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MEANING AND OBJECTIVE OF LAUNDRY UPGRADATION TECHNOLOGY

There are thousands of laundry operating all over the world. These are Hotel laundry units, Hospital laundry units, Retail or Semiretail laundry units or private laundries catering to need of the society. These units could be small processing 500 pcs per day to 50,000 pcs per day or beyond that. Being a service industry, there is always a standard collection delivery pattern satisfying the need of institution.Normally this schdule is 24 hrs/ 48 hrs looking at the institution requirement and the inventory cost. These units generally operate 365 days a year having all alternates and staggered employees holidays. 

        My name is Rajkumar Shrivastav. After completing my M.Tech.degree from University of Mumbai I, worked for Detergent and Surfactant technology companies for 10 years. Last almost 30 years in laundry industry having versatile experience comprising laundry installation, commissioning,sales and services, operation and maintanance contracts of bigger laundries, upgradation, new processing techniques,research on chemicals and fabrics and online laundry education have been highlights of industrial laundry carrier.

      We have observed for last 30 years in laundry business that the laundries  start with an predecided operating cost in mind but when it starts it’s full fledge operation, the expenses exeeds the predecided factor. Similarly the running laundry units due to its improper sizing structure or for any reason, which we will discuss further,finds their operating cost higher than the normally expected.

    The meaning of “LAUNDRY UPGRADATION TECHNOLOGY” is to upgrade or optimise  all operating parameters which are highly technical in nature, to reduce and maintain operating cost to an optimum level. The objective of LUT is to improve efficiency of laundry unit, increase profits by reducing elevated operating cost ,maintain laundry industry quality standards,enhance speed of linen processing, maintain smooth working atmosphere and sustainability of unit for years of operation.

   We  list herewith the problems faced by many laundry units..

1)Irrespective of newly installed laundry or an running old laundry, if it’s not designed with specific objective keeping in mind resources, consumables, energy supply in various forms, for example.. heating source could be electric, gas, diesel, coal, wood or any source, the operating cost of running laundry will differ drastically. This calculations will vary from country to country depending upon availability and prices prevailing that time.So it becomes very important to study all expenses points thoroughly before ordering laundry and other service equipments.

2)Being improper overall size of unit with respect to capacity.If the size of unit, means area of unit, if it is in disproportion to capacity of unit to processing pieces per day, there could be imbalance wrt leasing , rent or capital investment. This factor will again vary from place to place and also countrywise and needs serious evaluation before any financial commitments.

3)Improper laundry machines and equiptments and their sizing are common problem generally faced by new units. Businessmen generally consider capacity to price calculations while negotiating with machine suppliers,forgetting type of linen and category ( hotel, Hospital, Retail or Semiretail) they would be catering. Smaller or oversize and number of machines needs specific decision considering capacity of daily linen processed in 10 hour shift.

4) Sometime location of unit , for outsourced laundry, is incorrect. The distances from customer are too large exceeding 25 km or more. In such cases delays in reaching customer, traffic problems in city, reaching back to laundry in time are daily headaches and not recommended unless institution has over 1:5 or 6 ratio of rooms to linen set. Normally no institution invest such a large amount on linen inventory. Long distances also adds to higher transportation cost.Long distances beyond 25+ km launderies are also present where volume of load, delivery schdules and price conversations are higher than the normal.

5) Some laundry units specially in city limits have very cramped area. This is very inconvenient for collection, sorting, load preparation, weighing and loading /unloading of machines and internal movement. It makes employees Woking uncomfortable and at some point the quality of output is compromised.

6)It has been observed that the utility machines like boiler, compressor and vacuum machines required and mandatory for laundry operation, are undersized. This is really a serious problem and we will discuss in details when we study boiler and other utility design and operations. Oversizes of utility machines are equally problematic wrt size, placement, operation, fuel consumption and others.

7)Improper ventilation in laundry unit is cause of discofort in working of employees. Generally, small heat/steam leakages and wearing out of insulations  raise the temperature and humidity of the unit. Improper  location of finishing presses and dryer exhaust  and above said problems also increases drying time of batch adding to higher fuel expenses.

8) Nonstandard water, hot water, steam piping, valves and improper electrification leads to higher expenses due to frequent stoppages. Undersized piping delays washer batch size while inconsistent working of dryers and calendar machines(flat work Ironers). Same is the case with finishing machines.

9) Improper utility pressures(steam,compressor, vacuum machine)  makes life difficult in laundry. If it’s on lower side , the working of dryers and Flat work Ironers, finishing presses are slowed down giving hard time to utility machines to work above their stable and equilibrium stage. If pressures are on higher side , one has to install pressure reducing valves to protect the machines life.

10) It is also observed that some places there is no proper work schdule or standard operating procedures. The laundry units are situated in the ground or basement of institution and there is no standard time of receiving dirty linen to process.In many cases it all depends on the occupancy level of the institution and check out time of customer/patient.  This not only  causes discomfort to employees but very bad on the part of institution wrt higher operating cost and lack of discipline. 

11) Many a places there is lacking of trained leader/manager/supervisor. Due to incompetency in laundry skills , it becomes difficult to manage day to day activities efficiently and therefore even in lower load days the processing time are delayed resulting in unrhythematic working. In such cases it is not only difficult to maintain qualities of linen produced but also the upkeeping of laundry machines as well. 

12) Lack of proper maintanance schdule of laundry machines and service machines are major cause of delays and over expenses. Again if laundry is installed with limited machines , a breakdown of washer or dryer or flat work Ironer or feeder and folder builds pressure on manpower. This is very common in institutions with limited machines and high loads.

13) It has been also observed that there is no targeted quality checks of linens on daily basis in many laundry units. This results in greying or yellowing of white linens and becomes difficult or expensive to bring back the whiteness and linen life. Also quality checks on daily water usage,chemicals and finished linen output needs qualified attention to avoid extra expenses.

14) Ignorance of inventory control on daily basis is rare and needs disciplined effort. No keeping of records of lost, damaged,torn,overused ,new stock linen addition etc is common in laundries and suddenly one day the discrepancy result in big losses. Keeping records of chemical used in processing, water Softner regeneration, boiler descaling chemicals,laundry consumables and spare parts are rarely followed consistently.

15) Higher employee turnaround in laundry is very sensitive issue wrt efficiency of laundry operation. This not only affect the quality of output but also upkeeping of machines. There are numerous reasons for emplyees being unstable in laundry that includes no proper work distribution, regular overtime,low pay, improper timing, incompetency wrt laundry skill, no regular training and so on.

16) Regular efficiency and performace checks of laundry is not performed by many laundry units. Recording efficiency of each section like washing, drying, flat working,finishing presses,boiler, compressor, vacuum machine, collection and delivery for linen, transportation and manpower utilisation etc and converting these into expenses is highly technical job and requires qualified person to carry out analysis on monthly basis.

17) One important factor which governs all these is pricing to customer. If it is in-house laundry of an institution then the total monthly expenses can be guiding line but in case of outsource laundry unit pricing is very critical factor. Lower prices of processing will backfire and higher prices will be competitive.Therefore your laundry efficiency will play major role here to be competitive and make profits, smooth working, customer satisfaction, low employee turn around and so on.

18) There are other miscellaneous small factors like life of machines, losses due to leakages,adherence to pollution control norms, boiler regulations follow up,maintanance of transport vehicles, employee food and their break timing, daily laundry cleaning,skilled employee alternates in emergency,urgent deliveries etc. Although these appears to be small problems but needs very fine attention as you never know what suddenly can erupt and add to your expenses.

Every action in laundry which divert the course of smooth operation invites extra expense. All above factors are real problems of one or other laundry unit and combined together adds to operating cost of laundry unit. Further, it also adds to inconvenience to processing, deleveries of linen to customers and finally your work force. If the problem occurs once in fortnight or month, it can be considered as normal but if it happens regularly then there is need of upgradation at various level and requires higher skills and qualitative efforts.Such operations are cumbersome and on long terms they reduce morals of employee and their long term vision with the institution.

    Upgradation is misunderstood by some as maintanance , however it is a management job requiring highly technical evaluation and management training skills and is basically optimisation of laundry unit for higher profits, optimum operating cost, smooth working and longevity of laundry machines,employees and customers.