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Nilfisk, manufacturers of professional cleaning equipment, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with specialized robotics company Blue Ocean Robotics. The partnership is designed to complement Nilfisk’s existing partnerships in the robotics field and accelerate its development of autonomous cleaning equipment, a product category that is expected to comprise up to 10 percent of the company’s revenue within the next five to seven years.
According to Nilfisk CEO Hans Henrik Lund, the partnership is a yet another step toward meeting customers’ needs for precise and reliable cleaning.
“We estimate that direct labor accounts for about 70 percent of the total cost to professionally clean a building,” he said. “At the same time, the professional cleaning industry has one of the highest employee turnover rates. For these reasons, we anticipate our customers will want and need autonomous cleaning equipment that maximizes productivity by freeing cleaning professionals to perform higher level tasks.”
Lund emphasized that Nilfisk is already well underway with its technological transformation.
“Our goal is to develop our product portfolio in close collaboration with highly-specialized technology companies that are the best within their fields, as exemplified by our ongoing relationship with Carnegie Robotics and our joint development of the Advance Liberty A50,” he said. “We believe our partnership with Blue Ocean will further accelerate our industry thought leadership and autonomous product development.”
A key component of the strategic partnership between Blue Ocean Robotics and Nilfisk is close collaboration with Nilfisk’s customers. Such collaboration is a proven approach for Blue Ocean Robotics, which has built its business around “disruptive innovation,” a customer-focused collaboration process that involves a number of integrated technology platforms (TP-X) and a set partnership model (RoBi-X).
“There is a very good match between Blue Ocean Robotics’ technology and capabilities and Nilfisk’s solid market position that provides an optimal foundation for creating the cleaning industry of the future,” said Blue Ocean Robotics’ three co-CEOs, Claus Risager, Rune K. Larsen and John Erland Østergaard.