CHICAGO — As businesses continue to work toward more normal operations, laundry businesses are seeing increases in the volume of goods they process.
While growth is good, sometimes a plant’s capacity can become strained. Then, it may be time for the laundry to look at adding equipment, in the space it has, to keep up with increasing pounds per hour.
The question then becomes one of evaluating the laundry’s current operation and determining the best course of action as it grows.
American Laundry News spoke with representatives from two consulting firms who shared their expertise on laundry equipment expansion.
In Part 1, Ken Arnopole, owner of Arnopole & Associates, shared about what a laundry needs to consider before even thinking about new equipment.
In the conclusion, Ted Barry, senior project manager for John Barry & Associates, founded in 1954, which has designed hundreds of square feet of small, medium and large laundry operations worldwide, looks at his firm’s steps toward maximizing productivity in the space available.
MAXIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY
Like Arnopole & Associates, John Barry & Associates puts in a solid effort increasing productivity of space, process, procedures, methods and overall throughput in the laundry operations it works with.
“When the JBA team looks at a laundry facility, we are looking at maximizing productivity within the square footage available,” Barry says. “When looking at advancing your laundry operation you might look at a ‘blank sheet of paper’ and think about how you would design your laundry facility in your ideal fashion.”
He says that the reality is that some laundry equipment can be costly to move, and JBA calls those “monuments”—equipment that likely won’t or can’t be moved.
“Much of the additional equipment has greater flexibility in placement and sequence,” Barry points out. “By starting with a ‘blank sheet of paper,’ you can define your ideal layout and reengineer your space to be close to your ideal layout while keeping in mind the ‘monuments.’”
The next step, he says, is to look at all of a laundry’s equipment and identify the current condition of each piece.
“In this case, look at which equipment has excessive maintenance requirement,” says Barry. “Some may be difficult to replace parts, and some that may no longer have knowledgeable personnel maintenance people available.”
The following step is to look at the equipment’s productivity and volume.
“In many cases, these may be newer equipment that’s faster and more efficient to operate and run,” says Barry. “In all cases, you want to look at replacement cost and return on investment as well as space requirements.”
In the overall analysis, he says laundry operations need to look at their volume by laundry type for effectively evaluating the layout, equipment and ideal processes.
“Look to the future and evaluate the volume by laundry type that you expect to provide over next three to five years,” Barry recommends.
“As you know, some of your equipment that was built well can be in operation for 25-35 years or more and still produce a high quality and efficient product.
“The key is to look carefully at the volume required by laundry item and adjust your equipment layout and process to meet your changing needs.”
Miss Part 1, with Ken Arnopole, owner of Arnopole & Associates, sharing about what a laundry needs to consider before even thinking about new equipment? Click HERE now to read it!
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].