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Survey: Prospect of Systems-Wide Data Exchange Generates Buzz

CHICAGO — The prospect of integrating data from multiple independent systems so it can be analyzed collectively appeals to many operators who responded to this month’s Wire survey.
Pellerin Milnor, Chicago Dryer Co. and E-Tech recently announced their collaboration in developing DataFusion, a nonproprietary, secure data-exchange system that can enable a laundry operator to manage his or her operation “as one cohesive machine rather than a collection of independent and disparate systems.”
Data sources can include equipment such as sorting, washroom and finishing, or those unrelated to equipment such as time and attendance, human resources and route accounting. A number of other vendors have now expressed interest in joining the project.
The possibility of many laundry operators benefiting from central data collection is apparent, as everyone who replied to the survey reports using production equipment (sorting, washroom and/or finishing) from more than one manufacturer.
Nearly all — 88.9% — say they use a computerized system to collect data for production management or decision support.
Among these operations, areas in which data is being collected most commonly are washers (87.5%), chemicals injection (75%), flatwork finishing equipment (62.5%), unloading/weigh-in (37.5%) and packaging/loading for delivery (37.5%).
Areas in which 25% or fewer respondents are collecting data include soil sorting, utilities, dryers, garment finishing and “other.”
Everyone who took the survey believes their operation would benefit if data could be collected from production points throughout the laundry and analyzed as a whole, and two-thirds of respondents say they would like to learn more about DataFusion.
Subscribers to American Laundry News’ Wire e-mails — now distributed weekly — are invited to participate in an industry survey each month. The survey is conducted online via a partner website. Each survey is developed so it can be completed in 10 minutes or less. Readers are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.
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Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].