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How to identify and avoid Bed Bugs

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius), are a so-called parasite. Like many other parasites, such as mosquitoes or fleas, bed bugs feed on blood, preferably from humans and usually at night. The bite can cause an allergic reaction resulting in small red dots.

Professional textile care experts at Christeyns have composed an expert flyer about the identification and treatment of this widespread plague. In recent years, the number of bed bugs infestations has risen explosively. The parasites occur in hotels, but also increasingly in people’s homes. The causes are various: for instance by booming international travel, resistance to certain insecticides and global warming.

In the laundry, infested linen should be washed in a normal white- or coloured wash process, followed by a drying process via a tumble dryer, tunnel finisher or mangle. Laundry owners could help to avoid the plague by advising their customers to install a separate luggage rack in the hotel rooms in order to prevent contact with the bedding. Apart from that they could help by defining some of the symptoms to recognise the parasite, such as the dark spots of the faeces of a bed bug and the sweet almond scent if they are present in large numbers.

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New VP of Multi-Housing at Aaxon Laundry Systems  

Aaxon Laundry Systems from Fort Lauderdale, US recently appointed industry veteran Mark Freesman as their new vice president of multi-housing laundry.

Freesman who formerly worked for Aaxon’s partner – Alliance Laundry Systems – in various roles such as business unit manager and director of market development. Aaxxon stated to have especially hired him in order to lead the company’s investment and growth strategy in multi-housing projects – including major apartment, condominium, guest services and other properties. Freesman: “I am proud to be part of the team here at Aaxon Laundry and to help drive the growth initiatives. It is a dream scenario to be part of Aaxon while still having the opportunity to work with an incredible manufacturer and former team at Alliance Laundry.” Freesman previously was an executive at Coinmach Corp., Electrolux and General Electric.

Aaxon Laundry Systems serves customers in Florida, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America and other export markets.

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Russia Dynamics in Professional Textile Care

Moscow, 31 October 2019. After the 3rd day of the Clean Expo show in Moscow the results were in line with earlier events. Number of booths and visitors were reported to be a little better compared to the last event in 2017.
The dynamics were discussed at the “Laundry & Drycleaning Conference Russia Texcare Forum” in a hotel nearby. The well attended event covered topics on sustainability, the quality of services, innovation and the need for new business models, as well as the question yes or no to change to alternative solvents.

International trends & dynamics

CINET President Mr. Peter Wennekes delivered a key-note speach on international trends, innovative New business cases and new available technologies. There is a huge market potential, it is up to the ptc industry to take the opportunities or leave that open for new investors outside the industry to develop these.
Especially in the field of sustainability and circular business models professional textile care can make the difference. Education & training, as well as Certification are key issues to develop new business opportunities.

Mr. Peter Wennekes (right, CINET’s President & CEO), together with Mr. Leonid Bertsev, President of Russian Association of Dry-cleaners and Launderers

Solvetex benchmark study results

The latest results of the CINET independent Solvetex 7 benchmark study, including Higlow, K4, Intense, Sensene and the latest Olin Perc cleaning method were presented.
Though legislation in Russia is not foreseen to become more stringent in The near future,  there is a lot of discussion on The Need And route for Best Practices. Ofcourse this is also depending on the textiles processed in each specific retailshop. The presented results were evaluated and will be translated in Russia language.

Russia Best Practices Awards 2020

Of course the CINET Global Best Practices Awards Program was introduced as well. The Russia Association intends to organise a Russia Pre-Selection Chapter presumably end of April next year.

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2020 New Russia show CLEANNEXT

At the occasion of the “Laundry & Drycleaning Conference Russia Texcare Forum” (October 31st in Moscow), Mr. Johannes Schmidt-Wiedersheim Brand Manager of Texcare at Messe Frankfurt, introduced the new Cleannext show to be organised for the first time 27-29 October 2020 in Moscow. The show will include cleaning as well as professional laundry applications.

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CINET congratulates the new Masters in PTC (Industrial Textile Services), from Al Jabr Laundries Saudi Arabia

The end of October was an intensive period for a group consisting of 14 Senior Manager at Al Jabr Laundries (Saudi Arabia). The team took part of an intensive “on-the-job” Industrial Textile Services Workshop organized by CINET in Ryiadh (Oct 21-26, 2019). The Al Jabr team participated at the learning process, the practical assignments and the exams during the week, going through all the 3 levels in the World of PTC Business School curricula for Insustrial Textile Services (ITS):

  • Starters (Level C)
  • Operational Excellence (Level B)
  • Management (Level A).

The learning process was coordinated by Mr. Henk Gooijer, Senior Trainer ITS and it was  followed, after the completion by the final exams. The Al Jabr group passed successfully the exams, which allowed the trainees to obtain a “Master in PTC” Certificate for Industrial Textile Services. CINET congratulated the new Masters is PTC for their outstanding performance and skills: K.N. Shetty, Abdul Salam, Abdul Rahim Haji Peera, Rajesh Gopinath, Suresh Rajappon, Arsad Aqeel, Mamum Mahfuz Miah, Manicka Raj, K. Rajagopalan, Salman Salim, Venkatesan Dass and Gouranga Paul.

About Al Jabr

Al Jabr Laundry and Dry cleaning is considered the largest commercial laundry in the Middle East. The five laundry plants serve more than 500 receiving shops. The company provides professional services to Government Establishments, Hospitals , Military Personnel , Companies as well as providing its service to more than 100.000 individuals per week. Al Jabr Laundry is well known for the quality of service it provides and its diversification of services such as the provision of mobile carpet and upholstery cleaning.

Al Jabr Laundries, the region’s largest PTC company

About The World of PTC – Business School

The World of PTC – Business School is a training initiative developed by CINET in cooperation with international suppliers, specifically designed for professional laundry and dry cleaning stakeholders. Through this initiative CINET aims to strengthen and stimulate the development of the PTC (Professional Textile Care) industry. You will find easy accessible information on Retail Textile Cleaning and Industrial Textile Services on the following levels:

  • Starters (Level C): Basic level of education and knowledge for people who likes to start in the textile cleaning industry:
  • Operational Excellence (Level B): Advanced level for operators, employees for detail knowledge and skills of the textile cleaning process
  • Management (Level A): Excellent level for managers and employees on legislation, improvement methodologies, operational management, business modelling & cost structures and marketing

World of PTC Business School website redesigned

The product range of The World of PTC – Business School consists of E-learning & (on the job) Training courses, Practical Workshops & Webinars and a vast PTC online library & Book series. Select the courses that match your professional (both individual and company) needs and become a Master in PTC! More info – here! 

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The first YEP session has started in The Netherlands

The first session of the YEP (Young Executives in Professional Textile Care) program has started on Thursday, October, 31st, with an outstanding group of participants from several countries, including Canada, France, St. Maarten, Norway, Sweden and The Netherlands. CINET is hosting the first session of the YEP (Young Executives in Professional Textile Care) program at the secretariat in The Netherlands.

The goal of the YEP program to exchange know-how and practical experience amongst young promising entrepreneurs aiming to develop new business cases in one of the defined new market areas. The presentations and working group activities within the 2 days of YEP’s first module were conducted by Mr. Tom Krabbe from Lukkien (top European digital marketing agency), Mr. Geert Böttger (senior Professional Textile Care expert) and Mr. Léon Wennekes (CINET’s Secretary General). Additionally several other experienced professionals contributed to the program.

The program of this first meeting was setting the objectives of this new program and agree on the individual assignments and the format.

The next YEP (Young Executives in Professional Textile Care) sessions will take place next year in Italy (February) and UK (April).

Do you want to join the next YEP sessions? Please send your resume to cinet@cinet-online.com to start the application process.

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Case Certification Meerzicht (NL): Clean, on time & tidy!

Industrial laundry Meerzicht started it’s operation over a hundred years ago. Nowadays the laundry processes 52 tons flat linen per week (4-5 production days) on average almost exclusively for hotel customers. A few years back (2011) the laundry was processing about 20-25 tons per week but in 2012 a new location was opened in Katwijk, The Netherlands which enabled the business to grow to a laundry of 40-60 tons per week. Together with a team of just 10 employees (half fixed, half flex-workers) Rem van Dommelen and Marcel Vis (directors of Laundry Meerzicht) work just on one goal in a workweek of maximum 36 hours: “Clean, on time & tidy flat linen for all hotel customers. And that’s not all, in its continuous efforts to professionalize the business the company recently also completed its certification according to ISO 9001:2015 standards.

Rem van Dommelen & Marcel Vis, directors of Laundry Meerzicht in Katwijk, The Netherlands

Specialization = profitable business  

The laundry has all the machinery to execute a completely automated process, which is specialized for the hotel customers. “You can’t combine this for instance with health care or even restaurant customers” says Rem van Dommelen, “I’d rather give those type of customers to a colleague”. At Meerzicht there is a very clear focus on specialization to set a standard quality level, after all a hotel requires a different quality standard than a hospital and table linen needs different care than bed sheets. But Meerzicht even goes further. Even though the current customer portfolio consists of hotels with 7-540 rooms this laundry increasingly focuses on hotels with 80-140 rooms with limited soil degree (bedsheets are changed on a daily basis). In the past a group of customers (mainly table linen) went to another laundry and it was noticed that the production efficiency improved all of the sudden from 75 kg per man-hour to 105 kg per man-hour. The result was less under-loading of batches so the process became much more efficient. This example also makes clear that smaller hotels should also pay a significantly higher price per kg than the larger hotels. At the same time the laundry focuses on hotels with maximum 140 rooms to minimize the risk. Should a hotel decide not to continue the collaboration with Meerzicht it will not impact the overall income and process too much.

Ideal (limited) product-market mix

Another aspect of specialization at Meerzicht industrial laundry is the limited product portfolio. The laundry offers bed sheets (1 & 2 persons), bed cover (1 & 2 persons), pillow covers and 4 types of terrycloth (hand towel, bath towel, shower sheet and bath mat). This ensures the textile can go through the process as fast as possible, resetup costs are lowered and the result is an average efficiency rate of 114 kg per man-hour production. This process shows that specialization on a specific customer group & product mix can greatly boost the efficiency of the laundry. Naturally each product-market-combination has its own standards in terms of efficiency KPI’s, a laundry of table linen (80-90 kg per man-hour) or personal garments (some 40 kg per man-hour) has completely different norm values (and so pricing per kg). The key message from this case is that specialization and so combining similar products that require the same quality standard results in more efficiency and so higher margins for each laundry player in the market.

Process integration: every second counts!

To increase the efficiency every step in the process has been analyzed and optimized in terms of speed as well as increasing the added value for the customer. This is a continuous process, every day Meerzicht is looking for opportunities to improve the process and optimize the process flow. Bedsheets & covers are of course separated from the terry cloth. Subsequently two golden rules follow:

  1. Ensure as little under-loading of batches as possible, maximize the max capacity of the laundry bags that feed the tunnel washer.
  2. Decrease the time needed to execute each process step.

For the second point it is ensured personnel takes as little steps & actions as possible (this is very much in line with the LEAN theory where ‘transport’ = ‘waste’). Every time the linen is touched it has to be A) absolutely necessary and B) as easy as possible for the staff. Another interesting example is the speed of the ironer for each customer. Older textiles can be processed faster in the ironer than new textile.

Sorting of the dirty laundry is made very easy by using the transport belt that continuesly feeds new linen and laundry bags that automatically feed the tunnel washer. Nowadays it’s increasingly possible for the staff at the hotel to separate the terry cloth from the bedding in the hotel so its easier to process the linen
Meerzicht applied an infrared sensor (instead of the two standard switches) to speed up the shuttle with several seconds which transports the laundry ‘cakes’ between the tunnel washer and the dryers. Together with supplier partners Vega Systems, Senso Technics, Goudkuil and Christeyns this laundry has investigated warehouse technology from e-commerce companies like Amazon and Alibaba to further optimize the process which will soon replace this shuttle installation as well.
With these sheet-picker every batch of bedding linen is separated one-by-one and fed to the operator at the ironer. This resulted in two less persons needed in the process (2 FTE=full time equivalent) and enables 1000 pieces per hour to be fed to the ironer. Besides the efficiency this machines prevents back problems of staff and an automated quality check is performed as textiles that do not tear are surely still of a sufficient quality level.
On every work station the correct information is displayed to the operator on these type of tablets. This can be customized for each customer, for instance this picture shows exactly how many pieces need to be put in the container and how they should be structured.

 

After each batch the count of the foldingmachine is directly put in the tablet so the central ERP system contains the exact correct information for dispatch and perhaps even more important: invoicing.

 

To save energy Meerzicht applied numerous measures; these plastic curtains have been installed to maintain the heath, the tunnel washer has soft starters, water usage is set on 2.1 liter per kilo on the tunnel (total plant has 3.2 liter incl. wash extractor, toilets, etc.), the steam generator is set on 9 bar and is turned off 15 minutes before the daily operation is finished and every morning a check will be done on air leakages by walking through the plant when the steam generator has just started.

 

Importance of monitoring

At Meerzicht monitoring has been a standard part of the operation for decades. “How would you otherwise know how your business is performing?” says Van Dommelen. Measuring the most important KPI’s should be part of every self-respecting laundry and it doesn’t even mean you need complex, expensive software. Naturally software can help analyze in more detail but just a simple excel with weakly measurement of the KG textile washed, number of hours of operators and the usage of gas/water/electricity is already sufficient to know if the laundry is operating accordingly and if there are abnormal peaks that need attention. At Meerzicht every production day starts with a finger scan of the operators to automatically and transparently register the working hours. Besides providing management information monitoring is key to identify ‘waste’ in the process and measure improvement. For instance, if a peak in water usages is recorded you know that something is wrong in the process (e.g. a slipped tight water tap because of erosion and water hardness) which firstly increases cost and secondly (potentially) impacts the quality of your laundry service. Another important KPI that Meerzicht monitors is the level of rewash, this should be max 2%. When changes are made into the standardized operating system there is always an interaction with the main suppliers Vega Systems, Senso Technics, Goudkuil en Christeyns.

Transport as profit booster

De first and last step in the process is transport. The drivers of Meerzicht are much more than just drivers, they have become service-employees that represent the company. In case of questions or comments these service-employees will directly act upon it by informing the laundry operational management which results in much less miss-communication and so a more professional service. The routes are fixed, one week the customer is visited Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the next week Tuesday and Thursday. With two city-trailers and a truck customers are serviced. These vehicles are a little smaller in size which makes them more efficient (less gas usage) and flexible in the urban areas. All hotels are within a radius of 30 km so in total Meerzicht doesn’t drive more than 2100 km per week. “Another interesting aspect to monitor is the time a service-employee takes to deliver and collect the roll containers.” The service-employees record how much time it takes them to do the delivery. Subsequently management analyzes the timing every week in about 30 minutes which leads to interesting benchmark information.

Seasonality

Just as most laundries, Meerzicht doesn’t know exactly how containers will be ready for pick-up at the customer. On site, the service-employee will check how much containers can be collected and in case of fluctuation it usually only takes time to balance the linen stock out. Especially for hotel laundries, it is known that seasonality can impact the demand for linen. In the winter the hotels at sea can be nearly empty with some 20 beds that require fresh linen whereas the same hotel can require 300 fresh beds in the summer. In the bigger cities this is usually not the case, occupancy rate is fairly steady at 100% all year long. In the cities the challenge is more focused on the delivery schedules, avoiding traffic jams. The trucks will be loaded at the end of the afternoon/beginning of the evening so the service-employees can depart directly at 4-5 am in the morning. With some hotels there is so much trust in the relationship that they’ve provided the service-employees with keys so they can enter the hotel themselves. This helps to avoid transport during traffic jams.

Textile rental & Blycolin partnership

Meerzicht as a laundry works for its own hotel customers (about 40% of total, the contract is between Meerzicht and the hotel) as well for hotels that are the customer of Blycolin, a textile rental company (60% of total, the contract is between Meerzicht and Blycolin). All textiles consist of 80% cotton and 20% polyester which is ideal for industrial processing while maintaining a long lifetime of the textile. Currently the laundry realizes an average bedlinen lifetime of 5 years which can go up to 7 years for hotels at sea. Terry cloth is replaced once every 3 years, at the same time the bedlinen is checked on quality level. For the rental service a standard rule of thumb is to supply 5 sets of linen for each room in the hotel plus 10% for calamities. Hotels with an occupancy of 70% or more are interesting customers in this case.
The partnership with Blycolin works particularly well for Meerzicht. The hotel customers of Blycolin don’t have to be visited and customer service goes via Blycolin. Furthermore invoicing, marketing, quality checks (at the hotel), customer relationship management and supply of new textiles is taken care of by Blycolin. Meerzicht is responsible for an efficient, high-quality laundry service as well as transport. With an efficient operation, such as with Meerzicht, this business model works particularly well. Both partners are specialized at their own set of tasks. Besides this Blycolin is good at educating the housekeepers at the hotel at separating the linen when the room is serviced. This results in more efficiency which can be used for better margins or more attracting pricing offers to customers. A last important point to make clear agreements about in this type of partnership is the level of linen reject by the hotel.

 

Certification = professionalism

The most important reason for Meerzicht to start certification was to inspire proud amongst its employees and to showcase professionalism of this company. Customers recognize the ISO 9001:2015 standard which helps to profile the laundry business. Furthermore certification supports the company to consistently work on (improving) quality management as well as operational efficiency and documenting these processes accordingly. Another important point which was implemented during the certification implementation is the increased transparency towards the customer. At Meerzicht a report about the operation (temperature, ph value, etc.) is automatically send to the customer on a periodical basis so process parameters can be checked. This input comes from Meerzicht but also Christeyns (detergent supplier) which automatically generates the data. Lastly the certificate and underlying quality management handbook helps to showcase a professional operation according to best practices towards various governmental bodies. To implement this program at Meerzicht a consultancy service is used. With so little overhead Meerzicht has a limited capacity for these tasks so consultancy is the perfect solution including a periodical returning service.

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Kemco Systems Strengthens Position in Water-Treatment Services

Kemco Systems, a provider of water and energy solutions, recently acquired Texas-based water treatment technology and services company, Bob Johnson & Associates.

The acquisition is stated to not only strengthen the company’s position in water treatment services to the industrial markets, but also to provide a strong wastewater technology portfolio to the clients of Bob Johnson & Associates. During its 50 years in business, this company has developed specialized expertise in ion exchange resin regeneration, off-site membrane cleaning and has provided a powerful equipment offering through its Unity product line. Apart from that, it’s Scale Free line of specialty chemicals include a.o. myriad membrane cleaners and boiler treatment.

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Will Chemistry & Engineering Innovations dominate the future Laundry Industry?

Although improving the chemicals used in the laundry industry can be considered a hot item in the industry at the moment, the future of the industry depends heavily on innovation in engineering as well as in chemical formula. According to Christeyns engineering manager Peter Jackson in a recent interview in a UK trade journal.

Christeyns sees engineering as a crucial part of its business. This vision is to be witnessed  by the recently opened new engineering unit to provide a hub for its commercial laundry engineering division – currently handling multi-million pound contracts for laundries nationwide. Apart from that, the company intends to achieve a growing engineering expertise through both external recruitment and their apprentices program.

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Ecolab appoints new Vice President for Textile Care Division

Ecolab recently announced that Greg Thorsen has been appointed as the new vice president and general manager for the company’s Textile Care Division. In this field the company partners with commercial laundries in order to deliver comprehensive solutions and fight the challenges commercial laundries face in serving the needs of healthcare, hospitality, food and beverage linen and industrial markets.

Thorsen previously held various executive positions in the company’s pest elimination division, including senior vice president and general manager, international, senior vice president and general manager, as well as  vice president of sales and operations for North America. Apart from that he has held positions in operations, new business development and regional management.

He began his career with Ecolab in 1988 as a pest elimination service specialist.

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