a clean sweep Streamlining Processes Through Modernization With help from its supplier, the University of Washington reduced operating costs while increasing its sustainability. By: Lisa Jonas A As colleges and universities around the United States reduce operating budgets, their facility managers are searching for ways to do more with less. Increasingly, higher education custodial directors are turning to core suppliers to help them control spending on cleaning and maintenance supplies. They also want help on how to clean smarter — all while meeting important new environmental and sustainability goals. xpedx, one of the largest U.S. JanSan distributors, has long worked with colleges and universities of all sizes and recently expanded its decade-long relationship with the University of Washington’s flagship campus in Seattle. “Our overriding goal with colleges and universities today is to help them do their job more effectively, cut costs, eliminate redundancies and simplify tasks,” proclaims Michael Feenan, vice president of market-ing for xpedx. “We are helping them clean smarter and greener — even with fewer resources at their disposal.” Prior to its sole-supplier relationship with xpedx, the university’s custodial depart-ment relied on multiple distributors to pro-vide cleaning supplies for its 10 million-plus square feet of research laboratories, libraries, offices and lecture halls. The university said its use of multiple suppliers — together with traditional ways of doing things — served it well. But, it also resulted in a variety of challenges large and small, including: Purchasing inefficiencies, higher-than-required inventories, cumbersome paper-work, manual order entry, time-consuming phone calls, inconsistent ordering and the inability to efficiently order products online. Following an intensive vendor selection process, xpedx was chosen because of its ability to provide the University of Washington with documentable cost sav-ings, expertise on sustainable cleaning products, an online ordering platform and personalized support from an entire xpedx team dedicated to the university. Strong business relationships with other large universities also helped convince the University of Washington that xpedx could deliver exceptional daily service and support. “When we started our search for a single supplier of cleaning products, we knew we wanted to cut costs, expand green cleaning and have close, personalized sup-port from our supplier,” says Gene Woodard, director of facility services for the custodial division at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. “xpedx worked hard and helped us achieve those goals. We have a real partnership with them, and we appreci-ate that they’ve dedicated a whole team to meet our ongoing needs across many fronts, from budgeting to information tech-nology (IT) to green cleaning.” Into The New After winning the contract, the first project xpedx tackled was getting the university’s custodial purchasing functions consolidat-ed and online. The University of Washington and xpedx worked closely together to build a cus-tomized electronic ordering method that standardized ordering across 11 campus service areas. Their efforts also unified JanSan supplies procurement across the university and eliminated the manual approval process. The new online site is customized for the university and features all University of Washington-approved cleaning products, purchase authorization codes and budget-ing details. Because this is the custodial depart-ment’s first online ordering system, it also was designed to meet varying computer skill sets. “We made big leaps in efficiencies by ordering online and streamlining product selection and delivery dates,” explains Woodard. “It’s saving us increasing amounts of money each year.” The University of Washington’s custodial service division is dedicated to meeting important environmental policy goals, including the use of Green Seal ® , low volatile organic compound (VOC) and con-centrated products where possible. It also seeks increased use of supplies with high post-consumer fiber content and products that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifi-cation requirements. The xpedx team helped the university benchmark its use of environmentally responsible cleaning products and worked with them to expand green cleaning campus-wide through best practice train-ing. CM Lisa Jonas is the marketing communications manager for xpedx. 48 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • July 2010
CMM – Archives July 2010: 48
