focused on defect prevention would produce quality. Therefore, Crosby noted, the only acceptable performance standard is one of zero defects. Nonconforming levels of service should not exist. When they do, the cost to bring them into conformance with the standard — the requirements — is the cost of quality. His contention was that quality is free and only costs when it is not there in the first effort. Joseph M. Juran (1904-2008) was arguably one of the most influential quality management professionals. He is noted for placing the responsibility for quality directly into the hands of man-agement, a concept that caught on in Japan and caused a revolution in their thinking and products. Unfortunately, the United States did not respond as quickly or as fully and even today we are seeing the fallout from that neglect. Juran defined quality in several ways: Fitness for use Conformance to manufacturersʼ speci-fications Conformance to what the customer requires Characteristics learned from analyzing the customerʼs requirements. Our Definition Working with these thoughts in mind, we can develop a quality definition for the cleaning industry, but we must start by defining several other related items. First, we begin with customer require-ments by asking, “What do our customers expect from us?” My almost 40 yearsʼ experience in the industry shows two things are expected and, therefore, required if service is to be satisfactory. One, it is required that the facility, carpet, floor or whatever it is we are supposed to be cleaning is actually clean when we finish our work. Clean means free from blemishes or hav-ing all foreign, unwanted substances removed. It is assumed that we are speaking of surface or object cleaning and not air or water cleaning, which can be done, but is not the usual request made to a cleaning service provider. Two, the inclusion of this is the result of an industry tendency we will address later on, the customer expects to be freed from the responsibility of cleaning management. This harmonizes with the old slogan, “Take the bus and leave the driving to us.” No one pays for a bus trip expecting to help the driver navigate or load luggage and certainly they donʼt expect to drive the vehicle. A quality cleaning definition might well be this: Quality cleaning is that which provides error-free performance that meets the cus-tomerʼs requirements. Since that is still a fairly general state-ment, letʼs break it down for a deeper understanding of its components. There are only two reasons cleaning fails, thereby providing less than quality work. One is that the work was not done at all — there is visible dust on a surface and the cleaner failed to remove it; the waste bas-ket was not emptied; and the restroom mir-rors were left spotted. Two, the work was attempted, but not completed — the dusting was started, but only a portion of the surface was cleaned; the waste basket is empty, but the liner is dirty; and the mirrors are streaked. Error-free performance means that the dust was seen and completely removed, the waste basket was dumped and the dirty liner seen and replaced and that the mirrors were cleaned fully, leaving no streaks. It means that all the blemishes or unwant-ed substances on objects or surfaces in the facility were identified and removed in har-mony with the best methods available to save time, safeguard human health and safety, preserve the surfaces and enhance the appearance of the property. And, that this was done is evidenced by the absence of those indicators, such as dust, litter, streaks and spots, grit, etc., that show the need for cleaning to start with. Providing this blemish identification and removal is the job of the actual onsite work-er or custodian. However, quality-focused management must select and provide the right tools and train workers in the correct techniques for this to be possible. Juran was correct in starting quality at the top of the organization. Meeting the customerʼs requirements is the modifying phrase in the definition because all customers will not have the same requirements even in all areas of the same building. While health-focused — termed hygienic or microbial reduction — cleaning may be required in a medical exam room, it is hard-ly of any concern in a utility or mailroom or on the loading dock. The service provider must determine from an analysis of the property and dis-cussion with the client what is necessary and where. This prevents the familiar, but wasteful, requirement to clean all carpets in all areas on such-and-such a schedule. Or, fruitless attempts to “disinfect the building.” This phrase still leaves a lot of room for misunderstanding. Letʼs use an example to better grasp what is intended. Suppose that, as a pond owner, you wish to purchase a water pump to move a cer-tain amount of water to a height of so many feet in a certain amount of time. We say that this is your requirement or expectation for the pump. If the pump you buy will do what you want it to — for a long time without break-ing down — and is available at a reason-able price, you will likely think that it is a quality item. To build a pump that will do what you want it to do, however, demands a whole other set of requirements, these from the manufacturer. They will engineer the features of the pump, choosing a motor size, a drive shaft size and impellor design. The casting and its machining will be carefully specified by dimensional drawings and even the paint type and color deter-mined beforehand. It should be obvious that the manufactur-er will not go to you, the customer, to ask what size electric motor they should use, what the impellor design should be and what diameter drive shaft should be selected. Determining those features is the pump manufacturerʼs responsibility. www.cmmonline.com 21
CMM – Archives Jan 2010: 21
