National Clothesline

You may have heard statements that suggest that fast pressing breeds poor quality. Not knowing how to run your single buck shirt unit is the root of beliefs such as these.

A certain method of running the equipment will yield a particular productivity rate. What that rate is, exactly, is randomized by the abilities of individual employees. But a fast presser won’t

give you 50 to 60 per hour if their method is wrong.

Fix the method, and you will improve productivity, perhaps dramatically. If your presser is producing 25 to 30 shirts per hour, there is more wrong there than method.

If you train them to press with a more efficient method, you may get a 20 to 30 percent increase in productivity, but that is nowhere near good enough.

Something else is wrong. Perhaps a bad attitude, slow metabolism or carelessness. I am not going to be able to help you with this. Still, getting pressers to do things the right way can only be a good thing. It is an important first move that can’t be sidestepped.

I remember meeting a presser in Illinois five or six years ago who had a great attitude, but had no idea how to run the single buck shirt unit that was assigned to her. It was actually a double-buck unit, but with one operator. She was (pardon the metaphor) like a fly on garbage. She landed on one machine and it was anybody’s guess which direction she would be off on next.

After, for example, lowering the press head on the collar and cuff machine, she was liable to move the sleeve press next, or the body press, or the collar cone.

Who knew? It was painful to watch. And she worked way too hard. I spent 30 minutes with her and she soon said that she was having the best day that she ever had at work!

The reason is simple: She didn’t need to think. I don’t want employees to think. I hope that doesn’t sound gross. It isn’t meant to be disrespectful. I am paid to think. Managers are paid to think. Employees are paid to do. Again, no disrespect intended.

Henry Ford said: “Thinking is the hardest job of all.” It’s true, you know. If a presser constantly thinks, “OK, what next?” that person’s job becomes very stressful. Remove that, and the presser will become a “pressing machine.”

For this script, we will use as an example, a conventional, three-piece, single-buck unit. The first thing to understand about a single buck shirt unit is that there are seven steps — better said, seven stations on the track.

Each shirt moving through the pressing unit moves through it one “station” at a time. The stations are: the damp box, the sleeve press, the collar and cuff press, the hook, the body press buck, the collar cone and, finally, whatever sort of conveyance is used after the collar cone. This could be a screw conveyor or a slick rail or whatever. We’ll simply call this the “rail”. Remember, it may be that the “rail” is actually a dispatch conveyor at your shop.

We will get to how to begin the entire cycle, but for now, let’s visualize one shirt, pending at each station.

1. The damp box. You have a damp box stocked with shirts that await pressing.

2. The sleeve press. A shirt on this press. The sleeves have been pressed and await transfer to the next station.

3. The triple-head press. On this machine is a shirt that has pressed sleeves and, now, a pressed collar and cuffs. The head has released.

4. The hook. This is the hook on the side of the body press cabinet. A shirt that has a pressed collar, cuffs and sleeve hangs here awaiting the final step.

If you are concerned about shirts drying out here, it’s probably because you’ve seen it happen. If shirts dry out here, it is either because productivity is too slow and as a direct result the shirt hung here too long or because shirts are being “stockpiled” or one shirt has, for one reason or another, lingered at the bottom for far too long. Lingering shirts on this hook leads to terrible productivity because it brings about the need for spraying which drastically cuts productivity. This hook is not for handbags, employee clothing or ornamentation.

This is the most often overlooked step in the process, but for some reason that I can not really put into words, much less type into a keyboard, it is the most likely cause of reduced production.

Of all of the plants that I have ever visited in seven countries and three continents, the ones that have good production use the hook for the purpose that it was intended and those that get poor production don’t use the hook at all and they theorize that the hook will slow them down (still more). All the while they struggle just to achieve marginally below-average productivity.

In fact, fast pressing productivity is only one roadblock away — their own stubbornness. My best guess as to why it makes a difference is the saving of 1é2 to 2 1é2 steps combined with the reduction in twisting of the torso which breeds fatigue and therefore lower productivity.

I can’t do much better than that, other than to say “believe me, it makes a difference!” I spend a bit of time here, discussing the hook that some of you may have removed or not even knew existed because when you finish reading this and head out to your shirt laundry, this is the fault that you are most likely to find.

Further, you will get an argument about it from the presser. Hold your ground. It’s just a new habit that needs breaking in. You will get better productivity and the presser will ache a lot less at the end of the day.

5. The body buck. Here a shirt awaits removal now that it has gone through its last pressing operation.

6. The collar cone. The fact that your collar cone probably isn’t being used correctly is a subject for another day. We’ll assume that it is. A completely pressed shirt hangs on the cone awaiting delivery to inspection now that all of the pressing and curing processes are complete.

7. The rail. There may or may not be a shirt here, as a conveyor will, of course, move a shirt away from here, but the rail itself is an important cog in the wheel.

OK, so there you have it — one shirt at each station. This is what you need to start this smooth rhythm that is good pressing productivity.

To help explain this smooth rhythm, I will describe the processes at each station as simply “load sleever” and “unload sleever” rather than repeatedly explaining the processes. The idea is to visualize each shirt at each station moving up “one notch” to the next station.

1. Unload the collar cone onto the rail. This vacates the collar cone, clearing the way for the next shirt.

2. Unload the body buck.

3. Load the collar cone. You have moved up the shirt that was on the body buck one “notch” and have now vacated the body buck. We can fix that…

4. Unload the hook.

5. Load the body buck with the shirt that was just on the hook. We have moved the empty station one step closer to the damp box.

6. Because the “hook” is now the empty station, it needs to be reloaded. Unload the collar and cuff press and, with that shirt…

7. Reload the hook. Now move to the sleeve press and…

9. Reload the collar and cuff press. Now the vacant station is the sleever press.

10. Reload the sleeve press with a completely unpressed shirt from the damp box.

During the time that it has taken the presser to do these 10 steps, the shirt on the collar cone has fully cured, the body press has finished its cycle, the shirt on the hook has not had a chance to dry as it has only hung there for a minute or so, the triple-head press has finished its cycle and the head has released or is about to.

Now the presser begins the cycle again by unloading the collar cone, then reloading it with the shirt on the body press and so on. Soon the sleeve press will end its cycle and release, so by the time the presser is ready to unload it, it waits for the presser, not the other way around.

This is a key point: The presser must never wait for any shirt on any station. There must be a shirt waiting to be moved whenever a presser is ready for that station.

Getting all of this started is key and failing here it is where all goes wrong. Since getting it started happens at the beginning of the day, you can very easily get off on the wrong foot. Often, a shirt at each station happens by accident (rather than by force) when a holdup at one station for one reason or another causes a shirt to “linger.”

Here’s how to start it off right: (Now we are visualizing NO shirts anywhere on the shirt unit except in the damp box).

1. Dress the sleever and press the sleeves. Wait while the sleeves are being pressed.

2. Unload the sleever and move the shirt over to the collar and cuff machine.

3. Load the collar and cuff machine and close the heads.

4. Move back to the sleever and reload it. Press the sleeves. At this time the collars and cuffs from the previous shirt may still be in the process. No problem, just wait a few seconds.

5. When the triple head does finish its cycle, remove that shirt from the press and move it to the hook. A presser will be inclined, once again, to avoid the hook and promptly dress the body press. Do not allow this.

6. Now unload the sleever and reload the triple head with that shirt.

7. Reload the sleever. We are almost where we want to be.

8. Unload the hook and dress the body buck. Press the shirt.

9. Now move every shirt up one “notch” as described earlier.

Doing this correctly is an acquired skill, but it is a great habit to get into and one that will save you money by increasing productivity. ?

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.”