The Cleaning Inspection - A Professional Janitorial & Custodial Blog

If You Want Quality Assurance, You Must Commit to Continuous Improvement

2011-11-04T13:47:14Z

Creating a Winning Cleaning Quality Assurance Program Series

Part 1: If You Want Quality Assurance, You Must Commit to Continuous Improvement

So you've decided your company needs a quality assurance program, some way to measure your progress and keep things moving forward. It may seem like common sense, but the first and most necessary step is one that many people forget: a self-assessment. And it can't be just any self-assessment. It needs to be critical and brutally honest. Begin by using a quality process model, such as the Deming model or the Six Sigma model (which was inspired by Deming's model).

For instance, Deming created a cycle: the 'plan-do-check-act' cycle. The Six Sigma model is similar: Define the process, measure key process indicators, analyze data for root cause, plan and implement improvements, and confirm control results.

As you can see, both models operate by organizing certain analytical processes into practical, easy-to-follow steps. Use them--they're the building blocks of every quality assurance program!

Once you've done an honest evaluation, ask yourself: Is your organizational culture conducive to a continuous improvement program? Are there corporate resources available to help implement a continuous improvement model?

And, of course, don't be shy when it comes to the internet. As just about everyone has begun to realize, the web is a powerful tool with many resources that can be leveraged to your company's benefit. Web-based data collection tools are especially useful when integrated with your quality assurance program.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 8: Prevent Problems

2010-09-23T19:44:39Z

While it’s very important to recognize the issues and problems with the quality of work performed by your cleaning staff and go about fixing them. The real magic when it comes to cleaning quality assurance is to prevent problems before they ever get the chance to surface.

The best way to prevent problems is to build a quality assurance cycle into your cleaning program. Part of the cycle will be to perform routine cleaning inspections, but also you should then spend time going through the data that you have collected. Make sure you take advantage of any available reports and drill down into the data to see what the true root causes of cleaning quality issues might be. As you continue in your cycle, once you know what the issues are make the necessary corrections and adjustments within your program or staff.

Repeat the quality assurance cycle for a few months and slowly you will see the number of issues found each month starting to diminish. As you continue this process over time you will really narrow down the total issues that can come up because you have prevented many by way of your previous adjustments. Most likely you will continue to have some issues pop up each month due to many different factors, but through maintaining a quality assurance cycle your most major issues should be put to rest and prevented.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 7: Now Affordable

2010-09-22T19:41:16Z

As a group, managers in the cleaning industry have always seemed to realize the necessity of performing some kind of inspection to check the work of their cleaning team. However, due to many factors the inspection process has looked very different from one organization to the next.

One factor in particular that has affected the way that organizations perform inspections is cost. While there are many good options out there in the way of inspection programs, historically most have been expensive in both setup cost and training time. Therefore many managers have relied on less expedited methods such as paper checklists and manually writing notes about either very poor or very exceptional cleaner performance.

While using pen and paper is certainly better than nothing, advancements in technology have allowed for useful alternatives with much lower costs than in the past. There are a few different platforms that inspection tools have been built on so far including but not limited to PDAs, Netbooks, Laptops, Blackberrys, etc. Some of these platforms allow your organization to take advantage of hardware that you might already own, lessening setup costs even more.

Another thing to note is that many inspection tools have moved to a monthly price plan where you can back out of the contract at any time. This allows users and organizations to stay flexible and not have to overcome a huge financial barrier to put a great quality assurance program in place.

If cost and affordability have kept your organization from performing routine cleaning quality inspections then it might be time to take another look at what is out there. Most likely you will be able to find something that will make your inspection process a lot smoother and still stick within your budget.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 6: Reward Good Cleaning

2010-09-08T19:29:15Z

All too often in the cleaning industry employees are met with negative feedback. It’s easy to walk into a facility and see everything that has been missed or has not been cleaned according to the site specs. It’s much harder for a supervisor or manager to walk into an area and notice what the employee is doing right. This uneven balance of negative to positive feedback can really weigh on a cleaning staff and degrade morale, in turn, reducing the quality of cleaning to even worse levels.

However, by performing routine cleaning inspections you can build your quality database and see tangible positive change. By scoring cleaning on an absolute scale we are able to see scores of area types or specific items increase or decrease over time. This allows us to approach our cleaning staff with not only bad feedback but also more good feedback. Some facility managers have even gone as far as to base raises or bonuses on the quality score increases their workers have shown over a period of time.

In her article “Ten Tips for the Leader About Employee Motivation” Susan M. Heathfield, a human resources expert says this about positive workplace feedback:

“When I poll supervisors, the motivation and morale builder they identify first is knowing how they are doing at work. Your staff members need the same information. They want to know when they have done a project well and when you are disappointed in their results. They need this information as soon as possible following the event.

They need to work with you to make sure they produce a positive outcome the next time. Set up a daily or weekly schedule and make sure feedback happens. You'll be surprised how effective this tool can be in building employee motivation and morale. You can make their day.”

This logic and understanding is exactly why our sixth reason for performing routine cleaning inspections is to reward good cleaning. Offering not only negative but also positive feedback can improve working conditions, morale and overall cleaning quality levels in your facility.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 5: Accurate Reporting

2010-09-07T14:34:05Z

Performing cleaning inspections once in a while is great, and certainly better than nothing. However, you are really missing out on a lot of the best data if you are only inspecting once every few months.

Think about it, inspections are most valuable for the data and reports they produce and that data is most valuable when there is enough of it to draw valid conclusions. One of the major keys to cleaning inspections as a form of cleaning quality assurance is to make them part of your daily or weekly routine. This will start to build your facility’s database and allow you to see reports that are meaningful and helpful to the quality process. The other good news about this approach to cleaning quality inspections is that you won’t have to go through another learning curve every few months when you pick the handheld device back up to do an inspection.

Once we have built up our database, we really like to group data sets and inspections by date range. Grouping data this way allows us to begin recognizing trends over time. Once these trends have been established as valid we can use the information to make adjustments and improvements. Best of all though is that by having data from both before and after we make specific adjustments we can see whether or not the changes are improving the overall level of cleaning in our facilities.

Accurate reporting is a pivotal part of any cleaning quality assurance program and by performing routine inspections we can insure that the data and reports are valid and accurate.

Live from APPA 2010 - Part 2

2010-07-15T16:39:19Z

We're just about to put a wrap on day two of the exhibitor hall for the 2010 APPA conference in Boston and things could not have gone better! We spoke with many interesting representatives from universities across the US and beyond. I even ate lunch with a rep from a college located in South Africa!

Great conversations led to me spending most of the day doing live online demonstrations of Smart Inspect. People can really relate to the simplicity of use and ease of setup that our program offers and that is our strongest selling point for sure. We're already planning out next APPA trip, we would highly recommend this conference to any facilities professionals in a university of college setting!

Live from APPA 2010 - Part 1

2010-07-14T14:37:51Z

Today marks the first day of the 2010 APPA conference. It's an exciting time at the World Trade Center in Boston, MA for university facilities professionals. We began yesterday with a kick off party, featuring some great food and networking opportunities. It was really exciting to put a face to a name with some of our current and past clients. We are hoping the show gives us a chance to introduce our great products and services to members of the APPA community. I will be checking in again on behalf of our team soon!

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 4: Tools make them Easy

2010-07-07T20:43:52Z

When most facility managers or building service contractors think of cleaning inspections they think of getting out the old notebook or filling in a tedious checklist form. The process of performing cleaning inspections can be very slow and monotonous. However, with the right tool set, you can speed up the process and find out just how simple cleaning inspections can be.

At first it may take a bit of getting used to, but a well trained and experienced inspector with the correct tool set should be able to knock out a decent sized facility inspection in a few hours or less. Deciding on a tool set that is the right fit for your facility and responsibilities is a key element of the quality program equation.

While there are many different options out there, we recommend you look for something that is not too technically involved. In other words, we would recommend

a program that does not take a lot of front-end work to get running. Usually more technical programs build a barrier for the less technically savvy supervisors or inspectors, thus they often times are not widely adopted.

Within the category of easy-to-use janitorial inspection programs there are still plenty of options. We suggest you visit some of the software reviewing sites out there or spend some time using a search engine like Google to find a few options. Once you have narrowed it down, request online web demos from the various tool developers. Online demos are usually free and offer a great and quick way to see what the quality program is all about.

After deciding on a specific software tool, spend some time training your personnel and letting them do practice inspection runs. Maybe even spend some time showing them the resulting data and explaining what parts are important and why. The more the inspectors and supervisors understand in regards to the quality program, the more they will use it and the easier it will be for them to perform inspections.

With all of the technology available today, there is no excuse for building service contractors, facility managers, site manager or cleaning supervisors who are not taking advantage of tools built for their industry. These tools make so many of the daily tasks much easier and quicker, thus freeing up time for more important things.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 3: Build Support from your Cleaning Staff

2010-06-28T21:01:18Z

Introducing a formal quality program and cleaning inspections can be tough on a cleaning staff as well as management. Whether you’re implementing from the top down in an in-house organization or are working with your cleaners as the owner or supervisor of a small janitorial company, it’s always a struggle to get immediate buy-in from your cleaning staff when it comes to a new initiative. Cleaning personnel might initially see inspections as a way for superiors to “check-up on” or “babysit” them. This creates an idea that there is nothing positive about implementing a formal quality assurance process and will only mean a heavier load of responsibility and work for the staff in the future.

Since we know that formal quality programs are integral to the success of both small and large cleaning organizations it is very important that supervisors convey the merits of quality to their staff appropriately. Ultimately, the cleaning staff should understand why quality matters and be in support of a formal program that will reward their good cleaning and help them fix poor habits.

We realize gaining staff support can be a tall task, however a good way to begin building such support is to call a meeting and discuss quality, why it is important to the overall success of your organization and why you want to implement a formal program to manage it. More importantly, In order to build true and long-lasting support for the program, you need to lead by example. Performing in-the-field routine cleaning inspections yourself is one of the best ways to show your cleaning staff that quality is a priority and it’s a focal point for the organization as a whole. This is why the third reason on the list of why you should perform routine cleaning inspections is to build support from your cleaning staff.

Leading by example is consistently one of the best tactics that supervisors or managers can use to build support from staff members. In an article titled “Leading by Example” Bruna Martinuzzi discusses the topic at length and even sites a few ways you can apply the concepts immediately to your office life. She says things like “If you ask a co-worker to do something, make sure you’d be willing to do it yourself” and “if you implement new rules in the office then follow those rules just as closely as you expect everyone else to follow them.” She states that it is very important to staff enthusiasm that the managers and supervisors really buy in to the new initiatives if they want the staff to follow suit.

10 Reasons Why You Should Perform Routine Cleaning Inspections - Reason 2: Speed up the Process

2010-06-25T19:13:48Z

“Practice makes perfect” is an adage that can be very easily applied to the cleaning inspection process. The thinking behind it also provides us with our number two reason why you should be performing routine cleaning inspections: to speed up the process.

It is no surprise that most Facility Managers do not have hours each day or week to spend on a quality control program and process. However, they might be able to squeeze in 15 minutes per day or an hour per week. We believe with the right tool set and ample practice you can really cut down on the amount of time it takes to gather valuable data and improve the cleanliness of your facility.

In fact, most inspectors that we talk with have said that after their first few times out they are spending a fraction of the time they used to spend on quality control while getting better results and more usable data.

We can all agree that quality control is an extremely part of managing a facility or providing housekeeping services, we can also agree that not many managers or supervisors have an excess of time to spend on such activities. With those two things in mind it makes a lot of sense to dedicate some time to learning and practicing quality control processes in order to speed them up and ultimately save time while increasing the level of cleaning in you buildings.