With the increasing use of standards and controls in all processes of production, keeping a plant free of pollutants of any kind has become mandatory. This has been a booster for the cleaning equipment manufacturing and services industry.

Manufacturing processes, no doubt, make for a major component of any industrial plant. Equally important, however, is the maintenance of the plant, which includes keeping it clean and safe. It comes as no surprise then that the industrial cleaning equipment sector is growing in tandem with the growth of the Indian industry. It’s a phenomenon that is worldwide in nature. According to the report titled ‘Industrial Cleaning Market by Ingredient, Application and Product - Global Trends and Forecast to 2020’, the market size of industrial and institutional cleaning chemicals was USD 39.24 billion in 2014, and is projected to reach USD 50.24 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 4.2% between 2015 and 2020. Rising awareness on health and hygiene, safety liability on the part of the company or an institution, and growing demand from the application industries are the major drivers for the market. Moreover, the market for industrial cleaning equipment is set to grow at an impressive pace in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in India.

At an exhibition of cleaning equipment organised earlier during the year by Clean India Journal, Puneet Mishra, Managing Director, Comac India, had said, “India is constantly changing and developing and has a huge potential for the cleaning industry. This growth is directly proportional to the efforts in the market towards educating customers on new technologies, service orientation and reach. Results are bound to follow as Indians are keen to adopt better technologies and methods in every sphere of their life. Thus, in essence, growth is dependent on the ethos of the company to serve the industry with quality of staff, right product mix, investments and strategies.”

On similar lines, Varun Karthikeyan R, Managing Director, Roots Multiclean Ltd., had commented: “Cleaning has now become something which cannot be ignored by people and with the increase in costs and poor availability of manpower, mechanised cleaning solutions have now become the only way forward.” Interestingly, the demand is no longer limited to the traditional industries such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, hospitality or engineering but also covers almost all sectors, many of which may not even be in the manufacturing space. This includes shopping malls, airports, educational institutions, IT, IteS, etc.

A recent publication providing an outlook on the India vacuum cleaner market provides an idea about where the cleaning equipment industry is heading for. This outlook to 2020 by Ken Research states that the vacuum cleaners market in India has witnessed a growth in recent years on account of rising female working population, booming real estate sector and entry of foreign players in India. “The India vacuum cleaner market revenues have grown remarkably at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2010- 2015 and will continue to grow at a considerable CAGR rate, thus reaching Rs 6.6 billion by 2020 due to the booming tourism and hospitality industry in India.” Meanwhile, according to a recently released TechSci Research report titled ‘India Cleaning Chemicals Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020’, the market for cleaning chemicals in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 21% during 2015 – 2020 on account of growing awareness among people regarding food-borne diseases and microbial and bacterial infections, rising initiatives by the government as well as private companies on educating masses about cleanliness, and increasing safety standards in healthcare, commercial as well as industrial set-ups.

Further, with a potential to grow at the rate of 30% a year, India’s contract cleaning sector is not only poised for fast-paced growth but also promises the creation of a large number of jobs. With offices, malls and other commercial establishments preferring to outsource cleaning jobs, the cleaning sector is going through a positive growth trajectory. Given the growing preference by businesses for outsourcing of cleaning and housekeeping jobs, the sector has been growing at a fast clip and the industry size is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore per annum in India. As per an industry spokesperson, right now, about 10 million are employed in this sector and with the sector set to grow further, more jobs will be created. It will also offer new opportunities for entrepreneurs who wish to get into the industry cleaning service sector.

In fact, there is an urgent need for more domestic companies to make cleaning equipment since a majority of the machines are sourced from China. Eureka Forbes and Roots Multi Clean are among the few Indian companies that manufacture cleaning equipment indigenously while international manufacturers like Nilfisk and Karcher, among others, have started making their products available across many industrial sectors. Of course there are MSMEs that specialize in making equipment for niche sectors such as railway cleaning, automotive cleaning, warehouse cleaning, etc.

Roots Multiclean Limited (RMCL) started the manufacture of mechanised cleaning equipment in the early 1990s through a techno-financial collaboration with Hako Werke, Germany. The alliance became one of the most successful in the Indian industry. Today, in India, RMCL is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of cleaning equipment. Another company taking rapid strides in this sector is Comac India with its cleaning machines operational at many international airports of the country, railway and metro stations, major core industries such as steel, cement, power, automobile, hospitality chains, corporate offices, etc. Eureka Forbes too makes equipment for industrial cleaning even though it is widely known for its home vacuum cleaners and water filters. There are others like Santoni Electric, set up in 1983 by A K Bhatia with the idea of being proactive towards pollution control and energy-efficient housekeeping solutions. Today, it is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company and claims to be the first to design and manufacture several machines such as the single disc rotary floor scrubber, combined scrubber drier, cartridge-based dust collector, etc.

Meanwhile, even as industry representatives speak of predicted growth in this industry, the focus is on how best to make the equipment technologically advanced so as to reduce dependence on manual labour. There are many examples of recent such innovations, one of them being the CS140 Twin Action developed by Comac that cleans without any need for water and totally filters all the air sucked up. It is street sweeping machine with a 1,400 mm working width and is ideal not only for cleaning streets, squares, car parks or industrial areas but also foundries and cement factories. The machine’s innovatively combined twin action system includes a central brush and two screw conveyors which operate simultaneously with the vacuum operation to guarantee maximum efficiency in dirt collection.

The mechanical action collects solid debris while vacuuming up dust, even the finest. It also makes it possible to work on uneven surfaces. The CS 140 Twin Action is environmentally friendly because it ensures reduction to the bare minimum of water consumption, with a saving of as much as 1,00,000 litres of water per year. Dust is removed from the air by an extremely large filtering surface, which is therefore less likely to become clogged and which allows the capture of the most minute and hazardous particles, preventing them from being released back into the environment. In fact, technology is enveloping associate functions of the industry too. For example, Nilfisk India has introduced a fleet management system called TrackClean that monitors fleet operations and transmits the equipment operation data to a secure web portal.

The data includes the machine working time, the machine downtime, time of day that each activity occurred, the geographic location of the machine, and as an option can include information about the operator. TrackClean monitors the fleet operation, transmits the data to your secured web portal and converts the data into useful information. The operation data can be linked to cleaning performance and customer satisfaction. This helps ensure the team is delivering the best cleaning performance while improving efficiency. “With the TrackClean fleet management system, no matter the size of cleaning equipment fleet, one can leverage the power of cloud-based data reporting in real time to optimise your resources and productivity. It results in more cleaning time, more facilities cleaned and more satisfied customers,” a report states.

In conclusion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’ will benefit the country’s Rs 4,500-crore cleaning equipment and waste management industry. It is estimated by industry experts that this growth will be of about 40% in the coming few years. “Cleaning will be one of the best businesses. It will be a billion dollar industry in no time and will never go out of business,” Paresh Parekh of Vadodara-based Sort India Enviro Solutions Limited, had once commented. What will also provide a spurt to the industry is the gradual adoption of Industry 4.0 across all manufacturing sectors wherein all processes are aligned to make production more efficient in terms of cost and quality.

– HUNED CONTRACTOR