How Allan Industries Brought Robots to Work in a Union Town

More than 600 exhibitors will fill the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas when the expo floor at ISSA Show North America opens on Nov. 17. For someone who manages cleaning in a hospital, or wants to win that work as a contractor, tracking down the companies that actually serve healthcare can eat up most of a day.ISSA Healthcare plans to make that search a lot shorter. At this year's show, which runs Nov. 16-19 with exhibits open Nov. 17-19, the division's booth becomes a home base for the healthcare crowd. Sponsor talks, a scavenger hunt, a prize wheel and a networking event are all built into the week.Linda Lybert, founder and executive director of the Healthcare Surfaces Institute, leads ISSA Healthcare. She pointed out that the show's healthcare audience is a mix of people from healthcare facilities, building service contractors (BSCs) and manufacturers trying to reach that market."We decided that what we would do is our booth would become the hub," Lybert said.

The format ISSA Healthcare has refined over nine years of U.S. summits is heading overseas. On Oct. 7, 2026, the day before the ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo opens at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, ISSA Healthcare hosts its first Healthcare Surfaces Forum in Australia.

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Employee turnover is more than a staffing inconvenience—it can quietly erode a cleaning company’s profitability.

After a mold or water-damage remediation job wraps up, someone has to decide whether the space is clean. For Raj Manickam, CEO of SteamMaster Restoration and Cleaning in Colorado's Vail Valley, that decision should never rest with the company that did the work.

John Swigart has spent nearly three decades building a career at the company his grandfather founded, and this year he added two significant titles to his name. In April 2026, he added CEO to his letterhead, in addition to serving as company president for 15 years at Spartan Chemical Company, a Maumee, Ohio, manufacturer of cleaning and sanitation solutions. In November, he steps into the role as the 2027 ISSA president, following a path his father traveled before him.

The cleaning and restoration industries continue to struggle with recruiting, retention and finding dependable employees. Yet one potentially valuable group of workers is often overlooked—people with disabilities and others who face barriers to employment.

Allan Industries is testing what automation looks like on the ground floor of a union town. At a newly built commercial property on Market Street in Philadelphia, autonomous vacuums and a robotic scrubber now work alongside the company’s union cleaning crews, taking over the long hallways and open lobbies that used to eat up hours of every shift.

Accountability comes easily when the conversation centers on employees, supervisors and frontline managers. Expectations get set, performance gets tracked, and someone steps in when results fall short.

What does the future of advocacy look like for the IICRC and the industries it serves?