What is Team Cleaning?
In Team Cleaning, individuals are
specialists. Each member is responsible for a specific duty rather then
performing the dusting, vacuuming, removal of trash, and restroom cleaning
within a given area or zone. The size of a team is determined by a building, but
there are four primary specialists
Who are the specialists in a team and
what are their responsibilities?
Light Duty Specialist:
What is the biggest advantage of Team
Cleaning?
Fewer People - Less Equipment
Visualize a cleaning situation in an
eight story building. To Zone Clean the eight story building, each janitor works
a 12,000 square foot floor in a four hour shift. He performs every cleaning
task. The outcome is that eight people, eight vacuums, eight trash barrels, and
eight restroom carts are needed for the entire building.
In the same building using a team system
with backpack vacuums, there are six specialists. One pair, comprised of a
light-duty specialist and vacuum specialist, are assigned to floors 1-4, while
an identical pair to floors 5-8. A restroom specialist and a utility specialist
work throughout the entire building. The outcome with a team is six people, two
vacuums, two trash barrels and one restroom cart.
What are some other advantages of
Team Cleaning?
Supervising a team is less time
consuming. When a supervisor checks a zone-cleaned building, he must look at
each floor to determine the overall quality. To check the team-cleaned building,
the supervisor must check two floors and a couple of restrooms and he can judge
the overall quality.
Training team members is less
complicated and time-consuming. If a person is absent for zone cleaning, a
supervisor must teach the new person several tasks.
Empty the trash. With a team, there is a
double check system. Because the vacuum specialist follows the light-duty
specialist, he can enter an office and immediately goes to the trash can, checks
it, and begins vacuuming from that point.
Energy is saved by cleaning buildings
with teams. As a twosome completes an area, the lights are turned off. Floors
2,3,5,6,7 are finished, and the lights are turned off. The specific areas of
each floor where the restroom and utility specialists are working remain
lighted.
Individuals in a team have a thorough
knowledge of their functions and responsibilities. As the cleaning industry
becomes more complex and issues such as recycling are addressed, it's important
that employee job descriptions are well defined. With teams, this is far more
possible than with zones.
