Commercial Laundry Eliminates Backlog in Pack-Out

Felins Shrink Wrap System
Company Details
City Uniforms and Linen - A Division of Kramer Enterprises
Finlay, OH

Commercial Laundry Eliminates Backlog

City Uniforms and Linen, a division of Kramer 

Enterprises, in Findlay, OH offers rental and laundry services of uniforms, dust control products, mats, and hospitality linens [napkins and tablecloths]. The company focuses on high-end restaurants in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.  Despite the recession, over the past few years, the company has grown and moved into a new, state of the art production facility.

Note:  Today, City Uniforms and Linen processes more than 120,000 pounds of hospitality product each week.

City Uniform and Linen Needs to Deliver

The entrepreneurial managers at the company are always looking for ways to improve efficiency while maintaining their image.  After all, their 

tag line says:  “Delivering Image®.”  Paul Kramer, President & CEO, and his team, recently invested heavily in a new state-of-the-art facility which included a five lane napkin accumulator, conveyers, and a small piece bagging system, but still had a bottleneck in production in the manual shrink wrap area

In fact, this bottleneck was so pronounced that the backlog was daunting and caused angst in the plant. Folks tried to keep up and to differentiate between orders as the clean linens piled up on their existing conveyor system.

At a recent Clean Show, City Uniforms and Linen [City] discovered the Felins® automated shrink-wrap system and decided, ‘We’ve got to have that!”

Note:  City Uniforms and Linen measures their efficiency in PPOH [pounds per operator hour] and had an efficiency rate of 98 PPOH before the Felins® automated system was installed and a PPOH of 123 after.  That is a 25% increase in efficiency. 

Backlog Disappeared in about an Hour

City had looked at other shrink-wrap systems, but they didn’t deliver the quality finished wrapped bundle the Felins system provided. The other shrink-wrappers didn’t wrap the product as tight, left long plastic tails on the bundles and had open ends.  “It just wasn’t as clean as we would have liked," Paul Kramer said.

The Felins Automatic Shrink-Wrap System:

  • Manages the staging of the linens with Felins proprietary bundle management controller

  • Tightly wraps and seals the clean linens for protection

  • Eliminates backlog and excessive labor needed in the packing area

The Felins system is integrated just after the two new folders and on the 5 lane napkin accumulation line in the finishing department.

When the switch to the Felins system was turned on, the backlog literally went away in about an hour.  “It’s amazing how quickly a business changes,” said Paul Kramer, “Our backlog went away in about an hour. We now have the right tools.”

Felins Complete Solution

Felins engineering department worked with City Uniforms and Linen to design a custom automated system with traffic control logic, conveyer system, automatic shrink-wrapper and shrink tunnel. 

Felins complete solution included the system, plus

 

Installation and start-up service

  • On-site operator training
  • On-site maintenance training

  • Preventative maintenance service
  • Inventory management program

According to City, the new system saved on labor costs, increased through-put and reduce the cost of goods by making the inventory readily available, while increasing PPOH.

Products and services provided by Felins
  • Tight radius curve conveyor
  • Custom in-line transfer conveyor
  • Automatic shrink wrapper
  • Shrink tunnel
  • Accumulation conveyor
  • Felins proprietary bundle management controller
  • Start-up services
  • Training and maintenance services
  • Aftermarket inventory management

The Right Solution

City Uniforms and Linens made the right choice for their laundry bundling shrink-wrap area.  They have decreased labor costs, increased efficiency and reduced their cost of goods.  In addition, they are proud to deliver the bundles wrapped by the Felins system.

 

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