Opportunity: Taking Clean to the Next Level
Hickory Creek Middle School in Frankfort, Illinois, sees nearly 900 students, grades 6-8, come through its doors every day during a typical school year. Part of the school district’s mission is to provide students with a “quality learning environment.” Keeping a clean environment is one way to help students and staff focus on what is important – high academic standards and levels of excellence. In other words, “we care about clean,” says Grant Mackall, Branch Manager at GSF USA, building service contractor for Hickory Creek Middle School.
In order to maintain the highest standards of clean and to match their academic standards, GSF USA partnered with ICE Robotics, a global leader in the cleaning industry. Together they decided to add Whiz, an autonomous vacuum sweeper, to the cleaning team to allow janitorial staff to focus on more detailed, deep cleaning.
Part of the challenge for the GSF staff at Hickory Creek Middle School was being able to free up people to focus on more detailed tasks. Two of the seven hours a day were spent vacuuming, not giving the staff enough time to focus on other pertinent tasks. “We want to improve the availability of our people to focus on other high-level activities. We don’t want to replace people, we want to take the clean to the next level,” said Grant. By adding Whiz, GSF has been able to help the janitorial staff reallocate labor for a higher quality clean.
Solution: Addition to the Staff
ICE Robotics worked on site with the GSF and Hickory Creek teams to show them how to set up Whiz and teach cleaning routes. Hilda Arredondo, Account Manager of the cleaning staff at the school said, “Whiz is really simple to set up and easy to use.”
Hilda deploys Whiz in five minutes and runs routes every day in the entryways, hallways and open areas, as opposed to the old riding cleaner that requires two hours per day. GSF’s staff has noticed a difference in the cleanliness of carpets based on the amount of dust and dirt Whiz picks up – it captures much of what goes “unseen.”
Results: A Cleaner Environment for Students
Hilda says, “Whiz has given me and my staff a lot of extra time to accomplish our work.” By deploying Whiz, the GSF staff has freed up an additional two hours of time each day to focus on other high priority jobs. The time back has allowed them to focus on sanitizing, dusting and deeper cleaning in the bathrooms.
Overall, adding Whiz has freed up 10 hours of work a week. By the end of the year, the staff will save 520 hours, giving the cleaning staff 520 hours of production time back to focus on higher priority cleaning. This new level of clean allows students and faculty to focus on what is important: achieving academic excellence!
Download the case study here: GSF USA and Whiz at Hickory Creek Middle School_Case Study
