Going leaner and greener
October 1st 2009

Martin Cox is director for OCS' Cleaning Service Stream. For industrial contract cleaning, it's all about quality, cost and sustainability.Gerardine Coyne reports

When OCS began in the 1900s, its main business was window cleaning. It branched out into other areas of cleaning in the 1930s and has never looked back."Today we have a significant percentage of our expected turnover of £550m in the industrial sector," says Cox.OCS' industrial sectors currently include: aircraft manufacture, printing, automotive, dockyards and airports. In such heavy industrial arenas, safety is key."Health & safety is paramount in everything," says Cox,"but especially in industrial cleaning as the risks are so much higher.

"We have a very rigorous health & safety programme that every employee goes through.The core skills are common to almost every contract, but there will be additions and variations." The second important process for OCS is training induction, again individual to each contract. In terms of 'craft skills', the core is covered by the OCS Merit Training Programme.There are 16 basic modules, and in some industrial contracts – such as submarines – all the required skills are covered by the modules. In other industrial contracts, such as in food or steel production, there are very specific cleaning skills required, unique to that site. In these cases OCS has a programme that every single operator must go through."They are inevitably 'buddied up' with someone," explains Cox,"and at the end of the training, it's signed off so that no one is allowed to carry out that work until they have been specially trained."

Economic operations

"The industrial sector is a huge sector, so it's hard to generalise, but there's no question that the sector has been badly affected over the last 18 months," says Cox. How has OCS been hit? "The automotive sector has been the worst affected," states Cox.However, it's not all doom and gloom."Amongst others, the food production sector has been the least affected.We also do quite a lot of work in defence and that's barely been affected at all." At least our weapons are clean then, no dirty fighting for the UK.

"But out of every challenge comes an opportunity," claims Cox. "We are with these clients over the long term, and the current economic problem is short term.We are constantly evolving using lean working and smart thinking: Is there any human waste/activity? Any inefficiency that we can drive out? Almost invariably we find that there is, therefore at a stroke,we can deliver additional efficiency which could be more work for the same charge, or the same work for a lesser charge." The same work for a lesser charge is an obvious benefit for the client at the top of the pile, but what about the contractor, and at the bottom, its employees? "When we re-engineer a contract we try and ensure benefits for the employees,to encourage a higher grade of person and greater retention," offers Cox." Most of our clients work with us very closely on that. But we are all under intense economic pressures so we can't always achieve what we want to achieve as quickly as we'd like to."

Again Cox looks to the long term."If we look at a fairly matured contract, it's interesting to see how staff stability has risen. I can think of one large contract in particular where we now have a large waiting list of people wanting to come and work with us," claims Cox."That's a sign of success for the client.They are getting a service which is proven to be high quality, for a lesser charge and the employees are happy.That's what lean engineering, if done correctly, can bring." So what are the drawbacks of lean engineering? Cox says it's not so much drawbacks as timescales and contractor input."There's a huge investment for us as a business in delivering lean engineering. However, it is applicable to any kind of contract. Lean engineering is a way of thinking, not a way of cleaning."

A sustainable effort

Cox says for OCS' long term chemicals strategy, the focus is on, "quality products that have a significantly smaller environmental impact". Some of this is regulation driven, but Cox and his team are also actively researching products.However, Cox is adamant it is not about appearing on the bandwagon, these products must work."We can all use 'green' chemicals that don't deliver quality – that's very easy. Our goal is to use green chemicals that deliver the level of quality that our clients demand.

"The top three client demands will always be:Quality, value for money and sustainability. And if you're not delivering quality – who cares about the price?" The environment is still a big concern, even with the current economic challenges."There is not a major client of ours who is not talking to us all the time about sustainability," states Cox, and surprisingly he does not believe that client hands are being forced by regulation."I believe overwhelmingly it's companies thinking about their CSRs.They recognise they need to go further and more quickly than legislation is demanding."

So how does OCS engage with sustainability requirements? "To deliver the best sustainability requires working with the client and any other contractor that is on site. It has to be a holistic solution, not individuals working in isolation,"explains Cox."A simple one is waste streaming. From the very start of producing waste it is handled immediately so that the whole process is done in the most efficient way, at the least possible cost, using the most recycling." But it's not just a case of engineering sustainable solutions for clients.Cox says OCS also looks for sustainability within its own organisation."It's right at the top of our agenda when we talk to our suppliers – in terms of machinery for example – we ask them,'What's the real sustainability of your product? How can we help to advance that?'

"For the future of industrial cleaning, it is the easing of the economic situation which will allow development of innovations, and the lessening of the environmental footprint.We can't plot out every step of the future, but we know where we have to get to and we're trying to go in the right direction."

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