Bhupesh Pathak
C&W is consistently implementing best practices and innovations towards maintaining its building efficiency. Upgrades put up in place were: tagging of all floor emergency lights and fire extinguishers; installation of an Automatic Power Factor Control panel along with the right capacity of capacitors to maintain the desired power factor; taking advantage of the open-access power distribution system and resorting to renewable energy to save costs as well as contribute towards a sustainable environment; implementation of 52 weeks preventive maintenance calendar across all facilities; implementation of permit to work system; displaying call tree matrix in the control room; use of white board instead of the regular paper checklists to conserve paper; adapting to smart cleaning, use of green seal chemicals and dilutors for applying right quality and quantity of chemicals to enhance life of assets.
“One of the biggest challenges in our industry is the non-availability of trained manpower for janitorial services. Since most of the buildings are LEED certified, the industry expects trained manpower well conversant with green seal or R-series cleaning chemicals and well-trained to handle sophisticated equipment. However, there is an inertia to upgrade this category from unskilled to semi-skilled, if not skilled labour. Further, ageing of equipment and building structure leads to fair wear and tear, breakdowns and issues with structural integrity. The continuous pressure to reduce costs is a contradictory requirement that adds to challenges in the FM world but at the same time leads to innovative ideas for achieving it.” says Pathak.
While there is no alternative to a focused approach on upgrading skillsets of the available manpower, Cushman & Wakefield endorse mechanised cleaning vis-a-vis manual cleaning, since availability of skilled manpower will always be a challenge. Hence, organisations will have to move away from manpower cleaning to more sophisticated mechanised cleaning. “This not only adds to the quality but also results in considerable cost optimisation,” comments Pathak.
