Problem solving by prevention
From poor production to disintegrating draperies, problems that beset cleaners
in their quest for profits and professional perfection were put under the
microscope during a two-hour discussion sponsored by the Drycleaning and
Laundry Institute at Clean
’07 in Las Vegas.
Leading the discussion before a full house of more than 500 were Don Desrosiers
of Tailwind Systems and Chris Allsbrooks, DLI garment analyst.
Desrosiers led off the session by addressing sagging shirt production, a problem
he said is often wrongly blamed on the presser
’s inability to press shirts. Many things affect shirt production, he said, and
it is important to find the cause of the problem instead of putting a band-aid
on it.
Sometimes lower shirt production is accepted because it is believed it leads to
better quality. Quite the opposite is true, Desrosiers said. Good quality
promotes good production. The issue is to find out what is detracting from the
quality of the finished shirt. If everything is working as it should, a shirt
should come off the press as good as it can be.
“It should be perfect,” he said.
And if it’s not, “throwing bodies at the problem” in the form of touch-up is the worst thing that can happen.
“Work back through the process until you find the problem,” Desrosiers advised. “It’s always worth your time to find the reason for quality issues. It can save you
tens of thousands of dollars.
”
And what might some of those reasons be? Desrosiers pointed to several things to
looks at.
Tweaks and modifications made to the pressing equipment — padding, pressure, timing — can cause quality issues. Resetting everything to factory specifications can
sometimes help discover problems. Moisture
— not enough before the shirt is pressed, too much after it is finished — can lead to problems in quality and slowdowns in production. Improper dressing
of the shirt on the buck or lack of inflation of the bags can cause issues that
end up being addressed by touch-up.
“Minor issues won’t go away or fix themselves,” Desrosiers said. “They are important things that contribute to quality. Taking care of minor
problems helps avoid the bigger ones.
”
Allsbrooks highlighted common problems seen in DLI’s garment analysis department. Garments with changing colors can anger customers
and mystify cleaners, she said. Sometimes these changes aren
’t noticeable until a garment has been cleaned several times. Different dyes may
be used to generate a particular color, then in cleaning one of the dyes will
be removed. The garment becomes an entirely different color.
“Test, test, test,” Allsbrooks urged cleaners. Testing before cleaning can head off trouble with
color change, loss of finishes and coatings and damage to trims.
Recently some garment makers have begun using wood trims, she noted. The wood
itself is dyed and that dye can bleed and cause stains, she cautioned.
Household items in particular need special attention before cleaning. Many of
these items have no care label, so it
’s up to the cleaner to how to handle them if they want to avoid potentially costly
claims.
Draperies in particular need to be handled with care. People spend thousands of
dollars an draperies for the home and in most cases, those drapes just hang in
the window for years until the owner decides to have them cleaned.
They may look fine in a cursory inspection, but often the fabric will have weak
and worn spots from exposure to sunlight or yellowing from dirt, dust and
smoke. This wear can go unnoticed because it occurs gradually over time
— but once the drapes are cleaned it becomes painfully apparent.
Allsbrooks recommended testing the strength of the fabric by wetting a finger
and poking or rubbing suspect areas of the drape. Weakened fibers will reveal
themselves before the cleaning process has a chance to do permanent damage.
She also recommended educating customers on caring for their drapes in between
cleanings
— dusting them off with a light vacuuming and rotating drapes among windows so
the same set does not get constant direct sun exposure.
Another common problem with household items is that the customer will bring only
one part of a matched set in for cleaning. It
’s important to find out if an item is part of a set before cleaning it and
inadvertently creating a mismatched set.
