Designing efficient laundries

Designing a new laundry or reconfiguring an existing layout involves more than selling the latest technology to the customer. The task demands an understanding of what each customer wants to achieve, how the business will develop, where process savings can be made and how to create the cost efficiencies necessary for a successful operation.
According to logistics specialist WSP Systems, the first consideration is what the owner wishes to do with the laundry and what type of goods it will handle. The company says that the way the laundry will work and the way it will develop is completely dependent on its end product, not the other way around.
Different requirements
Uwe Priester, head of systems division at Kannegiesser, agrees. "You first have to consider what type of laundry you want to develop, because each laundry type has a different logistical requirement. Whether the laundry is working in the hotel or hospital or rental workwear business or whether it has more of a service concept (customer owned goods, pool or rental linen) has a big influence on the final design.
Priester says the workflow of linen and garments is one of the main aspects that Kannegiesser looks at when it designs a layout for a new business or upgrades an established laundry. From the hardware perspective that means flexible design solutions, good access to the machines, easy maintenance and ensuring that information can be efficiently transferred to the software.
"If you look at a Supertrack [monorail] system, contents have to be transferred from the sorting stand to the batch washer to allow the right wash program or ironer process to be selected. Information about the article mix and quantity of the batch is then delivered to the point where it is collected and combined with the customer name, providing the laundry with the information it needs for its invoicing system," Priester explains. "A software system that controls workflow and collects all the relevant data is a must for laundries."
Interaction is key to success
How the hardware and software interact with each other is key to the success of the design. WSP points to two important factors - improving performance and "smart" thinking. "It is not whether you have a bag rail system that works well or a fast-running conveyor belt, that makes or breaks a laundry. It's the combination of specific types of hardware, smart controls and software that makes the laundry profitable - or loss-making," the company explains.
Adapting hardware and software to a laundry's specific requirements could help to increase productivity.
A few seconds saved on each batch could add up to hours saved in a week. With the WSP system, the laundry is completely controlled by the PLC which is programmed by the company.
"That gives us great flexibility in combining the right wares with the right timings."
Software helps visualise and monitor the laundry. "People can forget important factors or get sick - computers don't forget and can be replaced within minutes," explains WSP. "This way the production is stable and efficient rather than dynamic but inefficient."
Jensen sees automation as essential to minimising throughput time, energy and water consumption, as well as to reducing the need for the manual handling of textiles.
"Our automation solutions use standard software packages and state-of-the-art hardware. Their use, and developing the interplay between hardware and software requires an individual project-driven approach involving dedicated consultancy work by our total laundry experts.
At last year's Texcare, Jensen introduced its SpeedDress high-tech garment dispenser for fast garment delivery with 24/7 availability.
SpeedDress adds to the company's range of automation technologies, which includes the Cockpit, unveiled two years ago, and further hardware and software improvements to its successful Futurail system.
The Cockpit provides an overview of the entire laundry process and complements Jensen's standalone automation systems.
The company says that the Cockpit represents a "quantum leap in laundry automation" which, combined with its other technologies, can help customers make informed decisions about the quality of output, the performance of machines and staff and the laundry's overall effectiveness.
Cockpit overview
Cockpit's overview for each machine or product can be seen in real time, supplying managers with Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The program allows the customer to go back in time to see exactly what the interaction was that caused micro pauses in production, thus allowing fine-tuning of the production and man-machine interfacing.
"This is also critical for utilities consumption which can be monitored - even when a machine stands still for a short time, it uses energy," says Jensen.
"As the focus on automation and efficiency increases in particularly industrialised nations so too will the need for technology like this."
The other consideration is the physical space that the laundry will occupy. How the space is designed is crucial for achieving both an optimum flow and storage space. With current technologies, many of the problems can be overcome.
"Handling problems are normally caused when the washroom and finishing room are on different floors but this can be easily overcome with a Futurail system," says Jensen.
The Futurail is customised to meet the laundry's individual requirements, automating the handling and storage of linen and ensuring that machines are supplied with the right sequence of products and at the right rate to maximise efficiency.
"We have Futurail installations in new buildings and in smaller, established laundries. Our designers are used to maximising available production space while coming up with the most ergonomic solutions for the operators." The company also takes care to future-proof the systems for later expansion - most laundries request this.
WSP agrees that the size of the laundry's physical space is no barrier to good design. Current solutions can easily be adapted for length, width, height and capacity with equipment such as bag rail systems, conveyor belts and lifts.
" A laundry's efficiency can be greatly improved by just moving the machines around," says the company.
"Can you imagine what can be done when controls are replaced and the internal logistics are in the loop? This makes our work fun. We like to think that there's a key to every door."
Creating a framework
What the building does, according to Kannegiesser's Priester, is create a framework for the workflow and the positioning of the machines taking into account factors such as external access ways, building structure (including shape, number of floors, ceiling heights and light) and the cost of construction or modification. He says that machines such as washers, dryers, ironers, small piece folding machines, tunnel finishers and folding machines can all be equipped with network connections to the database to create a complete logistical solution.
This allows the company to change the washing, drying and folding programs based on customer requirements and to collect information about events and a customer's work and store it in the database.
Kannegiesser's Supertrack system not only helps to manage workflow in the soil and clean areas, it also transports information to the next processing step.
Its Vectura system organises the area behind the linen folders and transports the customer's goods and information to the dispatch area. In addition, the MIS system informs the laundry in real time about all production figures and status of production.
"All our machines and transport systems send the information to an integrated database, which gives the customer a complete overview of the working processes," says Priester.
WSP says that most of its development stems from the customer's feedback. As well as the development of Laundry Dashboard over the past three years, the company has expanded its WinWash track and trace system.
One of its latest developments is the tracking and tracing of washing bags using RFID.
Although tracking bags in the bag rail system isn't new, this is a further development, says the company.
Using RFID tags in the bags and RFID scanners, all the bags are monitored at several points in the laundry. If a problem arises with a bag, such as stopping or moving to a point in the rail system when it shouldn't, then WSP's system will memorise the code for the specific bag and check whether it is a one-off case or whether the bag had problems already.
If that is the case, then the bag can be placed into a separate line, where it can be removed from the system.
Non-functioning bags can be repaired and the entire bag rail system will run more smoothly.