The American Institute for Cleaning Sciences (AICS), recently released its white paper, Cleaning Industry Trends 2015. The report identifies nine major trends in the cleaning industry and assesses their impact on the future of the sector.

The nine trends identified in this report include:

1. Greater Upper Management Intervention

2. Increased Buyer Sophistication

3. Focus on Supply Chain Management

4. Buyer Bargaining Power on the Rise

5. Outsourcing Prevails

6. Departmental Financial Analytics

7. Industry Standards

8. Human Resource Complexity

9. Sustainability Sustains

AICS President, David Frank, asserts that a proactive and effective response to these trends requires businesses to re-evaluate the effectiveness of their current sales and operational platforms, in order to remain relevant and competitive in the marketplace.

A number of forces have come into play that stand to radically shape and transform the facility maintenance landscape of the future. This report illustrates that continued reliance on legacy systems and old ways of doing things is a recipe for failure. The industry is changing at an increasingly rapid rate and this report discusses strategies to anticipate and successfully respond to marketplace trends.

Trend Watching

In business, everything begins and ends with customers; therefore, knowing, understanding, and applying customer trends and insights will forever be a holy grail to industry professionals.

1. Upper Management Intervention

White collar decision maker

Outcome and results driven

Bottom line focused

Uses business intelligence metrics

Attracted to a menu of business solutions

Seeks operational efficiencies most efficient way to deploy resources

Implications — Shift message from operational/tactical to strategic

2. Increased Buyer Sophistication

Millennial buyers entering workforce

Technically savvy

Access to industry knowledge

Employ data-based decision making

Seek transparency and relevant metrics

Attracted to salespeople with financial capabilities (white collar skills)

Implications — Match sales model/process to buyer

3. Focus on Supply Chain Management

Fact-based strategic sourcing

Improved planning for procurement

Lower operational expenses

Increased visibility

Ability to track and monitor compliance

Real-time business intelligence

Supply chain partners that are aligned with current business priorities to improve overall performance

Implications — Integrate supply chain management into key account marketing

4. Buyer Bargaining Power on the Rise

Reverse auctions

Buying cooperatives / groups

Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI)

Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO)

BSCAI Purchasing Advantage Program

Purchasers combining locations to drive price concessions

Implications — Position your organization to profitably participate

5. Outsourcing Prevails

All market verticals are evaluating outsourcing

Total cost reductions

6. Departmental Financial Analytics

Operational forensic techniques

Benchmark data

Workloading

Risk assessment of area types

Labor optimization techniques

Inspection and improvement

Zero-based budget methodology

Return on investment (ROI)

Implications — Become fluent in the financial metrics that drive your customers success

7. Industry Standards

Validate business processes

Define best practices

Establish standard operating procedures

Provide a prequalification tool for outsourcing

Serve as a department gap-analysis framework for evaluation and improvement

Implications — Commit to industry standards and learn how to help your customers achieve compliance

8. Human Resource Complexity

Management, supervision and worker skill training

Worker productivity

Effective human resources management policies

Worker safety compliance. OSHA is more active.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will become fully effective in 2015 for companies with 50 or more employees

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforcement

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) compliance

Implications — Leveraging labor-saving solutions is at a premium

9. Sustainability Sustains

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Sustainability policy creation