There’s a better way to do things.

We’re telling you, there’s a better way to do things.

Cue their Robotic Floor Scrubber Bob 

By looking for better ways to do things they are able to reduce unnecessary costs, improve the customer’s perception of their quality and overall bring more value to their customers. 

Let me tell you about a time Ultra Shine was able to improve their process and bring more to their customer.

Flashback to March 2020. A State of Public Health Emergency is declared due to the Covid-19 Virus. Lives are flipped upside down as people mask up, businesses shut down, and society begins to isolate.

Ultra Shine had many of their customer sites close, displacing over 100 employees. Employees that had families to take care of just like us. Ultra Shine decided to step up not only for their employees but also for their community.

A press release was issued offering free one-time deep sanitation services to organizations that looked after those in the vulnerable sector. Boom. Just like that it had blown up. Global News, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal and the like had shared it. Ultra Shine’s phone started ringing like crazy. They picked up over 50 jobs that not only gave their employees work but also gave back to their community in a meaningful way, right when it was needed most. A non-profit organization in Edmonton had a lot on their plate as the pandemic unfolded. They were given the Kinsmen Sports Centre as a temporary shelter space in an effort to spread out the homeless population, and reduce the concentration in the downtown core.

Alberta Health Services were not playing around though. They issued strict guidelines to ensure the health and well-being of their community and to slow the spread of Covid-19. The non profit’s current cleaning company was not up to snuff and the leadership at the non profit had to start the hunt for a new quality commercial cleaning provider.

The non profit had come across Ultra Shine’s proposal but needed more than just a one time sanitization. They were looking for a long term solution.

The task at hand? Cleaning the rows and rows of beds every morning. Each bed mat, placed 6 ft apart, had to have all 6 sides sprayed with cleaner, wiped down , dried, sprayed with disinfection and then dried again. They couldn’t be flipped onto a dirty floor and they couldn’t be stacked either. Like I mentioned, strict guidelines. Then the floors, touchpoints, separation railings and fences all had to be cleaned as well.

The Operations Manager with 9 years of experience quoting janitorial services said the job would take 21 hours. Time to rally the troops and get down to business. The Operations Manager, Supervisor and Crew all came together to get the job done and observe the process.

There was a thorough briefing of the task at hand and then…

READY, SET, GO!

But wait, the job came in at 24 hours? What happened?

The supervisor pipes up and says that he doesn’t think the work can be done within the quoted time frame. “You’ve seen it! The team is working as hard as they can!”

But hold up here. Let’s give this another look and see if we can get to the bottom of it.

Day 2, the team is ready to tackle their mission. This time, they are determined to beat yesterday’s time while providing the same quality service.

Distractions have been eliminated, stopwatches are out, and all hands are on deck. What are we missing?

Ahhhhhh, here’s a problem. The cleaners aren’t working in zones, some beds are being cleaned more than once and spray bottles are being picked up and put back down only to be picked up and put back down again.

Everyone, stop what you're doing. Let’s huddle up!!!!

Okay team, what can we do to make this work better?

LIGHTBULB MOMENT!

At first the cleaners were completing every step of the process one mat at a time. Spray, wipe, dry, spray, dry, and repeat for each side before moving on to the next. With the new and improved game plan, Ultra Shine was able to accomplish their goal within the originally quoted time frame, 21 hours. They did this by reconfiguring the flow of the work being done. One cleaner will start spraying the first row of beds, then the second will follow behind cleaning them. Once the first cleaner is done spraying the first row, they will follow the second cleaner by drying the bed mats, at which point they almost catch up. Once the second cleaner is finished with row one, they switch, and become the first cleaner on the second row spraying cleaner onto the bed mats. Woohoo! A more efficient and effective way of getting the job done.

But, Ultra Shine doesn’t just stop there.

Day 3 means another new and improved game plan. By scrubbing the floors between the beds before the open area, another improvement can be made. The beds could now be flipped onto the clean floor. Kachow! By making small changes to the process, they were able to complete the work in 19 hours!

You know what that means? Under Budget.

And not just under budget, under budget with a facility in pristine condition. I would say a job well done.

Happy with the progress, the Operations Manager stepped away from this job to focus on another area.

The next day? 18 hours. Even better. Now how did this happen? 

Ultra Shine gave their team members the tools they needed to make their own changes to the process to improve efficiency and work better. By using this bottom up approach and getting everyone involved in the process, you create an environment of staff that cares about their work and the potential efficiencies they can find.

The Operations Manager didn’t walk away and have the process revert to the original time. Instead it was sustained, saving time and money in the long run. Now that Ultra Shine is under budget, they are in a position to offer more value to their customers whether that be a discount, or a complimentary service the next time they need it.

Long story short. Ultra Shine is up to the challenge of finding better, more efficient ways of getting the job done. And when they do, that extra value finds its way right back to the customer, like it should.

Improvements can be made when as a company you invest in innovation and new technologies (and to learn more about the value that can bring CLICK HERE). Not only can it help you improve how you do things but it can also bring cost savings and greater customer satisfaction in the long run.