A Chat with Runal Dahiwade, CEO, Peppermint Robots

Rushabh Vora, Co-Founder, SILA Group had a chat with Runal Dahiwade, CEO, Peppermint Robots, a leading Indian company who specialises in creating intelligent robots to automate floor cleaning, to discuss the future of housekeeping services in India and the need for automation in the integrated facilities management.

 

1. Where is India today in terms of housekeeping robotics?

We are in the early years of housekeeping robots in India and catching momentum fast. 

With sustainability and automation being key goals for this decade, along with fast urbanisation and infrastructure development all around, housekeeping robots are well positioned for rapid adoption across sectors and use-cases. 

 

2. What's next in terms of robots and automation in cleaning - new models. 

Our mission is ‘to expedite the use of service robotsʼ and we are fully committed to make housekeeping robots across use-cases – Indoors, Outdoors, Horizontal and Vertical surfaces.

With our floor scrubber dryers (in two sizes of 45L and 100L) already in production, we have two new robots in the pipeline for indoor cleaning to be launched within the next 6 months (Carpet Cleaners and Vacuum Cleaners) followed by India’s first outdoor cleaning robot (Robotic Sweeper). 

As an agile company, we are always ears for feedback from our customers and build robots leveraging our technology and production capabilities. Case-in-point were the significant enquiries for outdoor robots to clean the large canvas of land surrounding offices and factories; this led to us developing the first 100% autonomous outdoor sweeper robot, which is planned to start production within FY22.

 

3. Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced and currently face? Is the ROI stacking up India?

All physical technologies come in three phases - Big, Small & Invisible. Both in terms of their size and the mindspace they capture.

In similar fashion, we are at the “Big” stage of Housekeeping services automation in India where we see deep interest, varied expectations and many queries. “Robots” as a subject can evoke many expectations, some reasonable and some imaginary. It’s a challenge to align those to practical technology capabilities. 

We overcome these by aligning the right expectations to start with. Our first goal is to educate the user, followed by delighting them with our robots + service.

Cost of manpower in India versus in developed countries makes for different approaches to ROI. Apart form direct costs, there is also the allied costs of supervision, attrition, consumables, utilities (water and electricity) which in unison makes the ROI very much in favour of the clients. 

Industry standard for ROI for automation is 36 months and we are able to provide the ROI in less than 24. As operations of companies become multi-shift, the ability of robots to provide a consistent and predictable experience moves the consensus in our favour.

 

4. Which sectors do you see the most demand from?

At Peppermint Robots, our focus started from large spaces and hygiene conscious sectors. Therefore our early customers have been from Food Processing, Pharmaceutical, Warehouses and Manufacturing. 

With the newer robots in pipeline designed for more use-cases like carpets and soft floors, we are excited to deploy Peppermint across sectors like Hospitality, Offices as well. We also see a growing customer base in gated residential real estate projects who are entrusting facility management and housekeeping to professional third parties. 

 

5. Tell us more about your robot and technology, what makes peppermint different vs the others?

Peppermint was always planned and designed as an indigenous, rugged robot with three goals – Better cleaning, Accountable Operations and Cost Savings. 

{It turned out to be the first housekeeping robot ever to be built in India}

 

Housekeeping robots work in extreme ambient temperatures, lot of dust /dirt and sometimes non-linear floors (broken floors). 

 

Our approach from the beginning has been to design the robot to be best-in-class across all parameters. 

a. Max Uptime: The entire powertrain, battery systems are designed bespoke – delivering maximum uptime in its class (Peppermint robots can clean upto 8 hours in one battery charge) 

b. Best Cleaning: Peppermint Triple Action Cleaning is a patented* cleaning workflow which deliveries the cleanest floors throughout its operations. 

c. Compact: Peppermint robots are the most compact in their segments. Our 45 and 100 Litre Scrubber-Dryer robots are the most compact in their respective segments.  

 

Further, Peppermint has one of its kind “Dashboard” to oversee all information for our customers via web dashboard.

Peppermint Dashboard showcases all the necessary information – 

a. Operational Data (coverage, cleaning time, battery levels, water levels)

b. Maintenance Data (brush life, squeegee blade life, fleet monitoring)

c. Service Schedule (next service schedule, request a service etc)

This puts our customers in an advantageous position with seamless operations and 100% visibility.

 

6. Your plans for India and abroad in general

Our approach is to keep the customer at the centre of our universe. The model we have chosen is 3S - Sales, Service & Spares for each and every new territory we open whether it is in India or abroad. We currently operate from our 3S in Mumbai, Pune & Bangalore with new operational territories starting in Goa, Chennai and Indore very soon!

Outside India, our first operational region is UAE with a dedicated 3S Centre which will serve the other territories in the GCC region as well.