At a time of productivity challenges, rising employee and material costs and increasing sustainability pressures for the cleaning sector, reducing cleaning machine downtime, and extending operating lifespans, is critical. The role of proactive maintenance is widely acknowledged here. In fact, according to research by IBM, strategic and proactive maintenance of machines, such as cleaning equipment, can reduce downtime by up to 50%, increase productivity by 20-50%, reduce breakdowns by 70-75% and cut maintenance costs by 5-10%. But time-poor, fatigued cleaning staff can sometimes neglect or cut corners on daily machine maintenance routines. Ian Buckle, Head of Brand & Design at Nilfisk, explains why creating tailored and intuitive cleaning machine solutions is key to addressing the sector’s ongoing maintenance challenges.
Cleaning operations rely on two primary factors to deliver quality cleaning services: skilled cleaning operators and high-performing cleaning machinery. These are both essential to achieve quality, productive and cost-effective cleaning.
Cleaning businesses will often make significant investments in a variety of cleaning equipment solutions. As a result, they want the assurance that value-added machine performance is continually maximised for the long-term.
When we think about our cars, or the boilers that heat our homes, many of us recognise the importance of preventative servicing and maintenance to avoid costly repairs and maximise performance. Cleaning machinery is no different, as it often undertakes repeatable cleaning cycles, in tough operating environments.
But in the real world, time pressures, a lack of training support, complicated maintenance processes and the need to ‘just get on with the job’, can sometimes see daily maintenance routines for cleaning machinery delayed or bypassed. And largely, the cleaning industry recognises the consequences of this - reduced efficiencies, unwanted repair bills, shortened machine lifespans and even the potential for reputational damage linked to poor cleaning.
But there’s a simpler way to ensure routine maintenance isn’t time consuming and cumbersome, and that it doesn’t put additional pressures on cleaning staff. The secret lies in the machine design.
A fresh take on design
Addressing the maintenance challenge lies with creating a new concept for cleaning machine design. One that puts people at its core. One that delivers intuitive, adaptable, easy-to-maintain and ergonomically sound cleaning machines.
Such machine development can support a better user experience, lessening the physical and mental strain of machine operation, deliver practical operational efficiencies and improve sustainability.
When looking at how this solves the maintenance and productivity challenge, new cleaning machinery designs can incorporate a range of features to simplify machine operations for users. This could include:
- A user interface that can be tailored to the user’s language – meaning instructions or maintenance notifications are easily understood and can be actioned quickly.
- A user interface that represents the user’s skill level – for example, limiting the functionality offered to less experienced users to avoid confusion and ensure essential notifications aren’t missed.
- Colour-highlighted user touch points – so operators can see easily where attach/detach functions lie for removing cleaning decks or topping up cleaning solutions, so resources aren’t wasted.
- Easy-to-remove attachments, such as squeegees – ensuring these are quick and easy to attach, detach, clean and store.
- Time-saving features – such as a water filling indicator, so operators can easily keep this topped up to maximise clean quality, without having to repeatedly stop to check and refill.
- On-machine training, delivered via a unique user interface – so users can check any operating questions simply, without delays to cleaning tasks.
Each of these developments is designed to simplify the operation and maintenance of cleaning machines, ensuring daily tasks to optimise performance are quick and undemanding.
Maintenance first
Alongside new machinery design, there are also some practical steps cleaning businesses can take to tackle the long-standing maintenance challenge, without putting additional pressures on cleaning staff. These will support and not disrupt day-to-day cleaning operations, helping to maximise high quality cleaning and enhance cost-efficiency and productivity.
- Involve employees – while easy maintenance routines will optimise cleaning machinery performance, how the machines are operated can also have an impact on extending their lifespan. Working with cleaning staff to share the importance of user behaviour is critical. This involves educating them on why routine maintenance is important and sharing how simple this process can be.
- Pre-calibrate for success – look for machine solutions that can be pre-calibrated to automate material use, speed and machine power. This can help to alleviate the tendency to always select maximum settings, which can put unnecessary strain on the machine. It will also optimise resource use, reduce waste and improve sustainability.
- Automate proactive maintenance notifications – ensure equipment has the functionality to proactively notify users when maintenance tasks are due. This will help to keep up routine maintenance and support with long-term planning around machine availability.
It’s well recognised that keeping up daily maintenance routines is important to prolong cleaning machine lifespans and reduce unwanted cleaning machine downtime by up to 50%. But innovative design changes are making things simpler – maximising productivity, improving efficiency and elevating performance, all without adding extra pressure to the user’s responsibilities.
To find out more, please visit: https://www.nilfisk.com/global/professional/campaigns/sc550/
