Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Team Cleaning with Effective Tools

  • 09/01/16
Super Coach Pro vacuum

ProTeam helped WMU achieve better environmental quality with the Super Coach Pro vacuum, which removes microscopic dust and pollutants from the air.

Western Michigan University (WMU) opened its doors over 100 years ago. Today, its facilities house about 24,000 students from all over the world who are all there to pursue greater knowledge. For Steven Gilsdorf, director of building custodial and support services, removing unwanted matter like dirt, particulate and allergens from university facilities is key to fostering learning.

“We are cleaning for health and safety, not just appearance,” says Gilsdorf. “The key to that is removing matter.”

In order to become removers of unwanted matter, Gilsdorf and his team implemented a customized version of Team Cleaning they call Process Cleaning. Like a Team Cleaning program, Western Michigan custodial uses specialists who take on fewer tasks with state-of-the-art equipment to improve efficiency and clean to a higher standard. A typical Team Cleaning program has four specialists; WMU added three more specialists to fit the specific needs of their facilities.

At WMU, the standard restroom specialist, vacuum specialist, light duty specialist and utility specialist work in tandem with a light bulb specialist, a project specialist and a refresher specialist. This specialist “refreshes” restrooms and common areas, empties trash and addresses spills.

“Overall, we have seen cleaner buildings, because our method of cleaning removes more,” said Gilsdorf. “We maintain an APPA level of a high two, and we do not see the levels of illness and absenteeism that other schools and universities near us have had.”

In the last two years, Gilsdorf also expanded the use of ProTeam backpack vacuums to all departments of the school. With an advanced filtration system, the Super Coach Pro model backpack captures microscopic dust and pollutants, helping to further the goal of removing unwanted matter.

“Before ProTeam backpack vacuums, we were dusting lobbies and common areas daily,” says Gilsdorf. “The backpack vacuums made a huge difference. The environmental quality is so much better. We are now dusting those areas once a week.”

www.proteamnextgen.com

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management September 2016 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Year-Round Schools Require Year-Round Indoor Air Quality Planning

    While many schools are out for the summer, year-round schools follow a more “balanced” schedule with shorter, more frequent breaks spaced throughout the school year. Even though this offers educational benefits, these facilities have less downtime for building maintenance. This can become an issue when facilities managers overlook the importance of routine HVAC maintenance and air duct cleaning services.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Auburn University Debuts $224M STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., recently opened its new $224-million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, the largest research construction project in the university’s history, according to university news. The facility measures more than 265,000 square feet and brings six departments from the College of Agriculture and College of Sciences and Mathematics together under one roof.

  • ZeroEyes, Academic Innovators Partner to Provide Safety Solutions

    ZeroEyes, which produces a multi-analytics weapons detection and threat intelligence platform, recently announced a partnership with Academic Innovators, according to a news release.