facility focus Seeing Is Believing Independent testing unequivocally shows that spray-and-squeegee cleaning technology produces much higher cleanliness levels than traditional techniques. By: Chris Traczek T To some, doing the exact same thing over and over again, but expecting a different, or better, result is the definition of insanity. So, why would facility managers — from restaurant and grocery store owners to medical professionals and school district superintendents — continue to utilize tried, but hardly true, cleaning methods that have been proven repeatedly to not deliv-er the required or recommended level of cleanliness demanded by the public and mandated by health care organizations, particularly in the restrooms? Weʼve all seen the janitorial professional pushing a cleaning cart loaded down with an array of spray bottles, rags and paper towels, broom, mop bucket filled with some type of cleaning solution and a string or flat mop. While this looks like an efficient cleaning system, on closer inspection, a number of inefficiencies become apparent, such as: Cleaning chemicals dispensed by spray bottle do not always reach the dirtiest areas, nor do they possess the application pressure necessary to remove ground-in dirt Wiping with rags or towels often just redistributes the dirt and grime and does not actually remove it The same can be said for mop-and-bucket floor cleaning techniques: Hard-to-reach surfaces where bacte-ria and germs can breed are often ignored, and if the solution in the mop bucket is not changed frequent-ly, soiled water is often introduced to Laboratory analysts taking microbial sample with swab (left) and taking creatinine sample with urine test strip (right). the very areas that need to be cleaned Regarding the person actually doing the cleaning, a large amount of physi-cal stress can be imparted due to the stooping, bending and scrubbing involved in the process, leading to cleaning inefficiencies Many restrooms are so soiled that the “hands-on” cleaning required is actually a job de-motivator, leading to ineffective cleaning practices, low-ered employee morale, increased employee turnover and associated training costs For conscientious employees, com-pleting a thorough floor-to-ceiling cleaning regimen is a time-consum-ing process. So, whatʼs the solution to this cleaning quandary? For more and more facility operators, it is the introduction of a touchless cleaning solution, one that takes a lot of the respon-sibility for achieving the desired results out of the hands of the janitorial staff and places it in the operation of a mobile clean-ing unit that uses low-pressure/low-flow dispensing of cleaning chemicals with clean up as easy as depositing any excess liquid down a floor drain. The Solution This solution is known as spray-and-squeegee touchless cleaning, a system that promises time savings and reduced 40 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • October 2009
CMM – Archives Oct 2009: 40
