Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store
You have only so many hours in a day to get your buildings cleaned. Did you know there is a way you can have cleaner buildings and higher employee morale? By implementing a work loading system you can streamline your cleaning operation and save money in the process. Work loading will also help you when bidding on new accounts because your time estimates will be more accurate.
So what is work loading? It is a system in which you analyze the amount of time it takes to complete tasks so you can schedule properly and get an accurate estimate of how much your staff can clean in a set period of time.
Work loading looks at more than just the minutes it takes to empty trash, vacuum, sweep or clean restrooms. To get an accurate idea of the area your staff can clean you also need to include "non-cleaning" tasks such as picking up equipment, restocking supplies and, if necessary, the drive time between buildings. Through this tool you can manage your staff and know what can or cannot realistically be done with the tools and resources that you have on hand. This helps with planning and scheduling, and can help when you are bidding on cleaning jobs.
How does the actual process work? Look at an example of restroom cleaning. According to the ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association), each toilet, urinal or sink in a restroom takes three minutes to clean. If you have a medium size restroom with one urinal, two toilets and two sinks - multiply six times three to come up with a time of 15 minutes to clean that restroom. Adding on time for sweeping, mopping and re-stocking supplies, you have another ten minutes of time needed to clean that restroom.
Adding all of your cleaning times together for a building will give you an accurate estimate of how long it will take your staff to clean that location. Looking at your workload and your employees, you can then decide if it is feasible to purchase high efficiency equipment, such as backpack vacuums or auto scrubbers that will shorten cleaning times. Through work loading you can compare the cost of increasing your staff to the investment in a new piece of equipment.
Work loading is a simple process that you can easily test in your buildings. It is important to have a detailed task list that covers all duties your cleaning crews do at a specific location so you can get an accurate estimate of the amount of time it will take to clean a building. This will not only help in the bidding process, but in your overall operations as well.
Steve Hanson is co-founder of TheJanitorialStore.com, an online community for owners of cleaning companies. Sign up for Trash Talk:Tip of the Week at www.TheJanitorialStore.com . Read success stories at www.cleaning-success.com .
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