It’s a time of major disruption for factories and plants – one that will shape the future of the industry. Always looking to find more efficient and effective ways of operating; industrial businesses are turning once again to technology. There will be huge changes to come over the next few years, and companies have already identified that they’ll need to adapt or fall behind.
This disruption is driven by the growing availability of automation and robotic technology (no longer the preserve of high-volume operators), as well as a new understanding of how data can shape and improve operations. This shift has allowed the industry to not only see the value of this innovation, but to realise that it will soon become the standard.
So, factories and plants are adopting technology to improve their operations. But the real question is: why aren’t they doing the same for their cleaning processes?
Four industrial cleaning innovations that will change the way you operate
1. The rise of the machines is a good thing for your business
When it comes to running an efficient production line, companies have been eager to implement machines that help their teams take care of the more repetitive tasks. Not only does this speed things up, it also introduces an added layer of consistency – after all, it’s much easier for a machine to carry out a task 500 times without needing a break to refresh themselves.
To further increase their efficiency, factories and plants need to bring in the same technological change to their cleaning operations. This doesn’t even have to involve automation – professional cleaning suppliers are constantly innovating to improve the range of manually operated machines, such as floor scrubbers, that are available to industrial businesses.
Whether it’s a reduction in the time or chemicals needed to complete a task, just like their production line counterparts, cleaning machines deliver improved efficiency and consistency in standards. It just goes to show that bringing machines to the factory floor can drive productivity and performance, wherever they’re implemented.
2. Get the job done when the pressure is really on
Cleaning factory and plant machinery can be a real challenge. Even the easier-to-reach areas of your heavy-duty equipment take some serious effort to get them looking like new again – and realistically, your teams shouldn’t have to use that much elbow grease to get the job done. Not when there’s a much easier way.
High-pressure cleaning equipment has always been immensely versatile – good for both indoor and outdoor use, depending on your requirements. Now, however, high-pressure cleaners are set to become the number-one choice for any business in need of heavy-duty cleaning.
Recent years have seen a huge leap forward in how precise and portable these cleaners are – not to mention the ever-expanding range of chemicals that allows your team to clean environments quickly and effectively. Even better is the fact that, through high-pressure cleaning, you can easily protect and prolong the lifetime of your machinery – saving you money and making your factory more productive than ever. Can you afford not to put the pressure on?
3. Reduce, reuse and recycle – the future of industrial waste management
Waste management in factories and plants can be a tricky business. Sometimes, there just seems to be no avoiding the by-produce of your operations and the focus then turns to how you can dispose of your waste as effectively (and as responsibly) as possible.
Industrial companies have a huge responsibility to explore how they can reduce the amount of waste created in their facilities – not least because solid waste accounted for roughly 5% of global emissions in 2016. There’s also no getting round the fact that environmental regulations will get tighter and tighter with compliance more strictly policed.
Thankfully, in this area, the innovation has been front heavy. Instead of working out how to deal with waste, companies are looking at how they can prevent its creation or at least finding ways to reuse and recycle. Ultimately, industrial businesses need to explore how they can become part of the Circular Economy, operating in a way that is not just sustainable, but that also supports the local environment and communities around them.
4. Discover the difference your data can make
A key innovation that factories and plants are beginning to get to grips with is the use of data to improve their operations. From real-time information about product states on the production line (a vital element of manufacturing pharmaceuticals, for example) to the longer-term analysis of patterns and trends across the business, industrial companies are seeing the benefit of feeding data back into their processes.
The good news is that they can extend this to their cleaning operations, further allowing them to save time, effort and money. Alongside the data generated from machines, Management & Mobility solutions give your team the ability to track their activity in meaningful ways and analyse it with platforms and dashboards designed to offer insights for improvement.
There’s always more data being created across your factories and plants than you might realise. Finding a way to harness it and use it to drive business performance will be vital for future success.
Meet the technology to change the future of professional cleaning
These four innovations are just a handful of the ways industrial companies can improve their cleaning processes and drive overall productivity through the implementation of technology. After all, they’ve made the business case for automation and data use on the production line – so now it’s time to extend that thinking to every aspect of their operations.
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