Not much of a gamble

1 June 2001



This is the story of a laundry servicing the casinos that bet heavily by investing in new plant. Richard Merli takes the train to Atlantic City and returns both richer and wiser.


With a US$4.5 infusion of funds from local government, Atlantic City Linen Supply Inc has opened a state-of-the-art $14 million laundry to process linen for Atlantic City’s booming casino hotel business.

Under terms of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority Act (CRETA), Atlantic City compensated the owners of the laundry under the laws of eminent domain, which enable the municipality to demolish their existing laundry to widen access roads to Atlantic City’s famed boardwalk and its prized casino properties. In a grand ceremony on April 26, thrown by local political leaders, the owners of the new laundry christened their plant operations which featured $4.5 million of highly automated equipment.

Automation

The new 63,000-square-foot laundry operates with a complement of 250 full-time employees, who produce 100,000 pounds of clean linen a day, the equivalent of 36.4 million pounds of goods per year.

Automation has enabled the laundry to reduce its operation time from 24 hours-a-day to 12. Predicated on the future growth of Atlantic City, the laundry is equipped to double its current volume.

“We had been hoping to move to a new plant, but CRETA gave us the incentive to do so,” said David Goldberg, president and chief executive officer.

“The bottom line is that we now have one of the most technologically-advanced, labour-saving plants in the United States. Our goal is to double the output.” The financial incentive enabled the laundry to relocate to a new turnkey facility two blocks from the boardwalk, but also allowed the city to retain much-needed jobs, said David Costabile, vice president of PAC Industries, the Philadelphia-area laundry distributor that installed the new equipment and systems and oversaw the opening of the plant.

“With future expansion and growth in the casino industry, we expect to have upwards of 400 employees in the new plant,” said Victor Nappen, director of sales and marketing for AC Linen. “Our company is poised to grow as Atlantic City grows. Our customer base is growing and the laundry is built to grow as the city grows.” The owners of Atlantic City Linen, which began with one account in 1986, now have ten major casino accounts, including Harrah’s, The Showboat, The Taj Mahal, Resorts, The Sands, Tropicana, Caesar’s, The Hilton, Park Place and Trump Plaza. “We’re very proud of what we’ve built,” said Goldberg. “We’ve developed a reputation for quality and for maintaining customer loyalty. With our new equipment, we provide our customers with a consistency of work and finished product which is second to none. All the work is done the same way, using the same equipment.” The old laundry included a variety of washer-extractors and tunnels and was labour-intensive. In the new plant, Costabile worked closely with Thomas D’Onofrio, chairman of the board of AC Linen, to implement a labour-saving plant layout designed to remove work from the floors.

“We are at least 50 percent more productive in the new plant,” said D’Onofrio, who pointed out that the new plant averages over 120 pounds per operator hour—including management and delivery drivers—compared to 82 pounds per hour in the old plant.

At least 50 percent of the laundry’s work arrives pre-sorted from the hotel casinos—a major source of labour-savings. But the laundry accommodates both pre- and post-sort work.

PAC installed a cart dumper on the soiled side to reduce the bending, reaching and lifting associated with injuries in the workplace.

“Ergonomics was a big factor in the design,” said Costabile. “The cart dumper eliminates potential workers compensation claims on the soil sort side.” To achieve more precise loading and therefore a more consistent wash quality, PAC installed load cells on the loading conveyors so that each sling bag on the E-Tech soiled side monorail system is loaded to a predetermined weight of 130 pounds in preparation for feeding the tunnels.

“It removes all the guesswork,” explained Costabile.

The laundry washes goods in three Pellerin Milnor Continuous Batch Washers (CBW), one eight-module unit and two 12-module units, lined up in a straight I-formation, featuring a 130-pound batch size.

One 12-module CBW is used exclusively for washing sheets and pillowcases, while another is used exclusively to wash terry items. Computer screens in a control room show the status of each tunnel and track work through the production process.

The CBWs are linked with three Milnor single-stage membrane extraction presses, which evacuate remaining moisture. The wash area also includes four Milnor 60-pound-capacity microprocessor-controlled washer-extractors.

Goods are transferred to the dryers by three Milnor dryer shuttles and one shuttle elevator. The tunnel systems are served by 14 Milnor double-batch dryers, including 11 gas-heated and three steam-heated models.

To allow greater flexibility of use, PAC installed a Milnor bridge conveyor linking steam-heated dryer shuttles to the gas-heated dryer shuttles. Lint from the dryers is collected by three Milnor DRY VAC lint-collection systems.

Four Milnor-American 75-pound-capacity steam-heated tumbler dryers serve the four smaller Milnor washer-extractors. One Energenics lint collector serves the four Milnor dryers.

Dry, clean work is transferred directly to the finishing area. This enabled the laundry to bypass the need for a clean side storage rail system and probably saved the laundry $600,000 to $700,000 in the process, according to D’Onofrio.

“The work comes in, and it goes out,” said D’Onofrio.

The laundry’s finishing area incorporates a higher degree of automation to reduce labour requirements and costs. Automated systems include three PIK QUICK Sheet Separators, manufactured by Chicago Dryer Company, which eliminate the need for reaching, bending and separating sheets; three Chicago sheet-feeding systems, including one Chicago Edge sheet feeder, which neatly spreads the sheet in preparation for ironing, and two Chicago King Edge sheet feeders; one Chicago VAC Edge table linen feeder; and two Chicago Easy Feed small-piece feeding systems.

The sheet feeders feed goods into the laundry’s ironers, which include three Chicago two-roll 52-inch models and four Chicago three-roll 42-inch models.

The folding area consists of six “Air” Chicago towel folders, linked with discharge conveyors; three Chicago single-lane folder/cross-folders for sheets; two Chicago table linen folders; two Chicago five-lane solo Air accumulators; three Chicago dual-size sorting stacker-conveyors; one Chicago “Mr Stacker” wash cloth stacker-conveyor; and seven horizontal discharge conveyors.

The laundry processes a larger volume of banquet linen in winter months and more terry linen from resort pools in the summer months.

The remainder of the equipment includes two platform scales, two Speed Check lift tables, one Speed Check cart dumper and cart washer, two Felins 2000 tying machines and two poly-wrap tables. Drycleaning machinery was supplied by E Weit Machinery.

The laundry offers 24-hour pick-up and delivery and places a heavy emphasis on customer service, according to Nappen.

“We have a 24-hour, seven-day mentality,” said Nappen. “Our customers are very, very demanding. So we have to be very service-oriented. That’s the reason for our success.” D’Onofrio said he still has to pinch himself when he comes to work in the morning.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” he said with a smile.



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