the scenario that different contractors could and did perform gym refinishing each summer, the district began to notice bursts in the floor and gen-eral finish adherence problems. This was the result of different contractors apply-ing different finishes that weren’t always compatible with the finish that was applied the year prior. Another issue was dry time. When a second coat of finish is applied during the re-coating process, if the first coat isn’t very dry, the first coat of finish continues to gas off and bursts the second coat, sometimes months later. for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: K-12 . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Floor Care . ISSA workloading offers increased efficiency in cleaning open corridors with large dust mops, auto scrubbers and wide area, cordless sweepers or vacuums. 14 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • July 2013 Image courtesy of JimLopes/iStockphoto/Thinkstock
CMM – Archives July 2013: 14
