ORLANDO — My previous role saw me managing a laundry in a space that was sized to service 1,000 rooms maximum, but in reality, we served almost 3,000 with a major emphasis on table linens and food and beverage.
This is often the reality of an on-premises laundry (OPL) at a hotel.
New builds often overlook the importance of proper planning when it comes to the laundry operation. A small, perfectly square area is designated “laundry,” usually smack in the center of the bottom floor of a hotel, and the operators are forced to make magic daily.
The only way we survived was by being borderline crazy about organization. Everything had a place, and everything was always in its place—no exception.
Soiled linen, clean linen, carts of picked sheets, everything down to the dustpan and brooms used at cleanup had a clearly identified and labeled area where it belonged.
We constantly evaluated processes. Leadership would bring in the folks performing the job and create spaghetti diagrams for anything that made its way to the laundry.
How many touches did each item have? Was each touch necessary? How do we improve and decrease the steps involved from soiled to clean?
Utilize a productivity tracking suite designed for laundry and track everything. Every job has an element that can be tracked. Anything that can be tracked has a productivity standard that can be assigned to it. Hold associates accountable to a challenging but not too difficult standard.
Have a robust and documented preventative maintenance (PM) plan. We utilize a program called E-Maint. We have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual PMs for every piece of equipment in our laundry entered into this program.
Maintenance personnel log into this system daily to receive their PMs that are due, and they execute them. Again, we track everything.
Partner with the customers you serve. A laundry within an operation will have constant interaction with their end users. Get feedback and ensure you are exceeding their expectations.
End users play a vital role in the process as well. Keeping them happy and engaged could mean that they are more willing to assist in the way you receive and deliver the product you produced. It’s a team effort.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
