Future Trends - Adapt & Adopt

Biotechnology and nanotechnology are also exciting developments and he is certain more widespread use of both in the cleaning sector will happen. “For example self-cleaning windows already exist. So we ask, what happens to the traditional window cleaner? In the long term he could be more focused on façade cleaning, perhaps, and become more specialist. Adapt and adopt..

Future trends - take decisive action now:  Global facilities services provider ISS published its 2020 Vision study as an assessment of the trends that will shape the facilities management industry between now and 2020. Responsible for compiling this comprehensive document was Peter Ankerstjerne, group marketing director, who is based at the company’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. He speaks exclusively to ECJ about the background to the study and its key findings.

“The next decade is likely to be as turbulent and unpredictable as this one, presenting new challenges and opportunities for our society, our industry, our customers and our company. Maintaining a competitive edge in the future marketplace will require vigilance, imagination and the willingness to take decisive action.” Those are the words of Jeff Gravenhorst, ceo of the ISS Group in his introduction to the 2020 Vision report.

Peter Ankerstjerne, group marketing director, was responsible for the project which was carried out in conjunction with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. 2020 Vision set out to develop a number of global scenarios for the future of the facility management (FM) and services industry. The key drivers were defined as sustainability and technology. ECJ spoke to Ankerstjerne about each of these elements.

“Sustainability is still a moving target,” he explains. “In the macro economy sustainability is something companies are forced to do but it’s not as deeply rooted yet as it will be in 2020. It will become more deeply rooted because it has to.

“The technology trend is key to helping us to support the sustainability trend because development is so much better and more affordable. Of course it still has to be competitive and productive.”

From ISS’ point of view, Ankerstjerne continues, sustainability is just as much about corporate social responsibility (CSR) as it is ‘green’ cleaning. “It’s about health and safety, taking care of people, developing the workforce, etc. One of the greatest challenges is the elderly burden, ie, how do we keep people in the job longer as retirement ages change and people retire older?

“The people management challenge is significant – giving our employees the right ways of working, ergonomic equipment, good chemicals etc. We must also give people a good reason to work in the cleaning industry, by raising its image and perception. And that’s about continuous development.”

In this regard Ankerstjerne believes cleaning service companies may have to take more action in developing skills like language, mathematics, integration into society. “We will start to see more development-oriented employment, whereby providing education to our employees will become part of our responsibility as employers.

“Employees will become a more scarce resource so we will have to work harder to recruit and keep them. This challenge brings with it exciting potential and opportunities. Training will become even more important. It offers organisations a real chance to grow and foster the talent they have within their business.”

In the field of technology too Ankerstjerne feels there are great opportunities. “IT developments are of course important because they affect how we report to clients, manage contracts, etc. “We also see robotics as being a crucial development, a chance to free cleaners up to do other tasks – they could become more multi-tasked service assistants for example.”

So far, however, robotic technology has not been widely adopted by the cleaning sector – which Ankerstjerne attributes largely to the maturity of the technology. “The price does have to come down in order to be more competitive but that will certainly happen,” he points out. “Cleaning service providers must also be a little more innovative and collaborative with the systems manufacturers in order for them to become more widely accepted.”

For Ankerstjerne biotechnology and nanotechnology are also exciting developments and he is certain more widespread use of both in the cleaning sector will happen. “For example self-cleaning windows already exist. So we ask, what happens to the traditional window cleaner? In the long term he could be more focused on façade cleaning, perhaps, and become more specialist.

Adapt and adopt

“In general technology must be adapted and adopted, and then used by cleaning businesses to upskill their people to other areas perhaps. The larger companies like ISS can do that of course – for smaller companies focusing purely on cleaning it is more of a challenge.”

Ankerstjerne goes on: “New technology will also give us better reporting standards – buildings are becoming much more intelligent for example. Real-time information online, GPS systems, will become the norm and that gives us enormous potential.

“This level of reporting means the service provider can become an adviser to the client – which enables us to offer them better services, help them analyse their data and how it can be used. Intelligence means more effective and productive cleaning schedules. For example, if nobody is occupying a room for a period of time why clean it every day? We foresee the job becoming more output-focused, whereby service levels are more in line directly with customer needs.

“Communications technology is very exciting and can certainly be integrated more extensively into the cleaning business. For cleaners working alone at night, for example, GPS systems could be more effectively employed.”

As a service industry cleaning is so vital to its clients because it creates a better environment. Ankerstjerne points out: “A healthier building means a healthier workforce and less absenteeism. This makes our proposition more interesting for a client – we are improving their hygiene levels to make their workforce more effective and more productive.

“We are in a vicious circle of cutting costs – that’s true – but if we add real value we believe that becomes less of a focus. And technology will also help that approach thanks to better equipment, better cleaning chemicals, etc. Because through those technological developments we can deliver savings in water and energy usage, for example. We are demonstrating to clients that we can deliver green solutions and other sustainable systems – and we have a greater ability to document what we do.”

There is still a widespread perception that sustainable systems are more expensive than traditional ones but Ankerstjerne argues this is not the case. “It’s vital to look at the bigger picture and the indirect savings that can result. Less use of energy at night due to daytime cleaning for example. This makes it fundamentally important that we really understand our customers’ operations so that we can carry out full calculations about convenience, water/energy use etc and put our case forward professionally.”

Central to every cleaning operation of course, is the staff, and must be a key area of focus for the FM industry worldwide says Ankerstjerne. “Employees are now not such a scarce resource because of the economic crisis. But this will change so it’s important to achieve better standards of professionalism, cross-border cooperation, training, continuous development. We must encourage cleaners to take pride in what they do and see the bigger picture of the importance of their job as a cleaner.

“This is really one of our biggest challenges and service companies, along with industry organisations, need to stand together more on this. We must protect our employees’ health and safety while also making our operations more efficient, more profitable and more productive.

“There is a real business case for doing this. More motivated and well-rewarded staff give better service and do a much better job for our clients.”

Ungers Vital First Impressions

Façade maintenance - vital first impressions: Cleaning and maintaining the exteriors of buildings is an important way to improve company image. Dave Rogers (pictured below), European sales manager for Unger Germany, explains how legislation, technological advances and customer needs are shaping this part of the cleaning sector. First impressions count – it’s an accepted fact in all walks of life. If you want to sell your house, a tidy front garden and freshly painted front door will help; cordon bleu chefs will often say that we eat with our eyes, so go to great lengths to make their dishes look beautiful; and if you want to get that new job a smart suit will go down better than jeans and a scruffy T-shirt!

The same goes for your company or brand image – so keeping your premises pristine, both inside and out, is crucial. They are the public faces of your organisation, so if they look below par, chances are that both existing and potential new clients will be less than impressed and take their custom elsewhere. A smart, clean façade to your buildings – be they offices, manufacturing facilities, retail outlets or storage depots – presents a professional face to the world, stating that your business really does mean business. Making sure that effective and regular cleaning regimes are in place is therefore a must, but there are many different issues that need to be taken into consideration when cleaning the façades of buildings. Safety is arguably the most important and there have been significant changes in this area in the last few years.

Legislating for safety: Cleaning and maintaining the exteriors of buildings can often involve the need to work at height. Many older and modern business premises measure more than two storeys high, so jobs such as clearing gutters, bird proofing and roof repairs will require operatives to work at high levels. And wherever height is an issue, safety becomes a top priority.

According to the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) falls from height accounted for 46 fatal accidents at work and around 3,350 major injuries in 2005/2006. One fatality or injury is one too many, and the implementation of safety measures introduced under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, amended by the Work at Height (Amendment) Regulations 2007, have transformed this area. These regulations consolidate previous legislation on working at height and implement European Council Directive 2001/45/EC concerning minimum safety and health requirements for the use of equipment for work at height (the Temporary Work at Height Directive).

One of the key legal requirements of the regulations is for competent, well-trained people to plan, organise, supervise and carry out work at height. The regulations ‘apply to all who work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury’. They also set out a simple hierarchy for managing and selecting equipment for work at height, stating that duty holders (employers, the self-employed and anyone who supervises the work of others, such as facilities managers) must:

•Avoid work at height where they can

•Use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height

•Where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur.

It’s clear that if you do have jobs where working at height is the only option, specialist training will be needed. There are a number of companies that can provide this, and information and advice is also available from associations that promote a safe environment for the operation of specialist equipment. These include the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA), the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) for powered equipment, and PASMA, which represents the European mobile access tower industry.

Design and technology provide safe solutions: It’s true that new legislation will always influence how an industry sector evolves, but advances in technology also have a big part to play. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the most obvious and visual manifestation of façade maintenance – window cleaning. The traditional days of the cheeky chap with ladder, chamois leather and bucket are long gone – thanks to advances in design that have made window cleaning faster, safer and more efficient. Water-fed poles have become the equipment of choice for professional window cleaners, allowing them to clean high buildings and windows safely from the ground, alleviating the need to work

at height.

Pure water is used in this type of cleaning because it leaves glass and surfaces spot and streak free, without the need for chemicals. Pure water is, as the name suggests, water in its purest form. To get to this state the water is processed to remove the minerals and impurities that would otherwise dry and lead to spots and streaks. These impurities are known as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and are measured in parts per million (ppm) – water is considered pure when its TDS is measured at 0 ppm. The two water purification methods recognised by the cleaning industry are:

•Deionisation (DI) – where the water is filtered through ion exchange resin which attracts and removes 99 per cent or more of the minerals

•Reverse Osmosis (RI) – where the water is passed through a series of membranes and filters which retain and flush away most of the minerals and impurities.

Water-fed poles continue to evolve, incorporating new design features and materials that make these systems even easier to use, with the added bonus that they deliver even better quality results in a fraction of the time, saving companies money too. The ‘next generation’ water-fed poles provide a better balance between weight and rigidity. Because the poles are lighter it makes the cleaning operative’s job easier and more comfortable, but this reduction in weight does not compromise rigidity, meaning that the poles are still responsive and easy to control, allowing brushes to get right into every corner. Advances in brush head design, water delivery via multi-jets, angled adapters and pole extensions that allow operatives to clean to heights of up to 65 ft while keeping their feet firmly on the ground, all make this sector of the industry a fast-changing and exciting place to work in.

Assess the risks: As with any cleaning job, site surveys and risk assessments will help to establish the best equipment to deliver the results you require. It can also identify gaps in knowledge or training, and how frequently your façade needs to be cleaned. The different materials that need to be cleaned must also be taken into consideration. For instance, is it primarily glass (windows) that need to be cleaned, or are there other materials on the exterior of your building that will also need attention, such as metal signage? With an increasing awareness of environmental issues, companies are also thinking about incorporating energy saving into their business activities, and energy creation is also a hot topic.

Solar panels are becoming more and more popular – for residential and business premises – but they need regular cleaning. Exposure to rain water does help to wash off some dirt, but it also adds new dirt particles to the panel. A build up of dirt and soil can reduce the light absorption of solar panels, making them less efficient and effective. Water-fed pole technology is now stepping up to the mark to provide solutions to this particular problem by developing larger brushes with soft bristles specifically designed to clean and prevent damage to solar panels. With further developments in technology and training in response to market forces and customer needs, façade maintenance and cleaning can only continue to become easier, quicker and more professional.