THE VOLUME OF LINEN IS SO HIGH AND IT ’ S ALWAYS MOVING SUCH THAT ACCURATE INVENTORY CONTROL WAS A MAJOR CHALLENGE VERGING ON THE IMPOSSIBLE .
INDUSTRY WATCH
THE VOLUME OF LINEN IS SO HIGH AND IT ’ S ALWAYS MOVING SUCH THAT ACCURATE INVENTORY CONTROL WAS A MAJOR CHALLENGE VERGING ON THE IMPOSSIBLE .
HID , a leader in trusted identity solutions , has announced that Royal Jersey Laundry has introduced a new tracking feature of HID ’ s linen management platform at each of its five-star hotel customer sites to guarantee that drivers drop off and collect precise linen stock and that costly errors are avoided .
This new feature replaces a paper-based system used by drivers for the management of cages filled with clean / soiled linen delivered / collected at customer sites . It now provides detailed end-to-end tracking of linen cages across multiple customer locations throughout the whole cycle of washing , packing , delivery and collection – a complex process given 550,000 pieces are laundered each week for numerous clients .
Founded in 1915 , Royal Jersey Laundry is one of the few cleaners servicing the luxury hotel sector . Based in a 25,000 square foot purpose-built facility in Dagenham – rebuilt in 2021 at a cost of £ 15 million after a fire – it works with most five-star hotels in London including The Dorchester , The Carlton Tower Jumeirah , The Peninsula London and The Ritz . of everything , allowing them to maintain a rigorous laundering schedule and ensure guests always receive fresh , cleaned linens .
“ An average 300 bed hotel will have around 30,000 items of linen which will cost around £ 250,000 ,” said James Lincoln , Royal Jersey Laundry ’ s Managing Director . “ The volume of linen is so high and it ’ s always moving such that accurate inventory control was a major challenge verging on the impossible .”
Prior to the HID cloud-based RFID linen management system , everything was done manually . Laundry staff would check items off ironing / folding machines – a wholly error-prone process – and log the quantities on pieces of paper .
The operational overhead for the laundry was exacerbated as the various linen items from the different hotels had to be kept separate , too .
“ Linen is everywhere : on beds , in cupboards , in transit and at the laundry – yet no one had full insight into stock levels and , when things went missing – which often happened – typically we ’ d get blamed ,” said Lincoln .
Supporting the five-star segment is demanding given the constant communication required between hotel and laundry , exacting standards , and the quantity and range of items to be laundered . This includes duvets , sheets , towels and bath robes along with smaller items such as foot mats , drink coasters , shaving towels and dry cleaning for guests themselves . Royal Jersey Laundry operates 24 / 7 , employs 150 staff members , and washes 40 tons of linen per day .
In contrast with budget and mid-level hotels , five-star hotels prefer to use linen they own with five sets kept
To address these problems , Royal Jersey Laundry installed a real-time linen inventory management system from HID combining LinTRAK RFID tags , a full set of RFID equipment including table-top and conveyor-belt scanners , one RFID portal and one cabin scanning unit , and cloud-based Acuity software .
The discrete LinTRAK tags are sewn into linen items by laundry staff or by linen manufacturers at the production process . Some hotels also use LinTRAK tags to manage staff uniforms and restaurant linens such as napkins and tablecloths .
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