Design Solution

After all the research I came out with some sketches for the solution.

1)

The Garbage Can is one of the equipment that plays a very important role in the cleaning industry. Most of the elderly cleaners will not be tall as their body will be bending during their advanced stage. There are a number of different styles of dustbin on the market. Some are big and tall that will require the elderly cleaners to lift and carry with the high force as shown as the picture below. It may cause the problem of pain in their waists and backs.

This dustbin can be unlocked and opened so will help the elderly cleaners to reduce the high force of lifting and squeeze the heavy trash bag out from a small hole. On the other hands, when he step the pedal the hidden wheels will be shown and it can be moved easily.

2)

The idea of this solution was inspired by the “Auto Car Wash Machine”. The reason of designing this idea is because many case studies shown that elderly cleaners were falling down in the toilet due to the wet floor. Therefore this solution can help the elderly cleaners automatic clean the toilet instead of clean manually.

Our final solution:

After our group discuss, we decided to use my first idea of the dustbin can as our final solution. We try to add on more detail of its function and refine it to become a good equipment to the elderly cleaners. The garbage can which we designed have the function of two click lock which were placed at the two side of the garbage can. So when the elderly cleaners come and clear the rubbish whey can just open the can then take out the rubbish instead of carrying out and dragging the heavy rubbish bag by their own. There is also a pedal for the hidden wheels as it will looked good as the wheels can be hidden when it was placed anywhere. The good usage is help the elderly workers to move the garbage can easily.

Normally, the cleaning jobs are always working on their own. Even there is someone beside but no one will help. Although we cannot help the elderly workers to find a better job or advice them not to work but we can help them to improve their working condition, design more and more suitable and helpful equipment for them to help them complete their tasks easier and safer.

Power Point Presentation

We were given the time to do a presentation about our topic with the mahjong paper or power point slides. It was included the main problems, summary of the research methodology, and our purpose solution.

      

*The better way is to paste the paper on the wall then take the photo.

The reflection of improving the power point slides in our presentation are
-Use more images in our power point slides but not just the words. 
-Use various color for the slides.
-Do not use power point templates.
-Do not read from the power point screen.
-Always use 5W& 1H as a guide to indicate the presentation.




Some example of the power point slides:

Positive, colorful and professional shown in these slides. As in Cadwal theme, the text size isn't very big so it's not the best option for screen projected slide decks. Keep the positive and colorful photo, or include your own to match a certain topic.

Sources: http://www.slidescarnival.com/titania-free-presentation-template/949

  

  

Clarity is an awesome PowerPoint presentation template that comes with slides on the following topics; welcome message, company services, team, smartphone & tablet mockup, product pricing, portfolio layouts, timeline, SWOT analysis, and many more useful charts and diagrams. The title slide features a nice abstract background made with trendy color schemes.

Source:http://presentationdeck.com/product/clarity-powerpoint-template/

   

   

Source:http://graphicriver.net/item/bold-trend/14957434?ref=ksioks

Source: http://graphicriver.net/item/design-power-powerpoint-template/5774915?WT.ac=category_thumb&WT.seg_1=category_thumb&WT.z_author=kaixerstudio

Case Study

There is a high levels of musculoskeletal problems have been found among cleaners in a number of studies, both in England and in Europe. The problems of musculoskeletal included the muscular aches, pains and discomfort. It is a very big physical pressure to elderly cleaners. The Government and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) have set targets to reduce the number of days lost through illness and injury at work.

As a cleaner there is a lot of manual work need to do, including mopping, wiping, sweeping,

polishing and moving rubbish bag. The cleaners at the nursing home used a Kentucky mop in conjunction with a bucket with a wringer system but without wheels. The cleaner had to put as much force as possible into squeezing. Pain and discomfort were reported by all cleaners in their wrists and backs.

Solution of this case study:

This differed from the previous equipment as the buckets had wheels, were taller to reduce bending and had longer wringer handles to reduce the level of force required to squeeze the

Mop.

After the design of mopping equipment was changed, it helps us more easy to complete the cleaning tasks. As it reduce the level of force to bend and make it more comfortable and convenience to the users.


Reference:

Health and Safety Executive. “Guidance and case studies on how to prevent musculoskeletal disorders”. Caring for cleaners. First published 2003.

<http://www.qub.ac.uk/safety-reps/sr_webpages/safety_downloads/caring_for_cleaners.pdf>

Sites Investigation

I was visiting these few working environment of the elderly to get a better understanding of our cleaning industry such as the washroom, hawker centers and shopping mall. These few areas that has to be improved on.

Working spaces in the washroom of our school:

For the washroom, the floor is usually wet from people splashing their hands on it after washing their hands which makes the floor slippery and thus increasing the probability of the elderly falling. The toilet bowls are also often clogged and the floors are dirty. It would reek of urine smell and the elderly of course would then have no choice but to wash the toilet more regularly, dealing with wet floor even more often and affecting their health with the heavier workload as the elderly people are more prone to getting illness. Moreover, at that age, they will be having aches everywhere especially on their spinal cord and feet.

Working spaces in the hawker centers:

Certain hawker centers do not have the tray-return stations and so does the one that was visited. After the consumers were done, they would throw their used tissues on the table but because of the fans around the place, the tissues and plastic cups would usually fall onto ground or topple over-resulting in spills. There is also have no good area to place those rubbish so the environment looked so dirty.

Working spaces on the road site:

For those who cleaning on the roadside always need to carry the heavy cleaning device though the road street in the outdoor area.

Research Methodology

Research Methodology is a process used to collect information and data for the purpose. It is often necessary to include a consideration of the concepts and theories which underlie the methods. 

There is two research method. One is the Primary Research that the information is found out by ourselves through the experiment, site investigate, survey, interview, ... If the information is taken by others then it is considerate second research which can be taken from book, newspaper, online websites, ... 

I have done this brainstorming with my group. We plan to have four research method in our proposal, there are online survey, interview, site investigation and case study. 

The survey and interview will help us to collect the information. Find out the problem they faced and about their work condition. The survey and interview are not only for the elderly but we will also look for the different stage of people to collect more different views from them, such as the companies for why they hire elderly workers.

On the other hands, we will also go to their working site to find out in details about their working condition. Therefore it is easily for us to understand the clearer idea in what ways can we help.

Make A Proposal

Start to learn how to make a proposal in the design process.

Proposal template:

I was doing this proposal with my group. Before that I don't do what is a proposal about. At first I feel that it is hard as many details need to follow. But after that I realized that it is very useful to me and I learnt many ways of searching the information that I need.

It is many steps of process help us to complete a proposal and we will keep refine the proposal until it is good enough. It is better if we put our own figures and pictures or from books. We started it with the understanding of our problem. After that is doing the research and using a lot of the research methodology. End up with our final solution within the sketches of solution.   

Problem of making worse condition in the cleaning industry.

Discarded ponchos, water bottles and more after the 2015 Laneway Festival held at Gardens by the Bay.
Photo: Anjali Raguraman

This is one of the news in Singapore said that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ticked off Singaporeans the trash left after the Laneway music festival. The reality is we actually look clean because we have 70,000 cleaners cleaning up after us. 


The problem of making the worse condition to those elderly cleaner is that most of people will not go and clean automatically. If someone dumps something at the floor, there will no one will go to clean. Most of people will just wait for the cleaner to come and clean. So this sad reflection will lead the cleaning environment become worse. So we hope to change the situation and the cleanliness of environment is the duty of every users.


In others case that the elderly cleaners were falling down in the toilet due to the wet floor.It is one of the problems that after the toilet was used or washed, it will remain wet and thus making it hazardous place for elderly cleaner.  
  


 However, there is some of the toilet were well-maintained in some others countries also such in Australia, South Korea, Japan,...  One of the very important reason of having the good cleaning industry is that well-educated of keeping the environment clean after used. For an example in Japan, children are taught to clean the toilets in their school so that they know how it would feel like to clean. So they will make sure they do not dirty the toilets and keep it clean for the next person.



Reference:
Chang, Rachel. "Liak Teng Lit: 5 million people, 70,000 cleaners...that's ridiculous!". The Straits Time. 16 Feb 2015
<http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/liak-teng-lit-5-million-people-70000-cleanersthats-ridiculous>

'S'pore likely to become garbage city without foreign workers:ESM Goh'. Today. 29 Jan 2015
<http://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.sg/2015/01/pm-lee-calls-for-clean-not-cleaned-city.html>

Improving working condition of the elderly in the cleaning industry.

The world's population is ageing fast. A similar trend also can be observed in Singapore. Singapore's life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. Its older population is projected to grow from 814,000(15% of population) in 2012 to 1,308,000(28%) by 2050, even faster than Japan. At this rate of growth, Singapore is anticipated to become the world's 4th 'oldest' country in the next three to four decades. 

As years pass, I also found that there is a lot of the elderly works as a cleaner in Singapore. We can always see them in the hawker center, park, shopping complex, office... Maybe some elderly feel bored during their retirement so they choose to work as cleaner instead of stay alone at home, but the physical condition is quite hard to work as a cleaner. I think this phenomenon of so many elderly working as a cleaner is not good.

Therefore, we focus on the topic of how to improve the working condition of the elderly in the cleaning industry.


After research, we found there a number of common problems facing elderly worker who works as a cleaner. Cleaning work is demanding and labor intensive so many tasks involve heavy manual work. These will make our body tiring and easily to be hurt after long working time especially to the elderly because their physical is weaker. Most of the elderly cleaners' back and neck were arching badly. One of the problems they faced is they have no place to rest well during their resting time, they can only squeeze in the store room which was placed with cleaning equipment. 

Sources:

Yuen, Belinda, and Withanage, Chathura. “Smart Designs for An Ageing Population”. The Straits Times. 17 Nov. 2015

<http://brandinsider.straitstimes.com/hitachi/solutions-for-an-ageing-population/>

Bibiography

3 different sources that I have found:

Books

1. MacEachern, Diane. Big Green Purse. Use Your Spending Power To Create A Cleaner, Greener World. New York. 2008. 

In this book, it is more related to our environment problem. So we can get the suggestion of some simple environment lifestyle changes in our cleaning industry.

2. Tan, Chwee Huat. Employment Relations in Singapore. Singapore: Prentice Hall, 1999.

  

This book covers the major issues in employment relations in Singapore. It is written mainly for students who need to know the basic issues of them. It also included the environment within the employment relations operate and the changing features of the labor force.

Magazines/ Newspaper

3. Seow, Joanna. "Labour movement launched campaign to appreciate workers, starting with cleaners" The Straits Time. 16 Jun 2014

<http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/labour-movement-launches-campaign-to-appreciate-workers-starting-with-cleaners>

4. Li, Xueying, and Suhaimi, Nur Dianah. "Not-s0-golden years for the elderly in Singapore  ". The Straits Time. 23 Aug 2010 

<https://www.healthxchange.com.sg/News/Pages/Not-so-golden-years-for-the-elderly-in-Singapore.aspx>

Online Sites

5. 'Why are there so many old people working in hawker centers in Singapore? I noticed some old people cleaning tables who are having a hard time walking'. Wikisource. Accessed 28 Sep 2014. 

<https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-old-people-working-in-hawker-centers-in-Singapore-I-noticed-some-old-people-cleaning-tables-who-are-having-a-hard-time-walking>

6. Ng, Kok-Hoe. 'Review Essay: Prospects for Old-Age Income Security in Hong Kong and Singapore'. Published online 26 Nov 2011.

<http://tsaofoundation.org/doc/old_age_income_security.pdf>

About Tay Kheng Soon 

Principal Partner of Akitek Tenggara within Singapore & Malaysia

Tay Kheng Soon has been a professional architect since 1964. He was chairman of Singapore Planning and Urban Research Group ( SPUR ) in 1970. SPUR was an independent group examining urban environment and was active in proposing innovative solutions. He was President of the Singapore Institute of Architects from 1991 - 1993.

His professional activities included a specialization in high density, low rise, low-cost housing in Malaysia. He did pioneering work in commercial centres and shopping centres in the 70's. Currently he is involved in educational and community projects throughout South-East Asia.  

His public contributions have been as Chairman of the Task Force for the Long-term Development of the Singapore National Museum, Chairman of the Committee on Heritage for the Singapore Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts. He was also Founding Chairman of The Substation, a cutting-edge arts centre. His civic activities include being a member of the Advisory Panel of the Government Parliamentary Committee on National Development and a member of the advisory panel of the Singapore Institute of Policy Studies. He has been appointed in 1997 Adjunct Professor of Architecture at RMIT of Australia. He was appointed in 1998 Adjunct Associate Professor MA(UD) program National University of Singapore.

His academic involvements included being a Visitor Scholar under the Aga Khan Program at MIT in 1986 and in 1989. He was also Research Fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and published a monograph, 'Mega-cities in the tropics'. The monograph began a series of papers on sustainable mega-cities in the tropics. This activity led to appointment to prepare a development guide plan for a fringe urban site in Singapore where he proposed 'the Tropical City Concept'

The book, "Line, Edge and Shade" by Robert Powell on his writing and work and that of Akitek Tenggara was released in June 1997.

He is a member of the prestigious World Academy of Art and Science and was awarded the Singapore Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010.

Sources: http://www.rubanisation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=29