ISSA/Interclean 2014, 6 to 9 May, Amsterdam RAI
The 25th ISSA/Interclean Amsterdam show marked yet another milestone in the cleaning and hygiene industry’s evolution. If a ‘theme’ had to be determined, it would be an acceptance that contractors and in-house teams need to deliver transparent and accountable services, reports INCLEAN’S consulting editor Alan Hardcastle.
In 1967 the first Interclean was held at the RAI, Amsterdam, with just 56 exhibitors of which only three were non-Dutch firms. This year chalked up, appropriately, a record sell-out with exhibitor numbers at more than 650 companies covering 50,000 sq metres.
Over the past decade we have witnessed the industry embracing sustainability and then more recently in 2010 and 2012 the majority of suppliers delivering products and systems with genuine ‘hygienic’ credentials.
In 2014 it is accepted that both product suppliers and contractors deliver sustainable and hygienic systems and services, hence the next step up to ‘accountability’.
ISSA/Interclean 2014 Innovation Award judging panel chair Michelle Marshall summed it up by saying, “the industry needs to be more accountable. This year’s Award entries reflected more customer-driven solutions and more intelligent solutions.”
Indeed, it was the year of the ‘cloud’, web-based monitoring cum management systems could be found in a raft of products, from washroom dispensers through to large machines.
And of course the fact that the Innovation Awards’ people’s choice went to a software company (Alpheios) set the show’s tenor. Short-listed Innovation Award ‘cloud’ entries included Hako’s Fleet Management Solutions and Karcher’s Fleet Services.
Other entries, with an IT/cloud bent, submitted for the Innovation Awards included Diversey Care’s SmartView mobile communication platform; Hagleitner’s Xibu Sense Management that delivers real time monitoring of dispensers; Leviy’s Quality Management Solutions, apps for data analysis; Tennant’s Iris service monitoring system; Spectro’s Ecodos, an on-line tool that generates a complete hygiene plan; and CleanJack time and quality management, a time and quality tool. Diversey Care presented Taski IntelliTrail, a web-based GPS machine tracking solution as well as SmartView, a mobile communications platform said to deliver service performance improvement.
What is, perhaps, more interesting is the use of the cloud in more ‘mundane’ products such as dispensers. Tork’s EasyCube Intelligent System gathers and analyses data from washrooms and provides ‘realtime actionable information. Truvox will, in time, add to its Multiwash machines web-based diagnostics to feedback data to management.
While property management demands for service transparency are increasingly being met, so too is the imperative for cleaning equipment and tools be user-friendly and safe. The Innovation Award short-listed and winning entries reflecting that imperative included the Award Winning Karcher B60/10C MopVac and Wetrok Discomatic Mambo scrubber dryer.
Record numbers of exhibitor, and visitors
ISSA/Interclean Amsterdam’s 2014 event registered the largest gathering of cleaning professionals in the world to date with total visitor numbers reaching 29,325 over the four days, compared with 28,001 in 2012.
The organiser believes this result ‘gave a positive indication that the industry is recovering from the recession, a major encouragement for the entire sector’.
“A rise in attendance of five percent compared to 2012 is very good news for the global cleaning industry,” pointed out ISSA/Interclean manager Rob den Hertog.
There was also more exhibitors – some 696 – than last (2012) edition, which had 669 companies displaying their goods and services.
ISSA/Interclean Amsterdam 2016 will be held from 10 to 13 May 2016.
For a selection of downloadable images, go to www.picasaweb.google.com/incleanmag