Making it automatic
If the words “plant automation” make you think of a vast army of bulky, clunky robots, then you probably missed
the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute’s panel seminar on the subject during Clean ’09.
Automation in the drycleaning industry has been around for a number of years now
and none of it looks like it escaped from the pages of a bad science fiction
novel.
The field encompasses more than assembly and bagging, too, as many people are
under that false impression.
These days, cleaners use various pieces of equipment for finishing, storage,
tracking, dispatching, route sequencing and workflow distribution on a regular
basis.
In short, automation is a valuable labor-savings tool, which is why DLI chose it
as the main topic of its Thursday morning discussion..
Four guest speakers were enlisted to address a packed house, including Mark
Jones, vice president of technology for Spot Business Systems.
He provided an overview of the process of scanning and tracking garments using
an automated system that allows cleaners to take complete control of their
inventory.
“You can be very consistent with your pricing,” he explained. “It’s also nice if you orphaned garments. They go away.”
Embedded in each bar code is a plethora of information that can tell you
everything you need to know and even some things you didn’t.
“You can track the history of the garment,” he said. “How many times has a garment come through your plants? Who has detailed it? When
was the last time it came through?”
Such a system can also reduce labor at the front counter and during assembly;
however, Jones implored the audience to consider a few factors before
investing.
“When you integrate into automation and you start dealing with bar codes, then
your detailing process completely changes,” he warned. “Every time you apply a bar code, it takes about 15 seconds to apply it. Nobody
ever thinks about that. They just think that one day they’re going to turn it on and they’re going to go.”
Jones said the best strategy for cleaners making the switch is to allow 60 to 90
days in order to apply the majority of bar codes to garments. After that, they
can expect to get a better handle of the altered detail/mark-in process.
“It’s a lot of work, a lot of changes to your workflow,” he said. “It’s all for the good, but it’s a pretty rough couple of weeks once you consider putting this in.”
Jones yielded the floor to a member of the audience, Gary Maloney of Nu Yale
Cleaners, who echoed a similar sentiment. Incorporating automation into his own
plant was inconvenient, but well worth it.
“To me, it’s more of a management system,” Maloney said. “You’ve got more control over your garments than you ever thought of before. I just
came from vacation. I was in Florida and I could look at my computer and I
could tell when somebody was marking a garment in. I could tell when they
assembled it and pressed it, and who did it.”
Next up, Bill Kahan, regional sales manager for Unipress, took over the podium to discuss tensioning finishing equipment such as pants
toppers and leggers and form finishers.
“There are various types of automation that can be implemented in plants,” he said. “Some may require substantial investments; however, some of them offer a very
good return on investment.”
Ultimately, the change will help cleaners improve their bottom lines.
“Tensioning finishing equipment will increase your production, improve your
quality and reduce your labor costs,” he added.
For example, noted Kahan, the faster production can allow cleaners to shut down
their boilers 30 minutes earlier for the day, leading to about a five or six
percent savings in utilities.
To accomplish greater efficiency, however, cleaners need to establish production
standards for their employees and, more important, enforce them.
“Unless you let your employees know exactly what you expect of them, they will
not be able to achieve those production numbers,” Kahan said. “It’s important to understand that production quality is as much a function of
management as it is of the equipment.”
Afterward, audience member Gary Dawson, who owns Belleair Bluffs in Florida,
offered his own testimonial on the efficacy of tensioning equipment.
“I’ve had tensioning equipment for over 12 years now,” he said. “The best thing I can tell you, especially with form finishers, is you can slap
on a suit coat and never touch it, for the most part. Once in a while you have
to hit the lapels. If you need to do the linings, do the linings, but we have
experienced that the linings come out just perfectly fine.”
“When you look at these types of investments — things that are going to significantly change your business when you go out and
buy this type of technology — you have to analyze the product, but you also have to analyze the company you
are buying from,” he explained.
Before cleaners can decide on a company and product, however, they must overcome
their own mindset.
“This is a philosophical change in your business,” he stated. “We’ve talked to hundreds of people month in and month out and still fear is the
number one thing to stop people from doing this type of change.”
Dubasik drew a parallel between automation and the computerization that swept
through the industry previously. Many initially resisted converting to computer
systems only to eventually regret not taking the plunge earlier.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” he said. “I see automation as kind of the next revolution in drycleaning.
During his session that followed, Mike Eggers, area sales manager for Sankosha, agreed that the industry is embracing automation more and more.
“Labor is the number-one issue in cleaners today,” he said. “Everyone wants to see the bottom line go up. The industry is headed towards full
automation.”
According to Eggers, the changeover to automation is “a hard decision to make,” but once cleaners make the change, they never want to go back to doing things
the old way.
Some of the intrinsic advantages of the technology will make the lives of plant
owners better in a number of ways.
Eggers used an example of an automatic bagging machine to illustrate his point.
“They show up every day for work,” he said. “You have no excuses, no phone calls saying they can’t be there.”
Not having to scramble around to fill an empty slot means more peace of mind for
plant owners.
Having a machine do the work also means more profits and less wasted poly.
Things such as operator fatigue and workers’ compensation claims no longer pose a problem.
“With automation, we’re trying to make the employees do a better job, a quicker job and not
jeopardize their heath,” he said.
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