Running for maximum efficiency
Ah! It’s July and there are still
shirts to be pressed. You may be inclined to accept poorer
productivity at this time of year because, no matter where you
live, working in a drycleaning plant in the heat of the summer
can be brutal.
 | ||
Furthermore, accepting a lower
productivity pace may well lower the bar, causing production to
suffer during peak times when good production is mandatory.
Most important, getting good production
does not mean that a presser works harder! True, getting a
couple of pressers to give you better production (read:
changing the way that they work) can be a real chore. Still,
that isn’t a good reason to avoid discussing it.
Good production breeds good profits and
profits are what this is all about. Expecting good production
doesn’t mean that you’re a slave lord. It just
means that you’re a business man.
I remember having a conversation with a
particular plant owner. I showed him how he could improve his
productivity. He said that he’d forfeit the increased
productivity because if he changed anything, his shirt presser
would quit. That is the definition of insanity. Who do you
think runs that plant?
Anyway, the shirts need pressing and
it’s up to you to make it happen. Let’s make sure
that we get the most from our double-buck unit.
In order to explain this properly, we
must first visualize one shirt at each of the nine
“stations” of a double buck unit. The nine stations
are:
1. The damp box. Here, completely
unpressed shirts await pressing. I consider this to be one of
the stations because without shirts here, there can not be any
productivity, just like if there is a shirt missing from
another station.
2. The sleeve press. The shirt here has
pressed sleeves only. The shirt awaits transfer to the next
pressing machine.
3. Collar and cuff press #1. Here, a
shirt has the cuffs, collars and sleeves pressed.
4. Collar and Cuff press #2. The collars
and cuffs are the thickest parts of a shirt and therefore need
to be squeezed for the longest amount of time. In order to get
good production, the collars and cuffs must keep up with the
body press and the sleeve press. The only way to do this is to
have two collar presses.
If you have a double-buck unit and have
two employees, but only one collar and cuff press, you are
wasting money on labor or you have a quality issue.
You aren’t getting your
money’s worth on your second shirt presser if you
haven’t a second collar machine because they can not do
100 shirts per hour properly.
If you think that you can (or are sure
that you are), then I am 90 percent sure that your collars are
still damp. (The exception is for certain blue-collar markets
that have an abundance of cotton/poly blend shirts. You can
really crank these out and do a good job.) All this means that
collar and cuff press #2 must also have a shirt waiting here
too.
5. 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 hangs 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 lead to
terrible productivity because they bring 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. 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 one-half
to 2 1Ž2 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 pressers will ache a lot less at the end of the day.
6. Body buck #1. This buck is in the
pressing position and has a fully pressed shirt on it.
7. Body buck #2. This buck is in the
dressing position and has a fully pressed shirt on it.
8. 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.
9. The rail or the conveyor. 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.
So there you have it, a shirt at each
station. Now each shirt needs to move one “notch”
— one station. Presser #1 works in concert with Presser
#2.
Here’s how to do it.
Presser #1 operates the two body bucks in
this manner: To help explain this smooth rhythm, I will
describe the processes at each station as simply “load
sleever” and “unload sleever” rather than
repeatedly describing each step.
1. Unload the collar cone.
2. Load the rail.
3. Unload the body press #1.
4. Load the collar cone.
5. Unload the hook.
6. Load the body press #1 and send this
buck into the pressing position which brings body press #2 into
the dressing position.
7. Unload the collar cone.
8. Load the rail.
9. Unload the body press #2.
10. Load the collar cone.
11. Unload the hook.
12. Load the body press #2 and index this
buck and begin again with step #1.
It has to be this way — all 12
steps in that order.
Meanwhile, presser #2 follows these
procedures:
1. Unload collar and cuff press #1.
2. Load the hook.
3. Unload the sleever.
4. This step is different than any of the
others. It seems like a wasted step, but in actuality it is the
“secret” to good production on a double buck unit.
Simply place the shirt that you have just removed from the
sleeve press on collar and cuff press #1. Do not dress the
shirt or close the head. Just lay the shirt on the bucks. Make
sure that the cuffs are clearly visible. If you have to fish
around for the cuffs later, it will cost valuable time.
5. Load the sleever with a shirt from the
damp box.
6. Now return to the triple-head that you
merely laid a shirt on (Collar and cuff #1) and properly dress
the shirt on the press and lower the head. Make a 180° turn
and…
7. Unload collar and cuff press #2.
8. Load the hook with this shirt.
9. Unload the sleever.
10. Merely place this shirt on collar and
cuff #2.
11. Reload the sleever.
12. Now return to the triple head that
you merely laid a shirt on (collar and cuff #2) and properly
dress the shirt on the press and lower the head. Make a
180° turn and unload collar and cuff press #1, which is
step number one again.
This is 12 steps, just like Presser #1
has 12 steps. It has to be these 12 steps and in this order.
Often the rhythm is broken even before it
starts. Getting this routine started correctly is an acquired
skill. First thing in the morning, the pressers must understand
the goal and make this happen:
1. Load the sleever and wait.
That’s easy. There isn’t anything else to do at the
moment.
2. When the sleever’s cycle ends,
unload the sleever and lay that shirt on collar machine #1.
3. Reload the sleever. There will be a
wait until the shirt on the collar machine’s cycle
finishes.
4. When the collar machine releases,
leave it there for a bit. The other presser must wait a couple
minutes.
5. Remove the shirt from the sleever and
load the other collar machine.
6. Now, reload the sleever.
7. Unload the collar and cuff press.
8. Load the hook.
Now the presser that runs the body press
begins to press starting with the shirt on the hook. This
presser must resist the urge to “jump the gun.”
With a shirt on each station, the
pressers can begin the rhythm described earlier. Rhythm is the
key to good productivity.
“If you do what you've always done,
you'll get what you always got.”
