KAIVAC Oxymoron Ad 2.125x10.pdf 1 For professional cleaning teams, not operating in accordance with established, documented procedures ensures wasted time, effort and money in trying to reach a desired standard of cleanliness. If cleaning teams don’t have standards to use as a reference or procedures to follow, cleaning quality will be inconsistent and the frequency of complaints and reworks will increase. Upfront Research Is Key A workloading process typically begins with an analysis of how your facility is being cleaned, the nature and type of equipment used, how many people are performing the jobs and how each person is applied to a task. For example, is a single person cleaning the entire restroom or are multiple people working on specific areas such as floors, sinks and urinals? In the beginning of the workloading pro-cess, the person performing the assess-ment will seek a thorough understand-ing of the cleaning process by observing cleaning tasks and interviewing key staff members. Essential data regarding the tasks per-formed and supporting information, such as employee wage rates and benefit fac-tors, will be loaded into a workloading software program. The software will employ industry time standards to calculate estimated costs per task — ultimately producing an overall financial picture of maintaining the facility. The assessment consultant and the organization’s management team can then adjust the task frequency, application technique and other changeable settings within the workloading program to derive an optimal balance of costs and cleaning outcomes. It is important to work with a workloading service provider that uses software coded with known industry standards, such as ISSA’s Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS), for cleaning processes and procedures. Leading distributors and manufactur-ers in the cleaning industry may be well-positioned to provide expert workloading service engagements with their customers. Workloading doesn’t require pinpoint accuracy, since the processes being observed and assessed aren’t overly com-plex or sensitive. What your workloading assessor does need is a generalized understanding of how you operate your business. If you’re bringing in a workloading firm that has supported your organization before and has a general understanding of your operation, so much the better. If not, once the vendor knows how many employees you have on the job and the processes and techniques you are using, the software will guide them to develop actionable recommendations for your busi-ness. A Topic Of Currency In most cases, from start to finish, the initial workloading process should be complete in a few weeks — longer for larger, more complicated operations with more staff involved. Of course, the speed with which the C project is completed also depends on the time it takes for the consultant to engage M the customer and the customer’s respon-Y siveness in providing the information that’s CM needed. MY If you’re a housekeeping supervisor and CY you’re being tasked by management to reduce costs, workloading may be a solu-CMY K tion to your challenge. It will help you define and implement an effective strategy to reduce cleaning time. And, if there’s any degradation in the cleaning outcome, workloading can help you identify options for improvement — such as automating the process with clean-ing machinery or equipment or changing the frequency or method by which the process is done, all with an immediate understanding of the costs and benefits of making the change, as projected by the workloading software. In the end, workloading is simply an approach to gain further understanding of the cleaning process so that actionable plans to cost effectively attain desired results can be established and executed. Engaging with experienced service part-ners increases your ability to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your organi-zation’s cleaning and facilities maintenance processes. CM Circle Product Information no. 201 on page 32 www.cmmonline.com 35
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