Configuring a Dry Cleaning Plant

A customer of ours recently experienced a fire in their central plant, so Tri-State was asked to help relocate and install equipment in a temporary facility more than half the size of the original plant.  It’s interesting -- I’ve been in a lot of dry cleaning production facilities and have seen what I thought to be smart and efficient layouts as well as poorly designed layouts.  Plus, I’ve been in this industry for over 33 years and always felt I had a good grasp on how to properly layout commercial dry cleaning and laundry equipment for maximum productivity, that is until we underwent this exercise.  If I am being completely honest, we all, including me, learned a lot about how much production space is really required to achieve maximum productivity.  Here are three things I learned and would like to share with you thanks to my recent experience:

1. Have a plan with a final goal in mind.  In our case, the customer had a catastrophe and had to set up a new facility, but many times the need for reconfiguring or moving is to accommodate an increase in volume.  Making these sorts of changes can be really expensive and may not all fit into the budget at one time.  Don’t cut corners; instead consider implementing a plan in phases until you reach your ultimate goal.
2. Just because you are great at operating a dry cleaning plant doesn’t mean you will also be great at designing one.  If you’ve been in the business as long as I have, then you’ve experienced a reduction in piece count over the years.  Because volumes aren’t what they used to be, it can pay to take a closer look at each station to see if there is an opportunity to reduce steps or to see if one person can handle multiple pieces of equipment.  If you are concerned about productivity and layout, consider hiring a professional dry cleaning designer.
3. Bigger isn’t always better.  It’s so tempting, since you’re already in the middle of the project, to get the biggest, best, fastest, coolest, most state-of-the-art piece of dry cleaning or laundry equipment out there, but do this with every single piece and suddenly you’ve gone way over your budget.  Be realistic with your choices. 

If you find yourself needing to reconfigure or move your business, don’t hesitate to give Tri-State a call at 1.866.885.5218.  We’ll be glad to help you figure out what you need so that you can maximize both your productivity and resources.