“If you can measure it and track it, you can change it for the better.”
That’s Guy Robarge’s philosophy. As the Director of Process Improvement at FBG Service Corporation, it’s literally his job to measure success.
Founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1960, FBG’s territory now extends throughout the Midwest and beyond.
“We have district offices in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Colorado. We also have a Managed Services Division with over 300 subcontractors across 48 states and Puerto Rico.”
With over 1,200 employees, FBG is also one of the top employee-owned janitorial companies in the country. Because Cleaning Specialists have a stake in FBG, they are especially motivated to work toward the company’s success.
It’s no wonder that metrics are so important to FBG. In fact, FBG offers its clients a proprietary information management tool, which enables them to work together to optimize efficiency.
“We look at increasing production and reducing costs,” says Robarge. “We look at the equipment that we buy and how it influences our labor costs. What’s the long-term savings that we can pass on to the customer?”
For FBG, the results are in — and an important part of the solution is ProTeam® backpack vacuums.
The Cordless Advantage
Before FBG added the cordless GoFree® Flex Pro to their fleet of backpack vacuums, Robarge did a careful analysis.
“I personally did a study comparing a corded backpack with a battery backpack,” says Robarge. “The results were remarkable. With the battery backpack, we were able to clean a space in about a third of the time.”
Robarge’s comparison also revealed another benefit of cordless vacuums.
“Over time, you inevitably get nicks in your cord, and then it becomes non-usable and an OSHA violation. As a large company, we might buy hundreds of vacuum cords every year.”
FBG’s employee-owners also sing the praises of going cordless.
“I have never found an employee who tried the cordless backpack and wanted to give it up.”
The Good Kind of Problem
Having solved the problem of maximizing efficiency, Robarge’s ProTeam vacuums have given Robarge another kind of puzzle to solve: what to do with the savings.
“Do I capture the savings by reducing the amount of time spent in that building? Do I streamline the labor force through attrition? Do I invest that savings back into the building? Or do I pass that savings down to the customer?”
It’s a good kind of problem to have.
“Since every client is different, we’ve employed all those strategies,” says Robarge. “It’s a win-win situation for FBG, our customers, and our employees.”
