The other night I watched a debate about intelligence planning and the military. There’s an old intelligence- community axiom that goes, “Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics.” Military experts understand that logistics cause results.

It got me thinking about the cleaning industry. Most cleaning organizations spent a fair bit of time reading, thinking and talking about strategy. The trouble is, logistics matters more.
Strategy is theory or ideas. Strategy is passive. It’s behind the lines. It’s theoretical. Much of it is discussed data-free or at least data-lite.

I decided to do a bit of research on strategy versus logistics in the cleaning industry. I went through past issues of industry magazines for the past couple of years. I also reviewed seminar and conference topics. I wanted to see what the industry is talking about, see what they’re thinking about. I wanted to see if there were any patterns on the topics of strategy and logistics.

Cleaning strategies are widely discussed. They include team cleaning, day cleaning, green cleaning, co-op cleaning and designing customized cleaning programs for all kinds of situations. There are strategies for better floor care and carpet care. Strategies for better disinfecting, workloading and budgeting.

Logistics are all about how the work gets done. Setting up the actual systems and tactics that will make up the operation are elements of logistics. The cleaning result is directly related to what kind of tools and equipment are employed. Who are the personnel? What knowledge do they possess? What do they know about the other employees in the operation? How is the cleaning area defined? How many decisions and variables are there with the chemicals we use? What are the time expectations? To implement the logistics of any operation, factual information, all through the ranks is necessary.

While leafing through the trade journals, I saw a tremendous number of articles that deal with strategies. On the other hand, I found almost nothing on the logistics of cleaning. Perhaps that is because logistics are a much more difficult issue.

Passive vs. active
You can strategize from your armchair. Play along with me for a moment: Imagine we are standing on a street corner. I give you a crate filled with cats of all shapes and sizes. I open the box and out come the cats.

Your assignment, I explain, is to get the cats across the street and back in the box. It’s really not very hard. The cats are tame, the box is big enough, and the street isn’t very wide. How would you complete the assignment?

No matter how much time you spend strategizing about how to corral the cats; getting the cats back into the box depends on the logistics.

Recently, I attended a symposium hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. Cleaning managers from across the country were invited to discuss how they have improved safety and efficiency through their cleaning methods.

As I listened to the presentations, I realized not one speaker talked about strategy. They all focused on logistics.

One of the presentations was on how the University of Texas wanted to improve cleaning-employee training. They built a training classroom just for the custodians. Managers got out their tape measures and determined how much space was available. How many students could the room support at one time? How big should the desks be? What kind of storage would be necessary for training materials and equipment? Who would provide the training? Where will course materials come from? How will students be evaluated? What will be hung on the walls? These are all logistical issues that needed to be addressed before the training program could work.

Logistics demands information
Consider the physical layout of the buildings you clean. We once helped a client who was sure he could not possibly get workers on the job any faster. Under their system, it took workers almost 20 minutes after they had punched in to actually begin cleaning.

We started looking at logistics. Where was the time clock? Where was the custodial closet? How long did it take to walk from the closet to the work area? How often did employees return to the custodial closet for supplies?

Check-in areas were relocated near the time clock. Cleaning workers received all of their supplies for an entire shift as soon as they checked in. Logistical adjustments like these helped save this organization thousands of dollars in labor costs and increased cleaning effectiveness.

Simplify
What if every combat soldier was allowed to pick his own weapon and ammunition? How would the Army ever keep them properly supplied? It sounds ridiculous, but that’s exactly what some cleaning organizations do. A contractor in New Mexico reported recently that its 85 cleaning employees did things 85 different ways. What an operational nightmare!

If you have been toying with discovering better business strategies, you may want to focus on fixing the logistics of your cleaning operations. Standardize tools, equipment and training. Focus on implementing effective methods and tools for each worker. Limit tinkering with the logistics that provide good results and improve everything else. In the trenches, everyone needs to know not only their function, but also where everyone else is and exactly what is expected.

“Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics.” If you don’t improve logistics you’ll feel like you’re herding cats.

John Walker is a regular Contracting Profits columnist. He is a veteran building service contractor; owner of ManageMen consulting services, Salt Lake City; and founder of Janitor University, a hands-on cleaning management training program.




POSTED ON: 10/1/2003