Meet the GBPAP18’s outstanding PTC showcases: Cotton Way (Russia)

For the coming period, we will present you week by week, the most outstanding PTC showcases that were officially nominated for The Global Best Practices Awards Program 2018. The profiles of these companies are also present in the WOPCOM platform, which you can access here.

COTTON WAY (Russia) – The Innovation Award at GBPAP18 – Industrial Textile Services

 

Specialized service for special clients

Cotton Way is a network of modern industrial laundries laundries throughout Russia (Moscow, Kazan, Sochi, Krasnodar, Novokuznetsk and other cities). The company is focused on the industrial, hospitality and health care sector (hospitals and institutions) and further concentrates on Russian railways, military, fitness and mud resistant mads. Cotton Way employs more than 3,000 people (administrative staff and production personnel) divided over 9 production facilities and more than 30 logistics sites.

Cotton Way is without a doubt the largest and most technologically advanced among all players of the local market. By constantly challenging themselves with new technological and operational ideas and developing the market, they are the market leader, number 1.

The vehicles and logistics are perfected by means of optimal schedule and there is a continuous monitoring and analysis

Quality

Cotton Way keeps professional cleaning and service quality up to date, among other things by involving, coaching and motivating their employees with special programs. They take care of  continuous training of management and line personnel by offering advanced methods of management of production processes, new textile products, innovative solutions for the textile service industry, e.g. specialized IT solutions. They also work with the staff reserve and support of young specialists by offering internships in the company.

Last but not least, a production quality control system checks all stages of processing and takes care of continuous analysis of the results. In addition, the company cooperates with an
international laboratory for certification of laundries based in Germany.

Cotton Way also manufactures special collections of textiles for key clients like hospitals of Ministry of Defence

Products and Sustainability

The main products are bed linen, terry towels, medical textile, industrial uniforms and mud-resistant mats. To optimize a safe and professional textile cleaning, all production facilities are equipped with special industrial equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers. To improve the efficiency and reduce consumption of energy, Cotton Way ensures a maximum automation of
all production processes for each client segment, e.g. Batch Tracking – automatic labeling of each batch of laundry with an individual number, This results in a detailed inventory of property, motion control and minimizing the human factor. Cotton Way boasts good practices for good housekeeping, e.g. using the 5S methodology (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain), technical service on every production facility, which monitors the condition and operation of the equipment and the implementation of continuous preventive maintenance of equipment daily.

To assure an effective recovery and recycling, Cotton Way uses washing lines on the company’s production facilities with recycling technology of water resources after cleaning and reducing rejection of products, maximizing the lifetime of each product: The vehicles and logistics are perfected by means of optimal schedule and delivery routes and by coordinating it with costumers and laundry for production processes optimization and a continuous monitoring and analysis.

Business model and service concept

In order to meet the changing customer demands, the business of Cotton Way is integrated textile rental, which means that integrated textile service enables customers to save time and money and focuses on core business, e.g. the economy of costs, the procurement and washing of textiles, the release of the premises and resources and professional specialised services, e.g. medical sterilisation of surgical textiles in the laundry, etc. They differ from others by focusing on the effectiveness of products and services, e.g. for key clients like the Russian Railways, the Ministry of Defence, regional healthcare departments. Furthermore, they have developed their own methodology for implementing and auditing projects and are customer-oriented with regard to the  provision of information and new services, and the assessment of customer satisfaction.

To promote textile services, Cotton Way mostly focuses as a b2b company on participating in special events that may attract their current and potential customers, like medical conferences or large economic forums, e.g.:

  • St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (advancement of the textile rental model)
  • Annual conferences of epidemiologists (with important and relevant information on the use of the lease of textiles in hospitals).
  • Major events in the fitness industry and hospitality industry.

They also use specialized industrial media to issue promo articles.

Electronic app for clients with access to the ERP system (for example, service rent of uniforms)

Innovation

In order to cope with changing customers’ demands, legislation, and environmental requirements, Cotton Way has implemented an automated RFID (radio-frequency identification) system for textile’s identification to automate processes and minimize the human factor. This system provides in labelling with a web-based self-service interface with access to the company’s ERP system for hotels and industrial enterprises. Furthermore, the communication between clients and provider is re-channeled from offline to online, making the company more transparent and comfortable to deal with. Using ERP, the company has develop new level service for industrial enterprises, hotels and Railways.

Russian RFID equipment (developed with the participation of Cotton Way)

Key note

Cotton Way is most proud of the achievements with which they distinguish themselves from others:
That they innovated barrier products for the healthcare industry that changed the traditional habits, resulting in more biological safety for patients and doctors and the revision of the system of supplying hospitals;
They also developed services as outsourcing sterilization of medical textiles;
The company actively implemented the RFID system for accounting, collection, and issuance of property. This changes the operating processes of its customers, releases additional resources, there is a much more accurate understanding of the movement of property;
In 2017, the company built the first specialized laundry for hospitals, with an isolated block for washing of infectious linen and the first sterilization department for operating units;
With the help from Cotton Way, some regions are preparing to move to a centralized provision of hospitals with unified customized property for the whole region, to provide a common quality standard for textiles and services;
Finally, they continuously improve their products offered for rent with modern materials, which are safer, more reliable and more comfortable for consumers.