Brown Supply Gains Momentum: Using Technology to Better Serve Customers

Labor remains core problem for facilities 

In the summer of 2023, Brown Supply added Smart Disinfecting Foggers to their product line to both differentiate their offerings and bring the latest technology to customers facing labor issues and infectious disease outbreaks.   

Why try another disinfecting solution?

Post COVID-19, the Janitorial Sanitation end-user market, particularly K-12 and Higher Education, remain saturated with discontinued Clorox 360’s, Victory Sprayers, and other foggers. Mark Yingst, Brown Supply President, saw this saturated market as an opportunity to better serve these end-users with more durable, effective, and efficient solutions.

“Breezy Blue™’ is a unit that we feel can be a game changer at a facility, and that makes us proud to be the company in this region representing it,” says Yingst. “The minibot has us excited, knowing that we can go to market with a product that is different from anything else being distributed.” 

Disinfection Technology Has Evolved - Not All Foggers Are Created Equal

Spray & Wipe and electrostatic spraying were the most widely used methods to disinfect in 2020, mainly because they were most accessible (it was the best available at the time). While fogging isn’t a new method of disinfecting, Breezy Blue™’s solution set of pairing Breezy BioCare™ RTU's aerosolized hydrogen peroxide and IoT technology is. The solution set has been tested together to validate and standardize run times and procedures to ensure >99.9% of viruses, germs, bacteria and odors are removed. Breezy Blue™’s IoT capabilities also enable it to be scheduled automatically, track fogging occurrences, and send reminders to facility managers.

Traditional disinfection methods:

1. 1. 1. Miss high touch surfaces - Up to 51% of spots are missed during disinfection due to human error (National Library of Medicine - Yale Dr. Boyce Study)
      2. Don’t validate efficacy or offer run time standard operating procedures (See why real world efficacy testing is needed)
      3. Require PPE while disinfecting
          

Educational facilities still want to disinfect, but they want it to be faster, easier, and more cost effective.

1. 1. 1. Labor shortages (faster) - Facilities continue to have staff shortages and expanding responsibilities, leaving them less to time to accomplish more work. Efficiency is key to the future of Jan-San. Most other disinfection options are laborious, not highly effective, and require an employee to physically walk through every
         square foot of a space to reach each surface for disinfection. Breezy Blue™ is operated with the single push of a button and can disinfect a classroom in 50 seconds with no residue left behind, rather than taking 5 or more minutes with traditional methods. 

      2. Ease of use - Turnover and continuous training are another time suck for facilities. Companies that build and distribute easy-to-operate tools and offer support (on-site training, videos, customer support portals) will have better customer experiences. Build With Robots worked with Brown Supply to build Deployment Kits and videos that include Checklists, Unboxing and How to Operate Videos, as well as a Customer Support Portal for end-users looking for self-guided training. Breezy Blue™’s push of a button simplicity has also enabled customers to expand their usage of the units, disinfecting bathrooms, buses, nurse's office, weight rooms, and more. If equipment is difficult to use, it will go unused. 

      3. Cost effective - Clorox 360’s and Victory Sprayers were discontinued for a number of reasons. Clogging issues and broken parts were pervasive and have resulted in equipment being thrown away or left in a closet. Breezy Blue™’s 5-year life span testing ensures no clogging, no serviceable parts, and because of its aerosolized hydrogen peroxide fogging technology reduces the amount of chemistry solution needed (4x less than traditional methods) which further lowers the overall cost for end-users. 

Results: Impact Matters

With the goal of bringing the latest innovation to their customers, the Brown Supply team has now deployed Breezy Blue™ Smart Foggers in K-12 schools, Community Colleges, Athletics Departments, and Correctional Facilities. Learn more about their successes below. 

1. Brown Supply's Success: Breezy Blue Enters North Baltimore Schools
2. Innovation at the WORTH Center Creates a Healthier Environment