Uniforms/Workwear Manufacturing: Scott Delin, Fashion Seal Healthcare, Seminole, Fla.
As laundry operators today, we are mindful of several key factors: keeping our labor costs in check, improving our production flow and, of course, keeping our workforce safe and happy.
Both my father and father-in-law taught me several key lessons growing up in the textile and laundry business. First, if you want to maximize the effort from your workforce while getting the best from them on a consistent basis, always look for ways to improve their working conditions, and make their jobs more effortless while increasing their production.
Second, treat your employees like they are family, because they are the ones who are making sure a quality product is delivered on time on a consistent basis. Third, beware of those two nasty words that can bring you and your workforce down in a heartbeat: workers’ compensation. Always be aware of new technology that can aid in removing these two nasty words from our laundries.
Being a vendor at Clean, in the mornings prior to the doors opening to the masses, I was able to walk the empty hall and look at innovative equipment at my own pace. While walking, eerily at times, it was like I could hear some of the equipment talking to each other across the aisles as they prepared themselves to showcase their abilities to make the once tedious, non-ergonomic duties performed by our loyal employees more productive and less strenuous.
Most of these conversations started as, “Remember when….” For instance, as I walked past one booth, I noticed robotic mechanisms untangling sheets from a huge bundle, making it easier for the operator to feed them into the flatwork ironer while increasing pieces per operator hour. That backbreaking task once required several operators to pull and tug the sheets apart for the feeders in front of the ironers.
Across the aisle was an automatic lift raising slings of goods up into the air and moving them with ease across the floor, replacing another tedious task once done by our employees on a daily basis.
As I continued on my way, I entered a booth where I witnessed goods coming out of a tunnel and dumped onto a conveyor, shuttling it directly into the dryer. Again, another backbreaking job removed.
My morning walk ended passing through a booth touting a rail system equipped with scanners to read bar codes on garments and separate them accordingly, and another to scan RFID and again separate garments. It was like poetry in motion.
These were just a few of the ergonomic pieces of equipment I saw, and I only made it through three aisles. There was much more to see, and I could not wait to walk these same aisles again later that day to see this equipment in action. While walking back to my booth in anticipation to start the show for the day, I thought of how much the new machinery and technology has impacted our laundries—how they have reduced labor while, more importantly, being ergonomically friendly to our valued employees, the foundation of our business.
When I finally returned, one of my co-workers asked me if I saw anything interesting during my walk. I turned, smiled and replied, “Remember when….”
Commercial Laundry: Rick Rone, Laundry Plus, Bradenton, Fla.
It was an enlightening and an encouraging Clean Show this year. Products were shown to assist in everything from keeping lint from collecting in unwanted locales to the largest of tunnel washers and fully automated ironing lines. They all serve a purpose and, when utilized properly, will aid in labor reduction as well as maintain a safe, professional work environment.
Workers’ compensation claims and their related costs in lost time, as well as direct cost and pain and suffering, are a major challenge for all of us in the laundry industry. As automated as many laundries are becoming, our industry is still labor-intensive and therefore prone to damaging claims. Anything that can be done to avoid repetitive actions and the damages that can occur from them should be fully reviewed and implemented if at all possible.
Most of us seek the maximum productivity from all of our co-workers. We find teams that work together well on various pieces of equipment and produce higher output than others. Inherently, that seems great, but there needs to be a balance of productivity and various other issues that can factor into preserving safety and well-being.
Some of the new machines that were shown have adjustability to the extent that they can compensate for most all height ranges of personnel. Consistent bending and the potential back-related injuries that can ensue are some of the most costly and difficult to disprove. By providing the proper adjustment on the correct machine, most injuries can be avoided.
One last thought: Many industrial laundries are not air-conditioned. That being the case, as we get into another summer, we need to take special precautions with our staff. We have ironing lines operating in the 350-degree range, and the ambient temperatures in our plants can rise drastically. We need to be prudent to make sure our co-workers stay hydrated and our plants are maintained at an acceptable temperature.
It is important to remember that our most valuable assets are our co-workers. They do not appear on the balance sheet but have more inherent value than anything that does.
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