1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
Don't slip up an safety
Page 55
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by W. L. Stone, technical director. Progress Floor Treatments Ltd.
Ask any management if their garage is ifety conscious and the invariable answer ill be in the affirmative. There are fire Ktinguishers, first aid kits and large notices iving details on what to do if there is afire
r electric shock resulting in apparent death. ,nd yet there is often a hidden menace on the ery floors on which staff are walking and rorking. This is borne out by statistics cornlied by RoSPA on the number of accidents workshops, garages and filling stations /Inch resulted in more than three days bsence. Fire and explosion counted for 81 asualties in 1966 and electric shock ccounted for 34 plus one fatality. Falls, owever, accounted for 827 men who were bsent for more than three days—plus four Asti accidents.
Accidents on floors are usually due to ipping and falling due to an obstruction on re floor, or slipping and falling. Both of these re within the scope of management to put ight. A gangway system into which no bjects should be allowed to protrude is a imple way of countering the loss of manower caused through the first example.
■ ccidents due to slipping and falling can
■ ossibly be due to the wrong type of flooring ir because of bad maintenance on the right ype of flooring.
Generally, accidents caused through the vrong type of flooring occur when asphalt, hermoplastic, rubber or mastic floors are ised where spillages of grease, solvents or oil pccur. These materials attack and soften the urface so that it becomes slippery. The emedy is to replace by a suitable surface vhich is not liable to attack by these naterials. Spillages will obviously still occur, out regular mopping will help to eliminate lippery patches. Putting bad maintenance right is probably he easiest to correct and the solution to this langer hazard can often be more economical han the original method of cleaning.
Clean floors in many commercial garages ire something which often comes relatively ow down on the priority list. One of the easons is the expense of labour involved in naking this into a full-time operation. There s some justification for this, because my ..ompany has found that in a cleaning bill, iineteen shillings out of every pound are pent on labour.
But if reasonable standards are to be naintained, it is less expensive to bring [bout a system of maintenance which is damned and which is adhered to rather than o have lost working hours of shop floor vorkers who are away sick because of a prained or broken leg. Another consideraion is that working conditions are immeasurbly improved if they are clean. Surveys carried out by my company have also indicated that costs of cleaning and maintenance can be cut by as much as 25 per cent while improving cleaning standards. And it is in the realm of the expensive nineteen shillings out of every pound cost of labour that give the opportunity for the most dramatic savings.
A careful and detailed analysis of the problem is not very often accepted as being necessary in the field of cleaning and maintenance. Yet it is as necessary if acceptable standards of cleaning at an economic price are to be achieved as it is for the accurate costing of man-hours required to take down a gearbox. The objectives in both cases are the same.
First the size of the job must be accurately assessed. Secondly, acceptable standards must be defined and agreed. Lastly, the time required to do the job to these standards must then be calculated and related to labour requirements. Materials and machine requirements must then be assessed and the most effective deployment of labour forces decided upon. This is the type of task that representatives from companies such as ours undertake at no cost. To achieve the maximum effect, it requires knowledge of modern cleaning techniques, machinery and cleaning preparations, as each assists the other in reducing the size of the job and ultimately the man-hours required.
Probably the most expensive product availahle to keep floors in a clean condition is elbow grease. Today, there are machines which will carry out the same tasks at least ten times faster than manual labour and because a cleaning machine is not subject to fatigue will invariably clean far more efficiently.
There is no shortage of well designed and efficient equipment to meet demands of mechanized cleaning, no matter how specialized. Furthermore, the versatility of the equipment makes the capital outlay involved exceptionally modest. Just one machine, for example, can be used for scarifying, sanding, scrubbing, spray cleaning and polishing showrooms and offices.
With trained operators, there is no reason why a mechanized maintenance force should not prove to be as productive as the men on the shop floor, providing they are carrying out a maintenance programme which is planned for the maximum effectiveness.
The purpose of a planned maintenance programme is to reduce greatly the manhours required for routine maintenance, while at the same time maintaining high standards. This is probably a simpler task in the automotive industry than in a general office building, as the floor surfaces are more uniform and the surfaces do not vary so much.
Planned maintenance involves three quite distinct operations:—
(a) Ideally all floor surfaces should be treated before they come into use. Porous floors, such as wood, cork and concrete should be treated with a penetrating sealer such as Bourne Seal which is available in clear as well as pigmented forms. Non-porous floors should be treated with an emulsion polish. The purpose of this initial treatment is to provide a thin protective shield that will keep stains and dirt on the surface where they can be easily and quickly removed.
(b) Correctly treated floors will require the minimum of routine maintenance. Daily maintenance is not likely to demand more than mop sweeping in light traffic areas, damp mopping in heavy traffic areas. A supply of a solvent degreaser should be kept handy to use to remove grease and oil deposits. A solvent degreaser such as this will break down the heaviest and thickest oil and grease in less than 10 minutes. Then the floor should be scrubbed with water and the slurry then simply and quickly removed with a hose or suction drier. It is important, however, to check that the floor surface is one for which the solvent degreaser is recommended. For instance, our Cleanway may be used on all stone, granolithic, concrete or terrazzo floors, but not on linoleum, bituminous or rubber surfaces. Regular machine buffing will ensure the maintenance of a high finish.
(c) In time, all polishes eventually create a build-up which traps dirt and causes discoloration. This build-up must be removed and the floor retreated periodically—say every six months—if the floor is to retain its original attributes and if the routine cleaning is to be kept to a minimum.
Today, the removal of such a build-up is a comparatively easy task due to modern strippers and emulsion polishes. Some emulsion polishes—Hilight is an example—are ammonia sensitive and can be easily and quickly removed by an ammonia solution.