The recipe for success in cleaning specification
October 1st 2006 If you know what you're doing,preparing a cleaning specification is a piece of cake, says Dr Eric Brown,Cleaning Research International. But if you don't, you may end up getting burnt... Try this simple test. Take out a pen and write down the recipe for Angel cake. List all the ingredients with their weights; note the mixing instructions; record the length of time in the oven; specify the temperature of the oven. What's that? You didn't learn Domestic Science at school? Very well, take out a pen and write down a cleaning specification for a building of 10000 square metres. List the requirements for different room categories with appropriate frequencies, indicate the correct procedures to achieve acceptable standards of cleanliness; schedule the periodics; pay the £250K or so per annum, based upon your own estimation. What's that? You didn't learn Cleaning Science either? What can you do? One option is to invite cleaning contractors to quote, based upon their own perception of what needs to be done. This is fraught with risk. The most dramatic illustration of this risk we have encountered at Cleaning Research International was demonstrated by a provincial airport who had done exactly that. When we were called in they were trying to judge which bid to accept from a range that varied from £150K per annum to £705K per annum! Each contractor was going to 'clean the airport'. Inviting contractors to prepare a specification is a natural response for any facilities manager. After all, they are supposed to be the experts. Unfortunately, their idea of what is required may not be your idea of what is required. And if you select the higher bid you may be paying too much but if you select lower bid, the standard of cleaning may be too low. We had experience of this several years ago at a major international airport. Arriving passengers consistently responded in questionnaires that the airport was dirty. This had a negative effect on airport management bonuses. Cleaning Research International were therefore invited to carry out an audit of cleaning standards with a view to ending the contract without risk of litigation. However, as we became more deeply involved it became apparent that the reasons for dissatisfaction stemmed from the fact that an inadequate budget had been allocated for effective cleaning to be carried out. Consequently a new specification was developed on behalf of our client, based upon the considerable success we had enjoyed over many years in collaboration with Manchester Airport. The result was that the airport finished up paying more for their cleaning but all of the customer complaints went away. It is not usually our experience that clients are paying too little for their cleaning. But without the yardstick of a competent specification against which to judge, it is impossible to be certain whether they are paying too much or too little. Our years of experience in preparing cleaning specifications for large organisations including the British Library, the Bank of England, the British Medical Association and 18 Universities and Colleges, has given our clients the confidence of knowing precisely what they should be paying. Most recently,working on behalf of the Wellcome Trust, CRI have been involved in specifying the cleaning requirements for their newly refurbished building at 183 Euston Road which includes a large Life Sciences exhibition area, public rooms and auditorium. For those facilities managers adventurous enough to prepare their own cleaning specifications, the newly revised textbook Cleaning Specifications – their preparation and implementation, which supports a training course of the same name, will be available from October. For further information on all of the services offered by Cleaning Research International, call the number below or use the free reader enquiry service at www.cleaning-matters.co.uk More articles from Cleaning Research International: | 
