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A few years ago I was fortunate enough to tour Egypt, spending the last few days of the trip in Cairo. For American travelers heading back home, invariably flights leave between 2 and 4 a.m.—an unfortunate time for sure, but designed to make the necessary connections in London or Amsterdam.
Waiting in my Cairo hotel for transportation to the airport, I had the opportunity to see the cleaning crew at work. The first thing that caught my eye is that in this hotel—a major U.S. hotel chain—the common area cleaning was handled by an outside cleaning contractor. Their job, specifically, was to clean the lobby, conference rooms, restaurants, and commercial kitchens in the hotel as well as its convention center.
To accomplish this, there was a crew of about 10 to 12 people. But what I noticed next, and what really caught my attention, is the equipment they were using to clean the lobby specifically. This was a large hotel lobby, possibly half a block long, with marble floors. Two workers dust mopped the floor and then four others followed right behind, manually mopping the lobby’s floor. I was quite surprised.
In the U.S., cleaning this large a space would typically be handled by one or two workers, using an autoscrubber-type machine. At this point, I walked up to the person who appeared to be the supervisor and asked them if he had ever considered automating the floor cleaning. Fortunately, he did speak English and his comments to me were that such machines “cost too much money” and his company simply “could not justify the costs.”
I’m sure cleaning crews in Egypt are paid less on an hourly basis than a similar cleaning crew in Europe or North America, making the reduced labor cost a factor I had to consider. But related to this, I also noticed that the workers mopping the floor were covering a fairly large area before taking their buckets to the janitorial closet to empty the soiled water and refill with fresh cleaning solution.
As a North American observer, living in a country where manufacturers are working aggressively to create and implement new cleaning tools and equipment to automate cleaning tasks, the entire cleaning operation in this hotel was quite an eye-opener. And, while labor costs are certainly lower in Cairo than in New York, for example, I still believe that automating the cleaning process would not only reduce labor charges, but also even more importantly, result in more satisfactory, hygienic cleaning.
ROI Meet Cairo
Before any business owner, in virtually any industry in Cairo or any part of the world, invests in a tool, service, or piece of equipment, an initial concern is: what is the return on the investment (ROI)? In other words, if I purchase this machine, how long will it take for the machine to pay for itself and, once this is accomplished, when will I start to profit (put money in the bank) as a result of this purchase?
This can be hard to calculate in the professional cleaning industry because there are actually few sources or tools available that estimate cleaning times and then turn that information into some type of ROI formula. One source Middle Eastern cleaning pros should be aware of is ISSA’s 540 Cleaning Times. This booklet, which is available from this worldwide cleaning association, lists just about every cleaning task and how long it should take to complete it. For example, let’s use this resource to estimate how long it takes to clean restrooms.
According to the Cleaning Times, it takes about three minutes to clean each restroom fixture; therefore, 10 fixtures will take about 30 minutes to clean. Not published is the fact that this also assumes the cleaning worker has all the tools, including a cleaning cart, readily available. Once you know how to use the book you can find cleaning alternatives that can help reduce these times. For instance, the book also references “spray-and-vac” cleaning, more commonly known as no-touch cleaning. According to the Cleaning Times, this method can reduce the amount of time to clean the restroom example above from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. Plus, these machines come complete—there are no tools or carts necessary—so the time factor is more exact.
ROI and Floors
Now, with a better understanding as to how these systems work, let’s dig deeper and compare different cleaning tools. Let’s say our Cairo cleaning contractor decided the time had come to automate the cleaning of this hotel lobby. We already mentioned using an autoscrubber. Using a ROI tool developed by Kaivac, a U.S. manufacturer of no-touch cleaning equipment, we see that an autoscrubber can cost as much as $6,000(US).
The Cleaning Times also tells us this autoscrubber will cost about $700(US) in maintenance and repairs as well as for the required purchase of pads and related equipment for the machine. We calculate the cost of paying an Egyptian cleaning worker is about $5 per hour to clean 40,000 square feet of floor space, the total annualized costs to own the autoscrubber are just over $8,000 per year and more than $41,000 over the life of the machine. Admittedly, that is a big chunk of change. So, is there an alternative?
A recommended option is the OmniFlex AutoVac system. To clean the same amount of floor space, the machine costs about $1000.00—which is an immediate equipment savings of about $5,000, and over the life of the machine, is a savings of more than $20,000. Selecting this machine is an alternative that makes sense for our Cairo contractor. Additional labor savings are possible by reducing the six team floor cleaning crew to the single operator. The six-person crew cleaned the 40K sq/ft with traditional tools, which can now be cleaned by one worker using the AutoVac. This means the recurring labor cost of those five laborers is also eliminated by investing into innovative technologies.
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How’s the Cleaning?
Floor cleaning with quickly soiled mops and water will yield less than satisfactory results. We now know that mopping spreads contaminants, instead of removing them from surfaces. An autoscrubber can definitely improve cleaning results, producing healthier cleaning; however, the hefty cost for these machines is still a concern.
Fortunately, a U.S. university study found that the much less costly AutoVac system mentioned earlier, matches or exceeds the soil removing effectiveness of an automatic scrubber. The soil removing results are the same, if not better, at a reduced cost. Knowing this, and should I have the opportunity to visit Egypt again, I might just look up that Cairo cleaning contractor and share this information. For some reason, I think he might appreciate what I have to say.
The author is the International Business Development Manager for Kaivac Inc, developers of the No-Touch and OmniFlex Cleaning Systems. Established in 1997, the US-based Kaivac Inc delivers science-based hygienic cleaning systems that protect the health of building occupants while raising the value of cleaning operations.
