National Clothesline

These are indeed exciting times, and certainly the time for proper planning and to consider making the right changes. Some changes we can afford and others we cannot afford. And then there are those that maybe we can’t afford to put off for another year.

It’s sinful to deny that a better way or method simply does not exist. While investigating the possibilities, we often realize that it is cheaper to make the investment now than to wait another year to make the investment. Waiting means the continuing with the same old expenses and costly conditions. Things don’t get better and sometimes they worsen with time.

As I was told a long time ago: “A business without a plan is a plan for no business!”

How do we go down the list of priorities?

Let’s start with labor costs. The possibilities for reducing costs and upgrading quality have been around for years. It is now especially so in the finishing department where improvements can be made in quality even using cheaper, inexperienced and unskilled labor. You could even have high schoolers working part time, in off hours, if necessary.

How? It is possible with tandem tensioning finishing. Consider that pants, slacks and trousers make up more than 50 percent of our volume. With less than four hours training, the average teenager can double your production with an improvement in quality using a tensioning unit and a legger press on a timer.

The operator simply dresses the trousers on the tensioning press, presses the timer and, when finished, removes the pants and places them on the legger press. While that piece is finished, the cycle goes on. No more ceiling gazing or day-dreaming. Just quality pressing with one operator pivoting from one press to the other.

I one had the experience of securing a quality white tuxedo jacket account that unfortunately came at a time when we didn’t really need the extra volume. The account required over a thousand jackets a week with an unusual and daily overnight turn-around scheduled.

This came along during the busy May and June season. What they had done was book entire high school graduating classes for tuxedo rentals. The pick-ups were made by a team of cab drivers. This made for a sometimes piecemeal return of jackets, but they had to be ready for processing for the next graduating class.

Talk about being organized! This introduced us to tandem finishing with the use of a Hoffman Coat-A-Matic and a utility press. With one jacket being steamed, the previous jacket was having the lapels pressed and checked over. Production had often exceeded 60 jackets an hour and made it all possible.

That equipment is available today, more automated and sophisticated, making quality production possible. And, most important, with inexperienced personnel.

If you had the pleasure of attending the Clean Show in Orlando in June, you would have witnessed some of the marvels and major advancements in the drycleaning field.

Next month I will be given a personal demonstration of the new Ipura drycleaning unit by Columbia. In the meantime, for those who were unable to attend, I ask that you review your National Clothesline to keep you up to date before making the intelligent decisions as to what kind of tensioning equipment and the consideration of the latest unit that will handle the newest type of fabrics now and in the future.

Considering what our industry has been through, it’s great to see new products and innovations of older ones that reduced the cost to purchase and provide labor savings in operation.