Below is a report from one of the Travelling Scholars, Aniko Rucz, following their recent UK tour of several laundry facilities within the UK, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Launderers:
First of all, I would like to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to you (PM John Shonfeld) for getting myself and Fahad into this amazing programme. We enjoyed it a lot and sure have some brilliant ideas we can import into our day-to-day operation.
On the first day, we visited Synergy LMS and had a great time with Wayne, who showed us around and answered all our questions. As a graduate of accounting from the factory floor, I was amazed about their operation and production system. I found it interesting to see the quantity they are processing daily and how it is not affecting their continuing operation time, which is an average 99.7%. I learned that they have an in-house Kannegiesser trained engineer and their team leaders have an excellent engineering mind too. After seeing the plant, we were lucky enough to spend sometime getting an overview of their KPI and PPOH performance board and procedure.
On our second day, we visited The Swiss Laundry. Guy and Mark have so much passion and pride about their newly built plant, and quite rightly, as the technology they have installed is really eye-opening. I liked the fact that there is no steam boiler involved and how efficiently it works with Girbau equipment. Also, their 200,000 l water tank they have built was a big project as they had some landscape issues, but they cleverly found the way to build it securely. I was pleased to see they use Tikos software which is used by our unit in Worcester. Impressive chemical system with the cool brite set up by Christeyns. I learned that using these technologies it helps them to save on energy. We were also introduced some other unit owners and members of the Worshipful Company of Launderers, who shared their knowledge with us.
On our third day, we visited Micronclean. Simon’s innovative thinking was something extraordinary. I haven’t seen anything so complex but so well organised before. The RFID merged with the Protrack system designed by Simon was not only smart but unique too. I learned that they have have a very unique concept for the garment processing all over the UK, but they have opened a plant in India; hopefully, soon, opening another unit in the UK or in the EU. Their efficiency, SKIES programme, and family-orientated mind set is something really close to our ideology at Priory Dry Cleaners. We were also given an overview of their successor and their graduation programmes.
