Dr. Charles Gerba and the University of Arizona recently conducted a study of the “germiest hot spots” in K-12 schools. Researchers from the university swabbed classrooms and common area surfaces at six schools to determine the relative numbers of total heterotrophic bacteria and coliform bacteria on frequently touched hard, non-porous surfaces.

According to the study, the most contaminated site in the school was the cafeteria table, followed by the computer mouse — which harbored nearly twice as manybacteria than desktops. Also on the list: the restroom paper towel handle, drinking fountain, restroom sink faucet, library table and the computer keyboard.

These study results came as a surprise to many in the industry as the article sparked conversation on the social networking site www.MyCleanLink.com. Instead of the cafeteria table, many members suspected restroom surfaces and door handles as the “germiest” touch points in a school — a common suspicion in the industry, but unsupported by statistical findings.

Even as far back as 2005, studies from NSF International, an independent not-for-profit, found that drinking fountain spigots and cafeteria trays harbored more than10 times as many germs as a toilet seat. Even the common student’s hand had almost 1,500 more bacterial cells than commonly cleaned door handles and knobs.

No matter which surface harbors the most germs or bacteria, preventative measures are available. Workers should pay attention to cleaning frequencies and the use of proper cleaners and disinfectants. Cleaners can also prevent cross-contamination by promoting a proper hand hygiene program with students and staff.

By Corinne Zudonyi, Editor

Recognized for portraying an upscale, modern image with their sleek gadgetry,touch-free soap and towel dispensers also help improve hand hygiene by reducing cross-contamination in public restrooms. But increasing public perception and improving hand hygiene isn’t everything these touch-free dispensers do for facilities. These dispensers also take on a tall role of controlling facilities’ spend on soap and paper towels, two commodities that suffer from over consumption and waste in public restrooms.
Being able to control the appropriate dose of soap and the required length of paper toweling per restroom patron, facilities are able to recognize significant savings from touch-free dispensers.

Touch-free Soap Dispensers

Suitable for use in all types of commercial facilities, touch-free soap dispensers are most commonly found in high-traffic facilities’ restrooms such as in airports, restaurants, office buildings, universities and hospitals. These dispensers, which are sensor-activated, pump and dispense a controlled amount of soap forrestroom patrons who place their hands underneath the unit’s nozzle. Touch-free soap dispensers function to conserve the amount of soap while also stemminggerm transmission by eliminating a common touch point in the restroom.
Touch-free soap dispensers give facilities the ability to control the amount of soap being dispensed through adjustable dosage settings. Thus, facilities can eliminate excess waste and overuse by restroom patrons who otherwise are allowed to manually take as much soap as needed. Setting dosages enables cost savings through prolonged product life between refills and reduced maintenance visits.
Not all soap is the same, so dosages should be based on the type of cleanser, how concentrated it is and how well it can clean restroom visitors’ hands.
In a facility where occupants have to remove grease and industrial soils from their hands, liquid paste soap is often required. The recommended dosage for this type of soap in a touch-free dispenser should be set for 2 milliliter to provide sufficient skin coverage and distribution of surfactants over the skin surface.
For applications of milder skin soiling, a lower dosage of product would be sufficient for proper cleaning. Liquid soap should be set no lower than 1 milliliter and doesn’t need to be any higher than 1.5 milliliter.
In most public spaces where general hand washing occurs, facilities can benefit from the cost savings of foam cleansers. With the least amount of product required to cleanse hands, a setting of 0.4 milliliter to 0.7 milliliter is adequate for foam soap.
More concentrated formulas such as foam soaps enable a smaller dose size, which in turn enables a refill to last longer before needing changed and yields more hand washes per cartridge.
If facilities are concerned about usage, foam soap has been found to be eight times more spreadable than liquid soap and reduces the quantity of product required for an effective hand wash, according to a recent study. Interestingly, using less product does not equate to less efficacy as a further scientific study shows that there is no significant difference in the cleaning ability between a 0.7 milliliter dosage of foam soap compared to a standard 1.1 milliliter dosage of liquid soap.
Facilities also recognize a savings in water consumption with foam soap use. When using foam soap for hand washing, restroom patrons use 16 percent less water than when using liquid soap. Water consumption can be reduced by up to 45 percent by adopting a foam soap hand washing technique of dispense, lather, rinse and dry. For every 100 people per facility, the use of foam soap for hand washing can equate to an annual water reduction of up to 14,790 gallons of water.
Soap dispensers can also be set to dispense on a timed delay when activated. Most touch-free systems require that a person removes their hands from the actuation zone and then bring them back under again for a second dispense if needed. This design helps reduce the amount of soap being used and reduces the risk of accidental dispensing of the product.

Touch-free Towel Dispensers

Supply waste is most apparent with paper toweling in high-traffic facilities. As a result, manufacturers have developed touch-free paper towel dispensers that help minimize the amount of paper being used during the hand drying process in public restrooms.
A facility that currently uses c-fold or multi-fold towels can save upwards of 25 to 30 percent on paper usage by implementing a touch-free electronic paper towel dispenser. And with manual dispensers, restroom patrons have the option of cranking a lever, pulling down on an exposed piece of paper, or turn a knob to get as much paper as they so choose.
With touch-free automatic dispensers, however, restroom users are encouraged to only take one sheet of paper toweling that is pre-set to a specified length by the facility.
These lengths vary by manufacturer, but most dispensers allow for facilities to choose a small, medium or large length (8-, 12- and 16-inches long, respectively). Medium-sized length typically is recommended for most facilities because with the short length patrons tend to take too many sheets and with the long length, people are usually programmed to take two sheets anyways.
Access to multiple sheets of paper after the first piece is also pre-set depending on facility type. Typical times vary in two-second intervals, from as low as two seconds up to as high as an eight-second delay.
In a high-traffic restroom such as an airport or an arena where people enter and leave quickly, longer lengths of toweling and longer delay settings are often recommended, since most guests are in a hurry and soon realize that one towel is adequate for drying hands. By utilizing a longer timed delay, it can save a high-traffic facility upwards of 25 percent less paper use.
In an office building or K-12 school, however, occupants may not need as much paper toweling, so the delay can be long. Ideally, appropriate time delays between sensor activations should cut down on product waste.
Touch-free paper towel dispensers also allow facilities to set up their dispensers to dispense a shorter sheet on the second dispense. Known as a paper savings mode, this feature shortens the second sheet length by either 12 percent or 25 percent depending upon what setting the facility has it on.
How it works is after a user requests for the first sheet and then asks for another sheet within three seconds, it will be 12 to 25 percent shorter than the first sheet. The dispenser then goes back into regular mode upon the next dispense, which likely is for a different user. Implementing dispensers with this function is most suitable in facilities where patrons are expected to take more than one sheet.
When reducing consumption is the name of the game in public restrooms, facilities can recognize significant savings by implementing touch-free soap and towel dispensers. The cost of the units themselves have dropped in price, making them an even more attractive purchase for facilities. The return on investment is also often recognized quickly in the declining overuse of soap, paper towels, energy and water consumption.

By Nick Bragg, Deputy Editor

File cabinets upon file cabinets are home to thousands of accounts at Armchem International, a jan/san distributor in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. These storage units and the paper files inside them have become the target of a crusade Owner Andy Brahms has set out for his company in an attempt to go paperless.

“We are guesstimating conservatively that we are going to save $40,000 to $50,000 a year going paperless. That does not include the human cost in hours that we save. We are just talking about hard goods,” says Brahms.

That is where the rubber hits the road with jan/san distributors, who are taking a new paperless route to run their business. Instead of hard copies of bills, invoices, statements and delivery receipts, distributors are turning to software suites, servers and computers to maintain and track their business and store important customer account information.

The overarching benefit, according to distributors, is the efficiencies that are gained in a paperless enterprise, namely with man hours and the saving of office space that does not have to be filled with file cabinets. The same employees who used to print, copy and file paperwork can be used to work with potential and current clients.

“If you cross train employees to do other things, they become more customer-service oriented,” says Brahms, who adds that employees enjoy having variety in their daily routine. “You are able to do other things without hiring more people because they have three or four more hours in the day that they don’t have to devote to what they were doing before.”

Some distributors have set up electronic filing systems that include portable document format (PDF) software, paperless accounting programs and customer relationship management platforms. When married together, these systems allow staff to view bills, invoices and orders pertaining to the client.

How It Works

Brian Sanford, president of Sanford Company in Erie, Pa., wanted to eliminate the busy work created by printing physical copies of documents, especially when it came to backorders. At times, three or four pieces of paper were produced because of one backorder, Sanford says.

So, he took the company paperless. Sanford started with a simple word processing software program to handle his company’s account receivables and payables. His company then graduated to eliminating handwritten and typed invoices and delivery forms. If a hard copy of this information is needed now, it is printed on a simple piece of 8- by 11-inch stock paper on a laser printer.

“Our delivery receipts are now the only required piece of paper in our business,” says Sanford, who still stores them. “I save them long enough so that if there is a problem within a two-month time span I can find it.”

When Sanford’s company needs to fax an invoice or receipt, it uses a faxing application on its computers rather than a traditional fax machine and paper. The company also prints its own catalogs and pages of its catalog, instead of sending it out to a printer.

“I organize my own information,” Sanford says. “I don’t have any literature stored on site, none. I can print the same quality of literature that my supplier can but that adds another layer for them, so why bother?”

Going paperless requires an investment in devices such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs for sales staff. This creates the need for software applications that allow for paperless remote order taking and client management.

“We download (information) on the laptop onto the server. Once the material is downloaded into the system, we can manipulate or share it without passing a piece of paper to anyone,” Sanford says. “That takes the paper out of the order entry side of the process completely.”

Those distributors attempting to go paperless are putting their entire catalog on their Web site. However, according to Brahms, it’s a good idea to print a few hard copy catalogs for customers who still prefer to look at a physical document rather than shop online.

Some distributor Web sites allow customers to view their account along with tracking and placing orders, which can cut down on the amount of paper used on both sides of the transaction. If distributors do not feel comfortable about having client information stored on an Internet server, they can set up a system in which clients can request electronic copies of documents sent to them through e-mail.

A Value-Added Service

A paperless initiative can be used as a value added proposition with current and potential clients. At H.T. Berry Co. in Canton, Mass., the company offers a program called savings solutions, in which the concept of a paperless relationship is front and center. The more H.T. Berry can save on paper, postage, printing and man hours, the more efficient the company can serve its clients, says Chris Nolan, the company’s president.

One of the components to this program is a system for general ledger coding in which electronic invoices have the client’s own particular account codes on them. This cuts down on the back end accounting procedures for the client which, as a result, saves them man hours and paper costs.

“In our industry we all have the same products,” Nolan says. “You have to show people value-added stuff. If you are not on the bus with value-added service, you are going to get run over by the bus. That’s the bottom line.”

Another benefit of going paperless, Nolan says, is with the company’s Web site. Before the paperless initiative was launched in his company, sales calls lasted 10 to 15 minutes. Now, with the sales force giving Web site tours to clients where they teach them how to keep track of their accounts online, some sales calls are now an hour.

“Clients have millions of questions and there is nothing better than being on a sales call when people have questions,” says Nolan, who adds that his company’s clientele has been receptive to the concept. “It allows you to spend time with yourcustomer, they get to know you a little bit better.”

Payroll, time clock management and human resources records can also be paperless with intranet Web sites that are on a secured network. Paychecks can be distributed through direct deposits. Some distributors are also attempting to do most if not all of their banking without paper. Systems can be set up with some banks in which financial transactions and record keeping are done online or through a secured network.

“Our bank transactions have reached about 40 percent paperless, maybe 50 percent,” Sanford says. “Of all of the entities that we have to deal with, the ones that are the most resistant to paperless are banks. Banks like to use paperchecks.”

Some distributors are using barcodes and scanners in their warehouses to pick orders. These systems remove the need for paper orders, since all of the inventory and order movement in the facility is automatically entered in the company’s system through scanner devices and a WiFi system.

Clients will need to be informed of the changes that will be occurring with order processing, invoicing and billing. This may mean a mass mailing to customers in order to gather e-mail addresses and fax numbers while informing them of any changes they may experience.

It is suggested that distributors who want to go paperless should assign a point person that takes the lead on the initiative. This person should understand both the internal and customer relationship benefits of going paperless as well as the challenges that the company faces.

Brendan O’Brien is a freelance writer based in Greenfield, Wis.

Manufactures Weigh in on proper Extraction Techniques and Emerging Trends

Carpet extraction is a hot-button topic that causes both confusion and debate among facility and cleaning managers. Techniques and frequencies often change and are largely impacted by facility type, location and desired level of clean.

To help clear up some of the confusion, Housekeeping Solutions asked equipment manufacturers to weigh in on the top questions asked by end users. The panel included:

• Bob Abrams, product manager for vacuums and carpet extractors at Plymouth, Minn.-based Nilfisk-Advance (manufacturer of the Advance, Clarke and Kent brands)
• Geoff Greeley, vice president market development and support at Racine Industries, Inc. in Racine, Wis.
• Fred Hekman, principal engineer, advanced product development at Holland, Mich.-based Tennant Company, Commercial Products Division
• Adam Schaffer, territory manager a Tornado Industries in Chicago