DECEMBER 2015
Emerson Bearing Boston creates commercial laundry division BOSTON — Emerson Bearing Boston has created a special division for the commercial laundry industry, the company reports. Emerson Bearing Boston supplies bearings and related products, catering to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) markets. Due to increased demand and a fast-growing commercial laundry customer base stretching across the U.S. and Canada, Emerson Bearing Boston says it established a dedicated Commercial Laundry division led by marketing specialist Mike Quinn. The company says the new division caters to industrial laundries, including those that launder uniforms, bed linens, and restaurant tablecloths, as well as on-premises laundry facilities of hotels, hospitals, universities and other organizations. According to the company, Quinn assists clients in determining which bearing technologies would be most suitable by taking into consideration the specifications, recommendations, maintenance strategies, fatigue life, and wear resistance of bearings in relation ALN to the application. Volume 41, Number 12
Lean laundries create more value for customers while using fewer resources BY MATT POE, EDITOR CHICAGO — Manufacturers continually strive to do more with less, and that includes using fewer employees to get the same, or more, amount of work done. Not just done, but done in a timely manner with high-quality results. For laundry operations, that means using as few employees as possible to get soiled linens washed, dried and packaged properly and on time, and shipped back to the end-users or clients. It may sound like the end result would be employees working their fingers to the bone and burning out, but that’s not the case. The idea is to have employees and equipment functioning at highly effective levels. Graham Skinner, RLLD, general manager of laundry services, Mission Hospital, Asheville, N.C., relates this to the concept of running a “lean” operation. “When I think of ‘lean’ in man-
ufacturing, and especially in laundry, it is more of a mindset and process that has to be embraced at all levels of an organization,” Skinner says. “As far as equipment, any equipment from any manufacturer can be made to operate in more of a lean manner. It’s more about how it ties into the adjacent equipment as it pertains to scheduling, output, staffing and demand. It all starts with training of management and front-line staff. Everyone has to be on board.” So how can a laundry manager help his or her employees process textiles and linens at the highest level? That state of effectiveness can be reached through analysis, training and using the right equipment. VALUE STREAM ANALYSIS
For Skinner, creating a lean laundry operation is more about timing and controlling workflow. He says that every plant is different, but they all perform the same process. Therefore, it’s important
to do a current-state value stream analysis (VSA) of the plant, which he says helps managers see and visualize where the wait times are that cost money and time.
“So many of us have been brought up to push the linen out the door. It is not always the best See LEAN on Page 6
Emergency preparedness for laundries takes planning Tabletop exercises valuable, according to hospitality, healthcare linen sources BY MATT POE, EDITOR ATLANTA — Emergencies, such as natural disasters, happen without warning. These disasters can slow or even stop a laundry’s production if an emergency plan isn’t in place. During the Industry Chat educational session at the Clean Show
here earlier this year, three panelists—Carolyn Christmas, executive director of environmental services, Wellstar Health System, Marietta, Ga.; Bryna Mason, Walt Disney World Textile Services, Orlando, Fla.; and William Turner, environmental services director at the LaGrange (Ga.) Medical Center—discussed several audience-submitted topics. However, the one topic that generated quite a bit of interest was emergency preparedness and the value of conducting tabletop exercises—discussion-based sessions during which team members meet in an informal classroom
setting to discuss their roles during an emergency and their responses to a particular emergency situation—in order for laundries to be as prepared as possible to keep processing and delivering clean linens. Mason says that being in Florida means that hurricanes do come through the area once in a while. One of the things she says Textile Services looks at is redundancy with the options the resort has available in the area. “We are owned and operated by Walt Disney World, and so we have processes set up with other laundry facilities that if something
www.americanlaundrynews.com
INSIDE Columnist at Large Eric Frederick explores the need for closet checks in textile distribution.
1215aln_p01,06.FINAL.indd 1
(Image licensed by Ingram Publishing)
is to happen with our plant that they would assist us,” says Mason. “We also, as a company, look at what that means to us.” She notes that the company has established all the necessary processes with its outside sources. “Because we’re such a large facility, we have to be sure they’re able to handle it, or handle some of it,” says Mason. “To this day, knock on wood, we have not had to use [other laundries for major disasters], but if we do have situations where equipment breaks and so on, our outside partners, local See EMERGENCY on Page 6
The Newspaper of Record for Laundry & Linen Management
[4]
Panel of Experts It’s vital that laundries use the correct chemical formulas.
[12]
[14] PRODUCT SHOWCASE
Late News
DETERGENTS, CHEMICALS & INJECTION SYSTEMS
11/17/15 1:46 PM