Contract cleaning can, at times, be the most competitive and price driven market in business.

Cleaning is considered the ultimate commodity, and an open tender will attract providers of all sizes who are willing to subcontract for a fraction of the cleaning award wage.

JWN Facilities Management was recently invited to tender for a hunter based shopping centre. The existing contract holder was failing in their performance duties, but were delivering a contract cost somewhere around $22 an hour. Our employees earn a base wage of $25.16 an hour plus super and portable LSL (before considering overhead, chemicals and equipment), so on the surface it seemed impossible to compete.

Instead, JWN re-imagined the way the contract is delivered and changed both the scope of works and the way they were performed, including a time and motion study.

The end result was

• providing a “team” of 8 cleaners per night deployed in a synergistic manner in order to achieve massive efficiency gains and cutting the amount of labour time required by 60%. The exact method to achieve this will remain a secret to everyone but our clients
• The team starts work well out of trading hours ensuring no interference with centre operations and all but eliminating common area safety and insurance issues
• replacing industrial scrubbers that added cost and down time with a chemical treatment
• replacing a multi level car park ride-on scrubber that moved inefficiently with sweeping and pressure cleaning (faster, believe it or not)
• engaging with store holders to explain the new system, discuss expectations given budgetary constraints, and seek feedback

This case study is hardly unique, with a similar set of pricing demands and circumstances seen on large contracts almost every week.

JWN seeks to offer a solution to budget concious customers that gives both quality and the knowledge their cleaning provider is employing people in a legal and ethical manner.

JWN offers our services to clients of all sizes from the smallest offices to the largest shopping centres while taking lessons from one to apply to the other.

For more information please contact 02 4964 1019 (Hunter), 02 4925 7717 (Newcastle), 02 4365 7597 (Central Coast) or email frontdesk@jwngroup.com