UK
The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT), one of the UK’s leading not-for-profit care providers, recently turned to commercial appliance provider Miele Professional to help reduce its downtime and costs associated with laundry machines. The partnership has resulted in savings of over 10 times what OSJCT projected, making more funds available for other investments that will benefit its residents.
With over 3,000 residents and tenants across more than 60 locations, OSJCT is committed to providing the best possible care for some of the most vulnerable people in society. Laundry processes are an important part of delivering this care to prevent the spread of infection within each care home and ensure items such as clothing, bedding, and towels are cleaned both thoroughly and hygienically.
As a long-time customer of Miele, Graham Hipwell, M&E surveyor at OSJCT, wanted to adopt a streamlined approach to laundry servicing throughout the entirety of the Trust’s homes. “When laundry equipment breaks down in a care home, it really affects the day-to-day running of the home; so, across the Trust this was a high priority.
“For more consistency, we wanted one service contract that could support all our sites across the country and maintain them, rather than with multiple partners. That way, we would only have one point of contact, resulting in easier communication.
“In addition, as we are a not-for-profit organisation, any savings made because of Miele can go back into the Trust for the benefit of residents.”
Miele Professional and OSJCT worked together to build a strategy that would centralise the management of laundry services, with the aim of reducing breakdowns and improving the first-time fix rate on machines.
Speaking of the collaboration, Nicola Whittaker, national account manager at Miele Professional said: “It has been a great success. First-time fix rates have increased to over 92% and the Trust now has greater transparency of costs and usage. As part of the project, we also streamlined the range of equipment used by the Trust to Miele equipment. This is beneficial for several reasons as it not only allows staff to become more familiar with equipment when moving across the Trust, but also speeds up the replacement of distress purchases whilst allowing the Miele Professional service team and partners to carry more of the correct parts.”
On the topic of costs, Nicola added: “Within one year, we helped The Orders of St John Care Trust save over 10 times what they projected, thanks to the reduction of breakdowns in their laundry machines. This means they can now forecast their budget for the foreseeable based on the cost of Miele washers and dryers”.
OSJCT has also experienced other benefits since streamlining its laundry management, from less time and pressure on staff enabling them to focus more time on residents through to upholding the high levels of quality care it prides itself on. The partnership is set to continue and expand in the long term, with the strategy implemented into any new care homes OSJCT opens in the future.
