Problem:
A large manufacturer in South Carolina operates a plant with nearly 1M square feet of space. The plant hosts key customers, partners, and leadership regularly, and must be maintained to the highest standards.
“I have the highest expectations for the cleanliness of our facility,” said Trent McJunkin, Facilities and Maintenance Manager of the facility. “We are a flagship plant which means we host important guests and must maintain a clean facility. On the flip side of that, if you want to have employees take pride in their work, you have to provide a clean, healthy, and safe workplace.”
Solution:
The manufacturer partnered with The Budd Group for its janitorial services. The Budd Group staffs the facility with custodians who work closely with personnel to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness across the building.
“To be successful it boils down to systems and processes, and The Budd Group has a great system in place,” McJunkin said. “If you put a good cleaner in a bad system, they’re not going to be effective. So, it’s important to us to leverage best practices and technology to empower cleaners.”
Working closely with McJunkin, The Budd Group rolled out autonomous floorcare equipment and IoT-enabled dispensers to enhance cleaning efficiency and quality. The autonomous robots are used to clean common area floors which frees up time for cleaners to focus on highly visible cleaning tasks. The connected toilet paper, paper towel and soap dispensers notify cleaners when they need to be refilled, enhancing efficiency because cleaners no longer have to conduct random stock checks. This also ensures building visitors have a pleasant restroom experience because the dispensers are never empty.
“Janitorial companies typically check restroom dispensers manually,” McJunkin said. “Because of this, you can run the risk of having an outage and that’s a big dissatisfier for the people using the restroom. Ensuring restrooms are always stocked helps us to provide a premium experience to people who visit our building every day.”
The company also appreciates the expertise, passion and dedication of The Budd Group’s leadership. It was important to them to find a partner they could trust.
“The Budd Group’s leadership is top-notch,” McJunkin said. “I need partners who are passionate about their industries. The Budd Group cares, and I consider them subject matter experts. They are people I lean on who have taken the pressure off of me to manage our janitorial program. I see how this trickles down. Their cleaners feel like they are supported, which provides a better experience for people in our building.”
Sustainability is also important to the business. The facility management department is always looking for ways to balance sustainability with costs.
“The Budd Group has been great with their extensive janitorial experience but also very open to my outside-the-box way of solving problems,” McJunkin said. “We tag team that. How can we provide a premium experience sustainably, even if it is not the conventional way we’ve typically done things.”
Results:
The manufacturer has experienced the following benefits of working with The Budd Group:
- The Budd Group helps the business provide a high-end experience for building visitors through enhanced facility appearance and always-stocked restrooms
- By using autonomous cleaning equipment, The Budd Group improves cleaning efficiency and redirects staff to more important cleaning tasks
- The business has access to a team of on-call subject matter experts to help lessen the burden of managing its janitorial program
“The Budd Group is always willing to sit down and talk about future improvements and key learnings from other customer sites,” McJunkin said. “I appreciate their creativity and always thinking of the next best thing. I’m impressed by their expertise and willingness to share it so frequently.”