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Have Bottlenecks? Time to Look at Big Picture (Part 1)

Equipment malfunctions, downtime, lack of operator training affect throughput

CHICAGO — A bottleneck is defined as “a point of congestion or blockage.”

Most laundries have encountered points in operations where workflow suffers from congestion, slowing or even stopping. Those are bottlenecks in the process, which can reduce cost-effective operations.

There are many reasons a bottleneck can develop. J.R. Ryan, president of laundry consulting firm TBR Associates, Saddle Brook, N.J., says bottlenecks are constraints created either internally by equipment, people and policies, or externally by market demand being greater than capacity.

He says bottlenecks occur when a process downstream has less capacity than a preceding process.

“Think of your daily commute to or from work: Is there always a roadway or intersection where traffic builds up, causing everyone to slow down or even come to a stop?” he asks. “This is a bottleneck.”

Chip Malboeuf, president of Turn-Key Industrial Engineering Services Inc. in Charlottesville, Va., says that bottlenecks appear in many different areas throughout different laundry operations.

“It is hard to say definitively ‘it is X,’” he says. “We do, however, see common themes causing bottlenecks.”

A MATTER OF THROUGHPUT

One common theme Malboeuf says his company encounters deals with actual throughput based on finished product making it out the door and to the customer. Bottlenecks caused by equipment malfunctions, downtime and lack of operator training result in rework for the laundry, Malboeuf says. The rework places additional pressure on the troubled areas to process the same items two and sometimes three times.

“This rework exacerbates the lack of machine and/or employee capacity,” he says.

Lack of production scheduling is another cause of bottlenecks in the process, says Malboeuf.

“One department over-produces, causing downstream bottlenecks,” he says. “The old philosophy of ‘see bag, wash bag’ in the soil area creates bottlenecks throughout the finishing areas of the laundry.”

For Ron Hirsch, president of equipment distributor Direct Machinery Sales Corp. in Hicksville, N.Y., the biggest problem contributing to laundry bottlenecks has to do with production and workflow.

“A good laundry is a study of time and motion,” he says. “It is important to make sure that the equipment works in conjunction with all phases of the operation. For instance, if the washroom outpaces the finishing floor, the work can pile up to a point that the operators have trouble moving and working the equipment.”

While Malboeuf says that “it is hard to definitively say ‘it is X’” causing the bottleneck, he does have ideas to help laundries locate problem areas in their operations. One of the best ways to identify bottlenecks, he says, is to step back and observe from the “10,000-foot level.”

This view, according to Malboeuf, includes observing cart and sling movement, observing the amount of work-in-process, observing the speed that goods pass through departments and so on. The idea, he says, is to take a holistic view of the operation.

“One of the quickest ways to identify a bottleneck is to look at the work-in-process in your facility,” Malboeuf says. “Typically, the process with the most work-in-process in front of it is a bottleneck.”

Another method Malboeuf recommends is to identify capacity constraints by running a capacity model of a facility. Using production requirements, production standards and equipment data, laundry managers can identify constraints. It is an objective way of identifying laundry inefficiencies, he says.

After the “theoretical” capacity of a process has been calculated, the laundry needs to look at the actual production throughput of the process, according to Malboeuf.

“Then ask yourself if the actual production levels are close to the theoretical production levels,” he says. “If there is a difference between theoretical and actual, you have inefficiencies at or around the constraint. Once you identify the problem, you can follow the steps to exploit, subordinate and elevate the constraint.”

Getting maximum production is essential for eliminating bottlenecks, says Hirsch. He notes that every manufacturer can quote the expected productions that each machine can achieve and will usually have numerous references to back up the expected numbers.

Ryan recommends a five-step method (also known as the Theory of Constraints) for eliminating bottlenecks:

  • Step 1: Identify the bottleneck. A simple method is to find where work is piled up, waiting to be processed. Often, this occurs in the soil sorting, wash or finishing areas.
  • Step 2: Exploit the constraint. Increase the total capacity or throughput of the bottleneck to get more work done in that department in the same amount of time.
  • Step 3: Subordinate everything else to the constraint. Try adjusting the schedule. There’s no sense in having people waiting downstream of the bottleneck.
  • Step 4: Elevate the constraint. If the bottleneck remains in the same place, then do whatever is necessary to eliminate the constraint. This step often includes making a considerable investment in time, money and/or effort.
  • Step 5: Repeat. When a bottleneck is eliminated, a new one may appear—go and find it.

Malboeuf, who also advocates using the Theory of Constraints to open up bottlenecks, places special emphasis on the final step of the process: repeat.

“We tell clients that you don’t ever eliminate bottlenecks from your operation, you move them around,” he says. “As you resolve one bottleneck, you are sure to create another bottleneck somewhere else in the process. This is why it’s a journey and not a destination. There are always opportunities for improvement, and identifying and reducing bottlenecks is part of the process.”

 Check back Thursday for the conclusion about the value of outside sources.

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(Image licensed by Ingram Publishing)

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].