The secret to keeping a facility clean all of the time: Sustained preventive maintenance

You just hired another cleaning company and have high hopes that this company will finally be the one that does a good job for many years to come. The reason that most companies fail is very simple and the solution is just as simple. Sustained preventive maintenance is the key to keeping a facility looking it's best over a sustained period of time. One example of a system would be to use a quarterly intensive detailed cleaning system in the restrooms that would involve power washing the walls, fixtures, partitions and strip & wax the floors. Restrooms mostly have tile floors with grout joints, they can be deep cleaned by using a scrubbing machine with a vertical brush. This should be scheduled every three months or so to enhance the nightly cleaners routine. A regular night crew does not have the time and equipment to do this type of detail work. It's like washing your car, you can get a regular job or you can get it detail cleaned and of course there is a big difference. Cafeterias, conference rooms, lobbies, production areas will need a similar process but the key is to stay on schedule. Over a three month interval with a good crew working hard every night there will still be a need to do a quarterly detailed intensive cleaning to keep the facility looking its best. There are many other types of preventive maintenance systems and schedules that can be implemented depending on the environment and traffic in that space. Production and manufacturing floors need machine scrubbing to take out deep and ground in dirt and again a scheduled system should be designed. No matter how good a night crew is they could never take out the ground in dirt that accumulates over time. Clean rooms are highly specialized and training is needed to adhere to strict standard operating procedures. Clean rooms often require daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and semi annually intensive cleaning based on the nature of the business. The crews need to be trained in the method of cleaning specifically to the operating procedure of that clean room. There is no guessing with clean rooms as every cleaning procedure is documented and on strict schedule and that is why clean rooms are always in good shape. The cleaning in clean rooms is so critical that the particulate count is monitored daily in some cases and if they are too high then action will be immediately taken to get it down. In some rare cases the clean rooms can be shut down until the particulate count is normal. This regimented system that clean rooms follow can be applied to many other areas and this is the foundation to keeping a facility looking its finest not just for the short term but for the long term. If this system is followed it will yield dividends in the form of a pristine looking facility that will keep the morale of the employees high and your customers knowing that they are in good hands. Anthony Pasquale is the operations manager for Boston Cleaning Company, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.