CHICAGO — A bottleneck is defined as “a point of congestion or blockage.”
Most laundries have encountered points in operations where workflow suffers from congestion, slowing or even stopping. Those are bottlenecks in the process, which can reduce cost-effective operations.
There are many reasons a bottleneck can develop. J.R. Ryan, president of laundry consulting firm TBR Associates, Saddle Brook, N.J., says bottlenecks are constraints created either internally by equipment, people and policies, or externally by market demand being greater than capacity.
He says bottlenecks occur when a process downstream has less capacity than a preceding process.
“Think of your daily commute to or from work: Is there always a roadway or intersection where traffic builds up, causing everyone to slow down or even come to a stop?” he asks. “This is a bottleneck.”
Chip Malboeuf, president of Turn-Key Industrial Engineering Services Inc. in Charlottesville, Va., says that bottlenecks appear in many different areas throughout different laundry operations.
“It is hard to say definitively ‘it is X,’” he says. “We do, however, see common themes causing bottlenecks.”
ANOTHER SET OF EYES
Sometimes, it isn’t easy for a laundry to identify and eliminate bottlenecks. In many instances, says Malboeuf, operators can’t “see the forest for the trees” because they are so deeply entrenched in the day-to-day challenges of filling orders.
That’s why he suggests laundries take advantage of “another set of eyes.”
“The extra eyes can come in the form of cost groups, industry mentors, consultants, etc., who will look at your operation from an objective point of view,” says Malboeuf. “Having an objective viewpoint many times will spark conversations and questions about ‘Why do you do it this way?’”
“A trained eye is very important to detect the bottlenecks,” agrees Ron Hirsch, president of equipment distributor Direct Machinery Sales Corp. in Hicksville, N.Y. “Skilled distributor salesmen and knowledgeable manufacturers are specifically trained to recognize these issues and can come up with simple resolutions or specific equipment remedies that can solve these problems.”
Outside sources, Malboeuf says, not only teach a laundry what to look for, but they can train staff how to fix the problems once they are identified.
“Once you and your team learn the process and techniques, you can then use these teachings, like the Theory of Constraints, to continuously improve the processes throughout the operation,” says Malboeuf.
Hirsch has several suggestions to help a laundry have a good operation, in order to avoid bottlenecks altogether. One is to have a proper flow from soil to the washroom to the finishing department to the shipping department. If the flow is simple and easy, then the work can be easily produced without any limitations, he says.
He also recommends staging work so that it can be brought to the production equipment quickly and efficiently. Also, have production requirements for each piece of equipment.
Along those lines, Hirsch recommends monitoring production on an hourly basis and posting the numbers so the operators can see their progress. Many manufacturers even have pacing lights so managers can easily monitor if the operators are on the proper pace. However, he also suggests making the work environment comfortable to work in and making the task of operating the equipment as easy as possible.
Hirsch says that a well-run laundry with good production flow and numbers will contribute to an efficient and cost-effective operation. The bottom line is the bottom line, when it comes to bottlenecks.
“By eliminating bottlenecks and getting the throughput needed, a laundry will be cost-effective and produce work at the lowest possible cost,” he says.
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Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].