Team Cleaning Made Easy
Why Team Cleaning
•
•
•
•
•
•
Higher quality due to consistency of movement
Increased predictability of results
Less equipment
Clear accountability
Easy to add a new teammate
Final inspection takes place while members are still
available
Why Team Cleaning
• Higher productivity
• Less theft
• Less cost to customer
• City Wide believes team cleaning to be the way to best
clean a building
Team Members
•
•
•
•
Light duty Specialist
Vacuum Specialist
Restroom Specialist
Utility Specialist
• All positions have distinct roles and responsibilities for
success
Light Duty Specialist
•
•
•
•
•
•
Performs trash run and scheduled dusting
Requires brute on wheels, liners, microfiber duster/rag, and cleaner
LDS is the first to move through the area in the predetermined route
Pull trash in the areas in accordance with the scope of work
Normally we pull all trash nightly
Change liners if trash is wet or liner damaged
Light Duty Specialist
• Also if scheduled, dust as needed in designated areas
• LDS leaves trash liner out from desk if the Vacuum
specialist needs to vacuum under desk
• If not, they replace trash can to position and move on
• Stage Brute Trash in designated areas so that they don’t
leak or spill
• Production rate of 15-20,000 sq/ft/hr
Vacuum Specialist
•
•
•
•
•
Performs all vacuuming functions
Preferably using high efficiency vacuum
Follows LDS in exact route
Has 50-100 ft extension cord
Vacuum in “as needed” manner with specific focus on
highly traveled routes
• Vacuums under desks IF the LDS has left out the trash
can
Vacuum Specialist
• Edge vacuuming is performed on a periodic basis as
schedule
• Vacuum is the preferred method to clean all hard surface
floors over dustmops or brooms
• Vacuuming is the slowest task, be careful to not assign
additional duties
• However, we want to use the vacuum the full time in the
building
• 12-15,000 sq/ft/hr production
Restroom Specialist
• Cleans all restrooms
• Needs cart, mop system, disinfectant, liners,
consumables and peroxide cleaner
• Production rate is 2.5 - 3 minutes per fixture
• Use glasses and gloves at all times
• Clean restrooms starting in area LDS starts and follows
path
• Completely finish all restrooms and then assist Utility
Specialist to finish building
Utility Specialist
• Usually the most senior member of team
• Responsible for final inspection, lights and addressing
absenteeism
• Cleans entryways and breakrooms and any other area
not clearly covered by other three positions
• Helps coordinate trash and final clean-up
• Loosely follows path of LDS
Kick Off the Flow
• All positions start at the janitor closet
• Light-duty specialist starts the workflow
• Vacuum specialist starts immediately behind the lightduty specialist
• Don’t worry about how closely the two positions start
because very quickly the light-duty specialist will get
ahead of the vacuum specialist
Kick Off Continued
• Light-duty specialist pulls all trash in the path, and leaves
the trashcan either on the desk or out from the desk for
the vacuum specialist
• If the vacuum specialist sees the trashcan out from the
desk, then this is the signal that this particular desk
needs to be vacuumed under
• If trashcan under desk, then no need to vacuum there
• FOLLOWING THE PATH IS PARAMOUNT TO
SUCCESS
Work Flow
• Light-duty specialist moves as quickly and efficiently as
possible so that they can finish in time to circle back and
help either the restrooms or the utility specialist
• Light-duty specialists it should also take great care to
stage building trash on a liner to prevent leakage
• Trash to the dumpster should be at once at the end of
the night of possible
Vacuum Specialist Flow
• Vacuum specialist moves quickly through the building following the
light-duty specialist and in the same path nightly
• Using the same path will allow the vacuum specialist to become
familiar with the area that needs to be cleaned and will help
determine what is the appropriate amount of time to be spent in the
area
• The vacuum specialist is typically the constraint to higher
productivity
• Don’t have them do anything except vacuuming until vacuuming
complete
Utlity Flow
• While the vacuum and the light-duty specialists are moving
throughout the building, the utility specialist is addressing the
common areas, lobby’s, and breakrooms in the area where the first
two positions are working
• Utility specialists will typically have either maid cart or brute so that
they can do all functions in these areas
• Utility is last to clear an area with a final inspection and the turning of
the lights
Utility Continued
• If the utility specialist gets done before the vacuum
specialist in a given area, they will help either the lightduty specialist or the rest of specialist
• There may also be some dusting in the area that needs
to be done but to use utility specialist can help out with
or perhaps detailed work
Restroom Specialist
• Restroom specialist should leave the janitor closet with
everything they need to clean the restroom
• They should work in the area that the light-duty
specialists in first and gently follow that same path
• Productivity restroom specialist has to be 2 ½ to 3
minutes per fixture and generally speaking there is no
opportunity to cut time in restrooms
Restroom Specialist
• Restroom specialist will continue cleaning restrooms
only until they are completely done
• At that point they restock their car for the next night and
then circle back and help assist utility specialist
What’s the deal?
• It may be obvious to you by now that we are trying to get maximum
time out of the vacuum specialist
• The reason is that we only want to buy one vacuum
• Multiple people can help with light-duty utility or restrooms but only
one vacuum person per team is viable
• Start the vacuum person on their route and do everything possible to
keep them vacuuming until the entire job is done…vacuuming is the
bottleneck!!!
One more Thing about
Vacuuming
• Vacuuming is also by far and away the best way to get dirt out of the
building
• We want a vacuum as much and as often as we can within the time
constraints of the building
• If the vacuum specialists would get done early, we would prefer they
continue with edge vacuuming or under desks
• The goal high-performance cleaning is to take dirt out of the
building…. Vacuuming is the best way to accomplish the task
Timelines
• From a workflow standpoint, timelines and checkpoints should be
established for different parts of the building
• This will give the crew certain milestones that they need to meet in
order to get the building clean and the allotted time
• the utility specialist will be responsible for making sure they get the
team gets out of a certain area on time with the quality this desired
Equipment is important
• With a high efficiency vacuum, microfiber hand tools, a
high efficiency mop system, and selected chemicals the
crew can perform at a level that will make the location
very competitive
• However, if the crew uses old mop buckets, upright avcs,
cotton rags, and dangerous toxic chemicals, then the old
productivity standards will apply
What about dusting?
• Dusting should be done in sections rather than nightly
• We need to do a great job vacuuming and dusting in
order to only dust weekly
• High efficiency Vacuums and microfiber once again key
• If able, utility will dust along with LDS
• Figure dusting person out AFTER you have planned for
LDS, Vacuum and Restrooms timelines
What if less than four people?
• All four functions to be performed regardless of number
of people
• Divide time allotted by number of people to get hours per
person
• Start position planning with calculating time for Vacuum
Specialist and then Restrooms.
• TWO PERSON EXAMPLE
• Start actual work with LDS followed by vacuum specialist
• LDS will probably then take the tasks left that take the
most time since their productivity is higher
• Vacuum person takes next task
Debrief the Night
•
•
•
•
•
How did it flow?
Did we get it all done?
How accurate were the checkpoints?
Where did we lose time?
What adjustments need to be made?
• What is the goal for time tonight?
Watch Videos
• Watch training vids on team cleaning and workloading
for more information.
• The END….