Sodexo
In a facility this size, the cost is not the cleaning. It is the walking. Sodexo’s teams were spending an estimated 30 to 40 minutes moving between cleaning tasks across the site — until the system started telling them which areas did not need them yet.
The labor was going into the distance between the work.
The Factory of the Future is a sustainable manufacturing site with a rising number of visitors and a large footprint to manage. The building owner saw an opportunity to run restroom management differently and allocate resources better, and worked with Sodexo, its facility management partner, to deploy TRAX SmartRestrooms.
The deployment covers throughput counters, feedback tablets, stall occupancy lights, digital signage and the Clean+Inspect mobile app.
What makes this case study useful is where the saving came from. Not from cleaning faster, and not from cleaning less — from not walking to the places that did not need attention.
The Challenge
A large manufacturing facility spreads its restrooms across a footprint that takes real time to cross. Before the deployment, Sodexo’s teams were spending an estimated 30 to 40 minutes walking to various areas of the site to carry out cleaning tasks. That time is not cleaning, it is not idle, and on a fixed schedule it is unavoidable — you cannot skip a location if you have no way of knowing it is fine.
The site also had a growing number of visitors, which raised the standard on restroom availability and cleanliness at the same time as it made the demand harder to predict.
The Solution
Throughput counters went into every restroom in the facility, monitoring visitors entering and exiting continuously and giving Sodexo real-time data on usage patterns. That data identifies peak hours and lets staff allocation follow demand as it changes.
Feedback tablets were positioned inside the restrooms so visitors can report on cleanliness and facilities immediately. Indicator lights above each stall door show availability in red and green, and the number of stalls available is displayed on digital signage outside the restroom. The signage also carries cleaning schedules and estimated walking times to other restrooms in the facility — a small detail that matters a lot in a building where the next restroom might be several minutes away.
Staff were equipped with the Clean+Inspect mobile app, giving them real-time cleaning schedule updates, immediate notification of cleanliness concerns, and one place to report issues from.
The mechanism behind the result is straightforward. The system identifies the areas that do not need immediate cleaning and updates the schedules accordingly, so teams are sent where the demand is.
What TRAX deployed
- Throughput counters at every restroom in the facility, monitoring entry and exit continuously
- Feedback tablets inside restrooms for immediate visitor reporting
- Red and green indicator lights above stall doors showing availability
- Digital signage outside restrooms showing stall availability, cleaning schedules and estimated walking times to other restrooms
- The Clean+Inspect mobile app for staff, with real-time schedule updates and issue reporting
- Automatic schedule updates that skip areas not requiring immediate cleaning
The Benefits
- Cleaning routes built around actual demand instead of a fixed round, cutting the walking time that produced no cleaning
- Labor hours reduced and cost saved while cleanliness standards held
- Peak hours identified from throughput data, so staff allocation follows the day
- Visitor feedback answered promptly rather than at the end of a reporting cycle
- Estimated walking times on the signage, so visitors are directed to a restroom that is genuinely closer
- Less waste and better resource allocation across the maintenance operation
Before the deployment, staff spent an estimated 30 to 40 minutes walking to various areas of the facility for cleaning tasks. After installation, the system identified areas that did not require immediate cleaning and updated the schedules, letting staff reallocate their time. That produced a reduction in labor hours and cost savings while maintaining cleanliness standards, alongside prompt response to visitor feedback and better allocation of maintenance effort.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Send the team where the demand is
See how TRAX helps facility management partners cut the labor that goes into distance rather than cleaning.