Equipment Manufacturing: Kelly Outram, Kannegiesser USA, Grand Prairie, Texas
Fond memories are coming back for me as we are all in full-swing planning and preparing for the upcoming Clean Show 2015 in Atlanta in April.
Clean 1987 was my very first national industry trade show, and that was when it was last held in that great city. Thinking back to those days, I had only been involved in laundry operations for a few weeks, and when I walked into the convention center on that first morning of the show, I was afforded a bird’s-eye view of the entire exhibition floor from an elevated mezzanine level.
I’ll never forget how impressed I was with the extensive amount of machinery and personnel involved in the industry I had just joined. I have enjoyed a rewarding career in laundry ever since.
Shortly after graduating from college, I began my profession in the laundry industry. In January 1987, I accepted a position with FH Bonn Co. as a factory representative supporting its wholesale distributor network in a 12-state Southwestern region based in Oklahoma City. Within a few years, my territory expanded to include Texas. I relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 1989, where I still call home today.
My 2 1/2-year tenure with FH Bonn Co. provided me the opportunity to market the company’s complete line of industrial textiles/finished retail press pad and cover products. I also gained much experience and exposure within all segments of industrial laundries, as well as from their complete line of flatwork ironer-related textile products. Over the years, my responsibilities at Bonn expanded to include supporting sales in the western half of the U.S., Mexico, and all countries within the entire Pacific Rim region.
I made the decision to make the most of the industry experience I had garnered over the years and apply it to a continued laundry industry career when I joined Kannegiesser USA four years ago on Nov. 1, 2010. I am based out of KUSA headquarters located in Grand Prairie, Texas, where we support sales, service and spare parts of our full-line of industrial laundry equipment in North America.
My career here began as a regional sales manager responsible for market support and development in the Southeast region of the U.S., from Texas to Florida, where I have appreciated the opportunity to assist many laundry facilities with new equipment solutions.
It seems apparent that one set of challenges facing industrial laundries today involves an increasingly competitive marketplace environment. At the same time, there is more and more emphasis for laundries to ensure optimal energy and productivity efficiencies; proven hygienically clean washing and rinsing processes; ever-increasing ergonomics and safety requirements for machine operators; and proper levels of production automation to help streamline labor expenses.
It is now very gratifying for me to have the opportunity to be involved with introducing owner/operators to the many new technological advances in engineering and equipment design to help them identify and meet each of these growing operational requirements they encounter today.
I look forward to returning to Atlanta in April for Clean 2015 in my new role within the expansive Kannegiesser exhibit. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to meet with a first-time attendee just like I was so many years ago.
I appreciate the invitation to participate in, and look forward to the opportunity to be a part of, the 2015 Panel of Experts for American Laundry News; I trust my 28 years of industry experience will offer valuable feedback and insight for the chosen discussion topics throughout this coming year.
Chemicals Supply: David Barbe, U.N.X. Inc., Greenville, N.C.
If someone had asked me how large laundries washed clothes when I graduated from college, I would have guessed they use a huge row of home-style washers. I had never seen anything else. Soon after that, I had an entirely new understanding of laundry operations.
I started working for U.N.X. Inc. in 1978. At that time, the majority of businesses used powdered chemicals. Over the past 36 years, I’ve seen the industry transition to primarily liquid chemicals. Just as washing machines have changed from paper-chart controls with lots of relays and motors to programmable machines with variable speed drives and/or hydraulic functions, the technology to use these chemicals has changed from scoops and pails to highly automated, microprocessor-controlled systems. Formula counts, classes of chemicals and the number of chemicals per classification have increased.
I still work for U.N.X., now as director of engineering. I have designed and installed numerous chemical systems in plants all over the United States. I’ve been involved with new laundry design, upgrading existing plant systems and wholesale replacement of equipment in entire facilities, and have had the pleasure of working with some of the finest chemical representatives in the industry.
From small motels to plants with multiple tunnel washers, the focus is the same: to get the maximum usage out of the goods at a reasonable cost. To this end, we manufacture systems of all types.
I hold multiple patents for laundry chemical injection systems, and am constantly designing more equipment to meet customer needs. Some of our equipment has been so well-received that it has remained in production for decades.
Recently, we modified the programming on one of our dispensers to enable a customer with a large number of locations to control their operators’ access to formula selection and other functions. Managers with a key can override those limitations as needed, improving costs and results.
I have been fortunate to attend every Clean Show since it was first hosted in 1981 in Chicago, meeting customers and equipment manufacturers. I enjoy working with our laundry customers, learning what they want from their vendors, and working to solve their problems.
I am excited to be participating in the Panel of Experts. I have met some of the past members and enjoy their insights and advice. I hope that I can contribute some ideas that will help our industry and perhaps spark some more changes in the future.
Uniforms/Workwear Manufacturing: Scott Delin, Fashion Seal Healthcare, a Brand of Superior Uniform Group, Seminole, Fla.
First and foremost, I would like to thank American Laundry News for selecting me to serve on the 2015 Panel of Experts. For me, it is a real honor to be named a member of an elite group of laundry/linen managers.
Having more than 35 years of experience in the textile and laundry industry, I have been fortunate to meet a lot of knowledgeable people who have taught me a lot about our industry, as well as kindled some cherished long-term friendships.
Growing up in the coal region in northeast Pennsylvania, I first got involved in textiles while working in my family’s factory, cutting and sewing ladies sportswear. Upon graduating from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences, where I got my degree in apparel management, I packed all my worldly possessions into my orange Chevy Monza and moved from Philadelphia to Gaffney, S.C.
While there, I worked for Oxford Industries, a leading manufacturer of ladies sportswear, locating and developing cut-and-sew factories in the South to manufacture Oxford’s line of women’s apparel. After four years of cutting my teeth and honing my skills in the apparel industry, I moved back to Pennsylvania to join forces with my father in running our family cut-and-sew operation.
As the imports started to increase and apparel production moved offshore, we decided to close the doors, and a new chapter in my life started. I then jumped from one frying pan (working with my father) into another one (working for my father-in-law, Max Stettner) at Penn Linen & Uniform Service. It was there where I found my passion for the industrial laundry business, as we processed linen for industrial, hospitality and, of course, healthcare markets. In fact, at one time, we processed and rented linen to all the major hospitals in the Philadelphia market, as well as parts of North Jersey.
After Penn Linen was sold, and after a short stint with Unitog, my passion for this industry continued to burn. I was fortunate enough to land on my feet as a territory sales manager with Fashion Seal Healthcare, based out of Seminole, Fla.
Today, I am proud to represent Fashion Seal Healthcare as vice president of sales, a role in which I utilize my 30-plus years of experience in the laundry arena developing successful uniform programs for laundries and hospitals. I serve as a standing board member for TRSA, a member of the TRSA Healthcare Committee, an active member of the board of directors of ARTA, and an active member for the HLAC advisory committee.
Miss Part 1? You can read it HERE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].