Digital Revolution in Cleaning was the theme of the Knowledge Day of the Dutch Association of Cleaning Research (VSR). Smart Buildings, cleaning robots, sensors in trolleys, wearables, cleaning 4.0 and Big Data: just a few of the subjects that were presented and discussed on Wednesday 09 September during the VSR 2015 Knowledge Day.
Digital Cleaning & Cleaning Research
The Association of Cleaning Research held it's bi-annual Knowledge Day in combination with a Summer Drink for it's 180 members in Maarssen, The Netherlands. The outcome of this information day was that the application of digital and technological solutions for the cleaning industry is really taking off while, at the same time, the interest within the industry in robotising and digitising is growing rapidly.
Impact on contract cleaners
Both businesswise and privately there is no way around it: the process of robotising and digitization is happening everywhere around us. What the impact and opportunities of these processes could be for the cleaning industry, was made clear during the Knowledge Day. VSR had invited a total of 6 guest speakers who each viewed the theme of "Digitization of the cleaning industry" from their own perspective.
Paul Harleman – Vileda Professional
Paul Harleman (VSR and Vileda Professional) who acted as Chairman for the day, introduced the theme: "In 2011 we investigated the use of robots in the cleaning industry. Today we want to look at what has happened in the meantime. Judging from the large number of registrations we can conclude that this topic is very much alive today!"
Peter van Baalen – University of Amsterdam
Professor dr. Peter van Baalen (UvA) started his presentation by stating that the technological developments are happening rapidly. "We are now in the 4th industrial revolution and the 2nd machine era. This is all about replacing muscle power with thinking power. Generic platforms like Uber and Airbnb are leading here."
Can a robot replace a cleaner?
"When you put all these factors together and link them to internet, we can tie the physical and virtual worlds together. This is called the 'Internet of Things'. Can a robot really replace a cleaner? Maybe simple tasks can be copied first? Maybe sensors can tell whether your rubbish bins are full or empty?"
Measure everything, including the cleaners…
Dirk Tuip of FacilityApps showed how Apps make the entire cleaning process easier. According to Tuip we should not think in terms of restrictions or competitors but instead of innovation and making datastreams accessible. "In sports everything and every athlete is measured continuously. Why don't we do the same for our cleaners? What is their individual performance, their efficiency?"
Jesse Scholtes – Robots don't function without people
Ir. Jesse Scholtes (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) showed the complexity of robots. "For the cleaning branch robots will be able to perform repetitive tasks like floor maintenance. But human supervision will always be needed. The cognitive capability simply isn't there."
Richard Bormann – Fraunhofer Institute Germany
Richard Bormann cooperated with the largest German cleaning company Duschmann to do experiments with robots for the emptying of bins and floor cleaning. The outcome? Both tasks can easily be performed by robots. "A robot is capable of doing 100 square meters in one hour. That's 5x as fast as a human being."
Paul Havinga – From fragrances and usage patterns to dust…
Professor dr Paul Havinga (Universiteit Twente) talked about sensors. According to him they can measure and detect everything. From fragrances and usage patterns to dust. "The telephone is a big sensor. In a large building you can measure where it has been busy and, consequently, where it will be more dirty."
Peter Mudde – Vebego Innovations
Peter Mudde of Vebego Innovations presented the outcome of a test at Schiphol Airport. He added that the use of wearables (clothing, smart watch, glasses and telephones) could be very interesting for cleaning tasks.
Food for thought
The VSR Knowledge Day and Summer Drink altogether proved to be an exciting event full of interesting speakers, new opinions, practical solutions, future pictures and all relevant facets of the upcoming digitalization and automation of the cleaning industry.