May 24, 2019

What are the challenges in deploying robots?

Sometimes, change isn’t easy.

Even technology that’s supposed to improve the way we work — such as floor scrubbing robots — can challenge our ability to leave the past behind.

“Do you take the same cleaning path that our folks were doing for 20 years and just now teach the robot to do that?” says Craig Rudin, CEO of Superior Solutions Group. “Or do you look at a smarter way to do the cleaning path?”

Rudin and three other business leaders in the facility management industry discussed their challenges in deploying floor scrubbing robots for commercial floor cleaning in the latest eBook from Avidbots.  

When you implement any new technology, there are growing pains with deploying robots to scrub floors. They range from convincing stakeholders that robots will improve productivity, to revamping established routines and determining the smartest way to allocate labor.

“You can’t have the humans watching the robot work because that isn’t going to give you your ROI,” says Rudin. “You have to be smart about how you deploy the robot, and what the humans do while the robot’s doing its thing.”

But for the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the USA, the introduction of floor scrubbing robots provided some good, clean fun for the school’s primary source of hallway traffic: college students. 

“It was an initial adjustment, but it’s been well-received,” says RIT Director of Building Environmental Services Derek Sylvester.  “[Students] even decorate it at Christmas and take selfies with it.”  

In Avidbots' latest eBook, learn how RIT and other progressive businesses deployed their Neo commercial floor cleaning robots, and how they overcame the challenges they encountered along the way. 

By downloading the eBookyou’ll also discover:

  • The drivers to automation for these four business leaders.
  • How these progressive businesses created a culture to embrace automation.
  • The deployment strategies the facilities managers used when starting their journey to automation, and the roadblocks they overcame.
  • The importance of data and safety when deploying robots in commercial spaces.

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