ACS Is Innovating for Health and Environment!

The workplace looks nothing like it did six years ago. Labor shortages, hybrid offices, automation, robots, internet-connected sensors, and the highest inflation in decades have reshaped how buildings get cleaned and how cleaning companies survive. For Jill Frey of Cummins Facility Services, every one of those pressure points aims in the same direction: technology and the discipline to use it. She shared her thoughts in a session at the Altus Summit at ISSA headquarters on June 9. The new moat is … technology! Frey framed technology as the modern version of a castle’s defenses. “Historically, a moat protected the castle,” she said. “Today, technology creates separation between companies as competition increases.” With private equity continuing to enter the industry, she argued, the gap between companies that adopt technology and companies that stall this adoption keeps widening. “Your real moat is not the technology itself,” Frey said. “It’s how you adopt, create, and utilize the technology. That’s the moat. That sets you apart.” Adoption starts with understanding Cummins started building a technology-friendly culture in 2015, when Frey gathered her employees and told them they were going to learn what “internet of things” (IoT) meant. Soon, she said, workers were spotting the term everywhere, even on their refrigerators. The company added “Tech Talk Tuesdays,” sessions built around conversations and hands-on time with new machines and robots and let its own leaders decide which products to buy. It also ran technology road shows, dropping equipment at client sites for a week to see how it would get used. “Technology adoption starts with understanding, not just purchasing,” Frey said. She compared the alternative to the impulse buys that pile up at home, like the closet organizer that sits unopened on the dining room table for six months. Tools only pay off, she said, when companies teach people how to use them. Robots and an aging workforce The average age of Frey’s workforce is 54, and that shapes how she thinks about automation. “Robots handle most of the autonomous tasks,” she said. “They reduce physical strain.” The payoff shows up in safety numbers: Trips and falls had been the top driver of the company’s worker compensation claims, and Frey credited automation with bringing them down. “We have less trips and falls because of our robots,” she said. The machines also make the remaining work more appealing. A company survey found employees were more willing to stay. “Our employees want to work for us longer if they have someone helping them, or if they have a robot helping them,” Frey said. Because the demand comes from the floor, she built a process around it. Employees who want a robot add their name to a list, then complete roughly six weeks of education on how the machines fill labor gaps, improve consistency, and increase productivity before they earn the right to run and maintain one. The result is ownership in every sense. Crews name their robots, give them faces, and even run Instagram accounts for them. “They’re part of their family,” Frey said, and that personalization, she noted, tends to push productivity higher. Data becomes the deliverable Since 2017, Cummins has used IoT and occupancy data to rewrite its scope of work, shifting toward cleaning on demand and giving clients hard evidence of the service. Robot reports document hours worked, square footage covered, and water saved, and monthly summaries show exactly how much chemical the building used. Frey treats sustainability as part of the technology story, not a separate one. Why European standards matter Frey, who does extensive work in Europe, believes the continent runs about three years ahead of the United States regarding technology. She pointed to the European Data Act, passed this year, which requires buildings to share their data securely and at no cost. The change is controversial for an obvious reason. “Data’s gold,” she said. “You’re giving up the gold.” It also raises the stakes on cybersecurity. Standards set in Europe tend to migrate. Any building headquartered in Germany or Amsterdam pulls those expectations across the Atlantic, and Frey expects them to arrive regardless of the current political climate. That means contractors will need to track consumption closely. “We have to understand our water consumption,” she said. “We have to understand our chemical consumption. We have to consider our energy consumption.” AI is not optional Frey placed the industry in the early, narrow stage of artificial intelligence (AI), with more general capability likely within a few years and a far more powerful super intelligence arriving in roughly five to eight years. Whatever the timeline, her message to the room was blunt. “Please use AI,” she said. “You haven’t started? Please start. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s only going to get faster.” Companies that sit it out, she warned, risk becoming someone else’s acquisition. Smart buildings, new revenue The same shift opens a door. Sensors, indoor air quality monitoring, and energy management give building service contractors a way to diversify, Frey said, and offering energy services can help protect janitorial budgets that otherwise get squeezed on price every few years in a race to the lowest bid. She framed technology adoption as a chance to deepen client relationships and add new revenue streams rather than defend old ones. Training is the future No matter how good the technology, none of it works, Frey said, without training. Cummins employs an ambassador named Jerry whose job is to make sure people understand and enjoy their work, and the company runs a mandatory annual training event that stretches four to five hours and is offered both in person and online. In the past, the curriculum centered on Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance, safety data sheets, and basics like ladder and cord safety. Now it covers smart buildings, tools, building data, robotics, and technology adoption, and completion is tied to the company’s CIMS certification. “Training has to be the future,” Frey said. “We can’t allow our employees to go into buildings and not understand what they’re doing.”

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ACS Is Innovating for Health and Environment!

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