Content about Person Career

SALISBURY, Md. — By successfully serving small commercial accounts from one of his two coin-operated laundries, Mitch Wyatt nurtured a reputation that today has him handling the laundry needs of major hospitality, healthcare and food and beverage clients. Recently, to meet increasing production needs, Wyatt moved his commercial business into a newly constructed industrial laundry facility here.

The Quality Linen Services building turns out 1,700 laundry pounds per hour, using minimal labor, water and energy — giving Wyatt the opportunity to draw new clients and boost profits.

DEVELOPING COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS FROM COIN LAUNDRY

“I serviced five hotels, two assisted-living facilities, one university, and two restaurants out of one washer at my coin laundry,” says Wyatt. “We used a 55-pound-capacity Continental E-Series Washer that would maintain a temperature of 140 degrees and stay at that temp. I was getting stuff so clean, my clients were amazed.”

Once cleaned, tablecloths, linens and napkins were pressed and finished using a Continental Flatwork Ironer. Wyatt’s staff then folded, stacked and delivered the items to clients.

PRODUCTION NEEDS SURGE

All went smoothly until Wyatt secured a five-year contract with a local hospital. “I knew I needed significant industrial equipment to fulfill growing production requirements,” he says.

So, he sought help from Operations Manager Doug Colonna, who holds 15 years of industrial laundry experience; Deke Sheller of Fowler Equipment, a laundry equipment distributor in Baltimore; and Joel Jorgensen, vice president of laundry equipment manufacturer Continental Girbau.

The 10,000-square-foot industrial facility required careful planning, a partnership of experts, and a mix of highly efficient industrial laundry equipment engineered for bolstered productivity, according to Wyatt.

DEVELOPING AN INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY FROM SCRATCH

“We worked with the engineer constructing Quality Linen’s building and all elements of laundry design, construction and utilities,” says Jorgensen of the project. “We went on to define specific laundry production needs, the equipment mix, and solidified financing over an eight-month period.”

In the end, the new building featured a Girbau Industrial Continuous Batch Washing system capable of processing 13,600 pounds in an eight-hour shift.

The facility’s powerhouse is its seven-module Girbau Industrial TBS-50 Eco-Tunnel with four-stage water reclamation, water filtration and drain-water heat recovery. Complementing equipment includes a Girbau Industrial ICP3 Incline Loading Conveyor, SPR-50 Press, Dual-cake Delivery Shuttle, three ST-100 Dryers, a PSN 80 single-roll gas thermal ironer, FT-LITE Folder, AP LITE Stacker and an FT-MAXI triple-sort dry goods folder.

Two Continental Girbau CG-120 Dryers, and two Continental E-Series washer-extractors (55 pounds and 90 pounds, respectively) round out the lineup.

CONTINUOUS BATCH WASHING

The system not only boosts laundry productivity to 95,200 pounds per week using a single shift, according to Wyatt, it takes just one employee to operate and manage, is stingy on water, and produces high-quality results.

Key to Wyatt’s equipment decision was his need to properly manage and process laundry for a variety of accounts. “Unlike most of our competitors, we provide rental service, as well as service for clients with customer-owned goods,” he says. “We required equipment programmable by customer, so items would be properly cleaned according to each client’s unique needs.”

Check back Thursday for the conclusion!

CHICAGO — Having received numerous requests for newly revised information on this subject, I have reviewed the volumes of information obtained from both healthcare and hospitality laundry operations worldwide for 2010-2011.

I did my best to convert foreign cost to U.S. cost—both were changing rapidly as of December 2011—and discovered that our foreign counterparts were, in most segments, slightly more cost-efficient and, due to exchange rates, getting more production for the money simply due to the value of certain currencies, lower fringe benefit cost and higher degrees of automation. (I am pleased to report that this gap is closing rapidly.)

There could be numerous explanations, of course, but the primary reason was the vast difference in labor and fringe benefit cost in our country vis-à-vis other foreign locations, primarily those in Europe, Russia and the Far East.

The basis for this analysis was to determine benchmark alignments once various currencies were adjusted to match the U.S. dollar. Both higher and lower extremes in costing for each element were evaluated for accuracy. A group of independent accounting specialists who volunteered its time was utilized to draw the various conclusions reached in the report. Foreign laundry experts assisted in the translation of some information.

Throughout the process of validating accuracy of the data provided and drawing comparisons, the identity of each facility remained confidential. Each facility was simply referred to as a number or letter, depending on the type of operation: healthcare or hospitality. For those with a combination of tasks, every effort was made to categorize each element.

Every facility that supplied information has done so every year since this periodic review began.

2011 FORECAST ON TARGET?

As consultants and various levels of internal management continue to overly complicate laundry operational cost scenarios, as well as depicting systems that may not prove cost-effective, it is apparent that laundry and facility managers, as well as top executives with a renewed interest, require a cost benchmarking rule of thumb that will assist them in selling their operations, i.e. justifying new systems or a new facility, obtaining new customers and, probably most important, comparing variable cost that should influence decisions to continue in-house operations or examine outsourced management, operations, linen rental, transportation, etc.

I remain amazed that folks who seem to be knowledgeable simply complicate data in such a form that it becomes extremely difficult if not impossible to interpret. The same situation applies when reviewing opportunities to automate and modernize operations. It is apparent in some cases that new operations with new systems are not as cost-effective as planned, mostly due to a misunderstanding of previous cost and the industry’s promises to improve on the status quo.

Institutions, general contractors and A/E’s that hire consultants to review laundry facility operations should also continue to rely on internal expertise and experience, I believe. The institutions should also ensure that the consultants and experts selected are experienced in reviewing all applicable operational elements. A consultant with expertise in energy management, for example, may not be qualified to review laundry production or linen distribution.

It is quite apparent that large laundry and linen-rental consortiums that deal specifically with healthcare markets are becoming more competitive. As business tends to escalate, and based on recent information, cost seems to be leveling out to some degree, with the exception of the impact of high cotton cost and, most recently, fuel cost.

My previous forecast that total cost of operations may reach $1.10 per pound processed/delivered by 2013 seems right on target. The rising cost of healthcare insurance benefits enacted as a result of healthcare reform could dramatically increase the cost of operations and associated product and equipment purchases in 2014.

A review of approximately 473 healthcare and hospitality laundry facilities located in the United States and 23 foreign countries with operations that process a combined 276 million pounds annually with varying degrees of efficiency reveal the following benchmark costs (in U.S. dollars) that should be deemed most efficient on the average, even though most every facility demonstrated opportunities to reduce cost, especially in labor-sensitive areas.

Most important to note in this analysis were the plans to reduce labor and utilities cost related to washing, drying, conveyance, and flatwork feeding and finishing. These facilities also reported that major efforts were under way to reduce textile-replacement cost through standardization efforts and by examining best value over lowest cost for an item. It’s unfortunate that the federal government seems to continue to focus on lowest cost rather than the impact of overall cost.

Other major components under review seem to drive at lowering chemical cost by conducting actual comparisons and focusing on the customer service element that is so critical to this facet of the operation.

The variables between healthcare and hospitality cost were certainly interesting. Hospitality was higher on the average, which was expected, with the average variance being between 6 and 7 cents per pound processed. This was mostly attributed to the higher quality/cost of textiles acquired, which is significant.

PRODUCTION COST BENCHMARKS

Processing Cost: Direct labor costs, including fringe benefits (health insurance, retirement, etc.), which are applicable to the receipt, sorting, washing, drying, ironing, conveying and preparing of textiles for delivery within a laundry processing facility. — 18-23 cents per pound processed

Administrative Cost: Covers personnel in laundry and textile product management, secretarial, contracting administration, general foreman and nonproduction employees/housekeeping (includes fringe benefit costs, such as union dues, health insurance, etc.). On average, fringe benefit costs were running at 24-32% of actual salary cost (in other words, add that percentage to base salary cost). — 3-5 cents per pound processed and delivered

Maintenance and Repair Cost: Labor cost and materials associated with routine maintenance of applicable systems, including processing and ancillary support equipment, carts, etc. — 7-11 cents per pound processed and delivered

Equipment Depreciation: Divide equipment value by 15 years. — 4-6 cents per pound processed

Depreciation of Property and Applicable Property Taxes: Divide aggregate cost of land and building plus annual taxes by 75 years. — 3-5 cents per pound processed and delivered

General Supply Cost: Includes leasing of office equipment, office supplies, covers, pads, hangers, thread, wax, patches, buttons, etc. — 2-4 cents per pound processed

Chemical Supply Cost: Laundry chemicals, water treatment, etc. — 3-5 cents per pound processed

Utility Cost: Electrical, steam, gas, water, oil, sewer, refuse removal, and solar. — 8-10 cents per pound processed

SUBTOTAL: For a most efficient operation, Production Cost should be 48-69 cents per pound processed.

TEXTILE DISTRIBUTION AND REPLACEMENT COST BENCHMARKS

Textile Distribution and Return Cost: Includes drivers, fees, tolls, leasing, fuel, vehicle maintenance/repair, linen room distribution (from cart assembly to end-user locations) labor and benefits, seamstress/repair/marking, uniform distribution, cart depreciation and replacement, and transportation to external customers. — 13-15 cents per pound processed (within this component, fuel cost was 4-5 cents per pound processed)

Textile Cost: Surgical, uniforms, general textiles, drapes and other textiles based on a seven-par maintenance value for healthcare or hospitality. — 17-21 cents per pound processed

SUBTOTAL: Textile Distribution and Replacement Costs should be 30-36 cents per pound processed and delivered.

TOTAL OPERATIONAL BENCHMARKS

The overall operational cost benchmark ranged in 2010-2011 from 78 cents to $1.05 per pound processed and delivered.

While the overall variance in cost ranges is certainly widespread, a manager must carefully and accurately calculate all costs associated with the actual operation—all are different.

A major failing on management’s part is the inability to calculate fringe-benefit cost and include it as part of the outcome. Calculating production cost while forgetting other costs simply raises additional questions. All costs depicted in this benchmark exercise are considered equally important; one without another would have painted an inaccurate picture.

If, for some reason, you think your costs are lower than the benchmark’s lowest range, I encourage you to re-examine and recalculate your numbers. More importantly, make sure you have included all costs so they parallel those listed in this report.

EXPECT COST INCREASES IN TEXTILE REPLACEMENT, TRANSPORTATION

As mentioned in my previous analysis, textile replacement cost and transportation cost for 2010-2011 did reflect marginal increases.

NEW ORLEANS — The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will host the world’s premier textile care expo for a fifth time when the 2013 Clean Show—officially the World Educational Congress for Laundering and Drycleaning—arrives on Thursday, June 20, for a three-day stay through Saturday, June 22.

It will mark the first time since 1981 that the Clean Show has been scheduled for three days instead of four, reflecting a “more concise and efficient” format designed to give exhibitors and attendees alike a better value for their investment, according to the Clean Executive Committee.

The Clean Show has been convening every other year since 1977 to present new technology, educational sessions and networking opportunities to all segments of the dry cleaning, laundry and textile care industry. This year’s event is expected to draw 10,000 trade attendees, according to Riddle & Associates, the show’s longtime manager.

“I am constantly asked why should I come to the Clean Show or why should I exhibit,” says John Riddle, president of Riddle & Associates. “There are many reasons. You will see the newest equipment, learn about new services, see working demonstrations and have access to outstanding industry education.

“In today’s world of electronic communication, it is nice to have the opportunity to communicate with someone eye-to-eye, face-to-face and talk with them about industry issues. It’s a great chance to renew old friendships and make new ones. These are just several reasons I think making this trip is worth the time, effort and money. We encourage you to ‘Be There’ and take advantage of this opportunity.”

Approximately 400 companies and organizations are scheduled to be represented on the exhibit floor, covering roughly 200,000 net square feet. It’s possible that more exhibitors will be added in the final weeks leading up to the event.

The exhibits will open following a brief 10 a.m. ceremony on Thursday, June 20 (distributors are granted exclusive access from 8 to 10). Exhibits will open at 9 a.m. on subsequent days, and they will close each show day at 5 p.m.

Some of the Clean 2013 sponsors, as well as several other industry associations, will offer approximately 40 hours of education over the show’s three-day schedule. Most of the seminars will occur in on-site meeting rooms between 8 and 10 a.m. daily, but in a change this year, some sessions have been scheduled for each afternoon on the exhibit floor itself.

The Clean Show has released a new, free mobile app for Apple iOS- and Android-based smartphones that offers features such as locating exhibitors, planning a personalized show itinerary, and connecting with others via social media. The free app can be downloaded from an individual’s device in the App Store or Market, and is fully integrated with the Clean Show website, and with LinkedIn and Twitter.

“In the age of technology, offering a smartphone app just makes sense,” says John Riddle. “We want our attendees and exhibitors to be able to stay connected before, during, and after the show and be able to do it while on the go.”

Attendees who do not have a smartphone can still maximize their time at the show by using CleanShow.com’s “My Itinerary” feature. Visitors can store in a personalized “Briefcase” their schedule of educational sessions and booths they wish to visit, as well as print out their “Itinerary” to bring with them.

Another show change is the relaxation of certain rules regarding the convening of affiliate groups during trade show hours. In the past, meetings were restricted to hours outside education and exhibit hours, but now exhibiting companies and industry associations can schedule their sales, distributor or group meetings during educational sessions or between the hours of noon and 2 p.m.

Attendees can easily register for the Clean Show online at its website for the discounted rate of $99 a person through May 31 (on-site registration will be $149 per person). All registrations can be made with credit card, check or money order.

Registration hours at the convention center will be 1-5 p.m. June 19, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 20, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 21, and 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 22.

Reservations for official Clean Show hotels can be made on the show’s website until May 17 (special show rates are available only through the Clean Show Housing Bureau).

Complimentary shuttle buses will transport attendees between official hotels and the convention center mornings and afternoons during the show.

The Clean Show is sponsored by five industry associations: Association for Linen Management, Coin Laundry Association, Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, Textile Care Allied Trades Association, and the Textile Rental Services Association of America.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — When looking to renovate an existing laundry or building a brand-new facility, there are many questions to ask before the process begins and while the process is ongoing.

David Chadsey, the managing director for Laundry-Consulting.com, addressed the issue during a recent webinar, 10 Things You Should Know Before Building or Renovating a Laundry, sponsored by the Association for Linen Management.

While Chadsey focused on 10 questions to ask, he emphasized that for each application, there may be more than or fewer than 10 items, and that the list is not intended to all inclusive.

1. WHAT AND HOW MUCH

Chadsey’s first question focused on what a laundry needs to process and how much needs to be processed.

“This is the first thing you need to evaluate,” he says. Best practices are based on volume and classification and will differ depending on the type of laundry facility you are working with.

“When calculating what and how much, we want to confirm the volume and then we want to estimate for projected growth,” Chadsey says. “If you’re building or renovating, obviously you don’t want to build just for today.”

Look down the road; what are the possibilities that might be in store for the facility?

Chadsey suggests looking at what equipment you have and want, and perhaps allowing the facility’s plans to contain contingencies for expanding square footage sometime in the future.

Another suggestion is to evaluate the capacity per each process path, whether it’s dry fold, flatwork, wash aisle or finishing line. Take a look at manual labor and automation, and what may change in the future. You can design a finishing line, for instance, more effectively if you know it’s only going to handle hospital sheets.

Always allow for flexibility in a project. If the projected production is to be maintained, laundry managers must look at the ebb and flow of a plant as the linen moves through, as well as the times of day and the days of the week. If a change occurs, whether it be in equipment or in processes, the laundry must be flexible enough to handle the change.

2. SELECT A PROJECT TEAM

As a way to maintain checks and balances during the building process, and to be sure that everything is covered and the project is moving forward, select a well-balanced team to oversee the project.

Such a large-budget undertaking will typically require a project coordinator— usually a member of the organization behind the project—and an outside consultant, one to help the team navigate the process, will be hired. Other members of the team are typically the laundry manager, contractors, the architect and engineer, and there may be more than one engineer, equipment vendors, plant engineering staff, human resources, and a person who will speak for those financing the project.

The project coordinator needs to understand the work scope of all members of this team, as well as their responsibilities, Chadsey says.

3. INDUSTRY PRACTICES

Before the building progresses too far, it is best to identify best practices for the particular type of operation intended for the renovated or new facility.

“Processing 20,000 pounds of linens for healthcare is different than processing 20,000 pounds of hospitality linens, especially on the finishing side,” Chadsey says. And processing industrial textiles is certainly different than processing table linens.

He suggests talking about automation, different types of wash wheels, as well as volume considerations before too much time, money and energy has been expended on the project.

4. CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS

Any building project involves considerable amounts of money, Chadsey says.

While people most often consider equipment to be the major expenditure for a laundry operation, it may be true only for some renovation projects. If the laundry is brand-new or the facility will be undergoing a major redesign, often the planning and design stages can be a major budget item, as well as the construction costs.

Consider these factors:

• Planning and Design
• Construction
• Utility Upgrades and Connections — Will the new facility require more electricity, higher water consumption, greater sewer capacity?
• Equipment
• Impact Fees — Depending on the locale, these fees can be significant, Chadsey says. Consider the fees that will be charged by the municipality for the facility, for new connections to water lines and sewer, or for other utilities. One project on which Chadsey worked encountered impact fees in excess of $1 million, he says.
• Downtime Processing — During renovation, is a plant going to experience downtime? A project team must look at how the operation’s processing will be completed during building or renovation, and plan for that downtime.
• Transition and Training — If a new plant is being built to replace an older facility, a project team must consider how operations, equipment, personnel and support staff/equipment will be moved from the old facility to the new. In the case of a renovation, how does management propose to work around and then integrate a new line or new room of the facility? And after the transition is complete, production numbers will be lower as the staff is trained and learns new equipment, procedures and systems. Staffing issues may include the need to downsize.

5. FOOTPRINT REQUIREMENTS

One of the major considerations for both a new build and a renovation is the facility’s footprint. If you are currently operating a laundry, you probably will have a general idea of the space required for current needs. But what happens if you want to expand? Chadsey has a production area formula that he picked up along the way during his 28 years in the industry, and while he can’t remember where he found the formula, he thanks those who came up with it.

“I use 5 square feet times pounds processed per hour. Plus soiled and clean staging, plus the mechanical room,” he says.

The staging area or areas encompass the space needed to process incoming soiled linen, as well as processing and storing clean linen after it comes off the process lines.

“An on-premise laundry may require a relatively small staging area,” he says. “If you’re a shared hospital laundry with a large number of trucks coming in each day, or if linen goes to a certain customer and that customer can only pick up three days a week, then staging requirements can be significant.”

Green initiatives are another consideration, he says. Take new innovations in water-reuse equipment, for instance, which may take more space.

The formula example that Chadsey provided during the webinar was:

A laundry processes 10 million pounds per year for 312 days per year (that’s 32,000 pounds processed per day). Divide that figure by the number of hours the facility is operating each day—in this case, 12 hours—and you have 2,700 pounds of linen being processed each hour. Multiply that figure by five and you arrive at a total of 13,500 square feet required for production.

For this example, Chadsey used 2,500 square feet for both the staging areas and the mechanical room, making the facility’s total size 18,500 square feet.

Check back tomorrow for part 2, including operational metrics, automation, transitioning, and more!

NAUGATUCK, Conn. — Lavatec Inc. has become affiliated with Belgium-based manufacturer Lapauw and is now the headquarters for Lapauw of America, according to Bruce Burmann, vice president of sales for Lavatec Inc.

Lavatec Inc. provides Lapauw with a “major hub for the sales and service of its machines in the U.S. market as well as South America, Central America and Canada,” he says.

The agreement, which was established in close cooperation with Goudkuil Laundry Machinery (which acquired Lavatec Inc. in 2011), brings Lapauw in as a “main investor,” Burmann adds.

Lavatec Inc.’s sales network will promote the complete Lapauw product range, which includes flatwork ironers, feeders, folders, washer-extractors and tunnel finishers.

Lapauw is seeking to further enhance its after-sales service in the American market. Lavatec Inc.’s technicians will receive extensive training on Lapauw machines. A local service unit will not only enable the continuance of service toward existing and new Lapauw customers, Burmann says, it will enable the enhancement of service in terms of local spare parts stock and availability of engineers.

Lavatec Inc. technicians will also be called upon to start up Lapauw installations in the American market.

“With Lavatec Inc., Lapauw immediately has over 42,000 square feet of manufacturing space at their disposal, which fits in perfectly with its close-to-the-market manufacturing strategy,” Burmann says.

ATLANTA — The Clean Show has released a new, free mobile app for Apple iOS- and Android-based smartphones that offers features such as locating exhibitors, planning a personalized show itinerary, and connecting with others via social media.

The free app can be downloaded from an individual’s device in the App Store or Market.

The June 20-22 event is expected to draw an estimated 10,000 laundry and dry cleaning industry attendees to New Orleans.

“In the age of technology, offering a smartphone app just makes sense,” says John Riddle, president of Riddle & Associates, the Clean Show’s management company. “We want our attendees and exhibitors to be able to stay connected before, during, and after the show and be able to do it while on the go.”

The app designed by event marketing and software company a2z Inc. is fully integrated with the Clean Show website, and with LinkedIn and Twitter.

Attendees who do not have a smartphone can still maximize their time at Clean 2013 by using the show website’s “My Itinerary” feature. Visitors can store in a personalized “Briefcase” their schedule of educational sessions and booths they wish to visit, as well as print out their “Itinerary” to bring with them.

Formally the World Educational Congress for Laundering and Drycleaning, the Clean Show is sponsored jointly by five national industry associations.

HOUSTON — ARCO/Murray National Construction Co. has completed the renovation of a healthcare laundry facility for the local Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the design-build firm reports.

The Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based company provided design-build installation for the 14,000-square-foot facility’s utility relocations and upgraded infrastructure, which included the removal and installation of laundry equipment, as well as the demolition of existing utilities servicing the equipment.

The crew was able to modify existing utility systems without interrupting hospital operations through a technique called “hot tapping,” coordinating the shutdown of certain utilities while connecting to existing piping still in use.

New equipment included a seven-module tunnel washer, four dryers and a spreader/feeder/stacker assembly. New concrete pads, drain trenches and HVAC ductwork were installed to service the equipment.

Access openings to the basement were also reworked to accommodate transport of large equipment to and from the facility.

Work was completed solely on mid-floor levels to avoid disruptions to the functioning hospital.

Mike Gaw was project manager and Elliot Mata project executive for ARCO/Murray.

ATLANTA — If all of the exhibits and educational sessions aren’t enough to draw you to New Orleans for the Clean Show this summer, how about an Internet sensation?

The show’s management announced recently that 11-year old Jonathan Carollo, whose drumming performance on a washing machine went viral, will be performing at the June 20-22 event in New Orleans.

First posted to YouTube last September, Carollo’s Whirled Beat video has amassed nearly 1.8 million views and has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, USA Today and The Huffington Post.

Carollo’s father, Dan, posted the video for family and friends on Facebook but then uploaded it to YouTube after several people encouraged him to share his son’s talent with the world.

The boy routinely drums on objects around his family’s Washington state home and decided that the top loader, with its large steel drum, was the perfect-sounding instrument when he grew bored playing his drum kit.

“We are extremely delighted to have such a talented person play at the show … especially when it’s on an appliance that most of our exhibitors and attendees work with on a daily basis,” says John Riddle, president of Riddle & Associates, the Clean Show’s management company. “It certainly will give them a new way to look at their washing machines.”

SAN DIEGO — Commercial healthcare laundry Emerald Textiles has expanded its operation into Los Angeles, adding a service center there to provide even greater coverage and a larger physical presence for existing and prospective customers, the company reports.

“As we continue to expand in the Los Angeles market, this service center will increase our coverage in the greater Los Angeles area,” says Tom Gildred, Emerald Textiles CEO. “Our existing customers will benefit from this additional location and so will any new customers in the region.”

Emerald Textiles operates what it considers to be “the most technologically advanced and environmentally responsible commercial laundry facilities in the United States,” saving a reported 40 million gallons of water and more than 750,000 therms of natural gas annually.

San Diego Gas & Electric and the California Public Utilities Commission have recognized Emerald for its advanced design and energy efficiency.

WASHINGTON — The Textile Rental Services Association’s Leadership & Legislative Conference concluded last week with more than 30 meetings with key figures in Capitol Hill offices. The sessions enabled company leaders to enlist support of members of Congress in advancing the industry’s most pressing government-relations causes.

Hill Day was the conference climax, following TRSA committee meetings and presentations at the Fairmont Washington, the first time in the event’s three-year history that all activities took place downtown. Attendance exceeded 130, a conference high. Operator (launderer) members outnumbered Associates (suppliers) by a nearly 3-to-2 ratio.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor and two-time presidential candidate, primed attendees for their congressional visits immediately before their departure. Alexander offered his view of the nation’s fiscal crisis, noting that only 40% of government spending is budgeted each year. That portion of expenditures is at 2008 levels and is set to grow with inflation. The remainder is mandated by prior legislation (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) and is growing at three to four times inflation.

Issues TRSA members raised during the Hill meetings included competition from prison laundries, taxation of textiles as medical devices, and regulation of air emissions of volatile organic compounds from towel processing.

Following these meetings, participants regrouped at a Hill lunch spot to hear Rep. Mike Pompeo, a second-term House member from Kansas, who addressed the shop towel issue from his own perspective as a small business owner/operator.

The night before, at a TRSAPAC reception, Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan was honored as TRSA’s first-ever Legislator of the Year. He introduced 2012 legislation to level the playing field in competing with prison industries.

The industry-leadership portion of the agenda took place at the Fairmont March 18-19. Activities consisted mostly of committee meetings, where participants voiced their individual preferences for how TRSA should allocate resources. But the program included keynote speakers as well. Alex Castellanos, CNN political analyst, offered a cloudy forecast for clearing political gridlock in Washington. Alex Passantino, former head of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), gave participants pointers on overtime pay issues.

Randall Wentsel, Ph.D., senior managing scientist, Exponent Inc., explained the research his firm has conducted for TRSA that proves how reusable shop towels, foodservice napkins and healthcare isolation gowns are more sustainable than their disposable counterparts.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. — Maytag® Commercial Laundry recently recognized standout distributor performances at its 55^th Annual Meeting in Amelia Island, Fla. The following companies excelled, Maytag says, in the coin laundry, multi-housing and on-premise markets in 2012:

• Fred Maytag Award — Receiving Maytag® Commercial Laundry’s most prestigious award was Intertrade Chile S.A., Santiago, Chile. The award is presented to the customer that best emulates the founder’s marketing philosophy and supports Maytag® Commercial Laundry brand with professionalism and integrity, Maytag says.
• On-Premises Laundry (OPL) Excellence Award — Pierce Commercial Laundry, Mandeville, La., was recognized for effective and efficient service to OPL market customers.
• Maytag® Red Carpet Service® Excellence Award — BDS Laundry Systems, St. Paul, Minn., was recognized as the distributor that best exemplifies excellent service and dependability.
• Top Quota Award — Tri-State Technical Services/TLC Equipment Co., Waycross, Ga., was honored for exceeding its annual sales target by the highest percentage this year.
• Maytag® Marketing Excellence Award — Equipment Marketers, Cherry Hill, N.J., was honored for its development and implementation of marketing and sales programs and overall support of Maytag® Commercial Laundry offerings.
• Maytag® Energy Advantage™ Excellence Award — Hercules, Hicksville, N.Y., was honored for exceptional promotion and marketing of energy and water efficiency.
• Shaping the Future Award — Mac-Gray Corp., Waltham, Mass., was recognized for its history of innovation and long-time leadership in the industry.
• Multi-Housing Excellence Award — Coinamatic Canada, Mississauga, Ont., was honored for its outstanding service to the multi-housing market, including colleges and universities, condominiums and apartment buildings.
• Outstanding Achievement Award — Richard Jay Laundry Equipment, Adelaide, Australia, was recognized for its “unmatched sales performance and use of marketing and social media.”

“We’re honored to collaborate with quality partners, such as those recognized at our recent annual meeting,” says Bob English, general manager at Maytag® Commercial Laundry. “Our successes are a direct result of the dedication and support exemplified by these outstanding customers. We congratulate and commend them for their superb efforts.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A scientific study released by ARCADIS, an international research firm specializing in environmental issues, found no evidence that laundered reusable shop towels pose any health risk to workers, refuting claims by the disposables industry, according to the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), which sponsored the study.

The study refutes previously published reports by the disposables industry used to frighten workers who use shop towels to perform their jobs, claiming that residues imbedded in laundered reusable shop towels pose a health risk despite decades of use without any reported issues.

“As the trade association representing facilities that process laundered reusable shop towels, we felt we had an industry responsibility to conduct a health assessment to quantify if any real health risk existed,” says TRSA President/CEO Joseph Ricci, CAE. “This study reconfirms decades of experience, that laundered reusable shop towels are not only safe but are the most efficient, cost-effective and sustainable option.”

The ARCADIS study collected laundered reusable shop towels from 10 different laundering companies and facilities, measuring residue leachability to conduct a quantitative health risk assessment. Towels were incubated in synthetic human sweat to represent the releasable quantity of each residue that could be transferred to workers’ hands from laundered reusable shop towels. Subsequent hand-to-food or hand-to-mouth transfers were modeled with the risk assessment framework used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other authoritative agencies.

The study’s findings indicate that residues including metals in laundered reusable shop towels do not present any health hazard to workers using the towels, with exposure levels typically 100 or more times lower than EPA acceptable levels.

“Reusable cloth shop towels have been used by millions of workers for more than 100 years with no indications that laundered reusable shop towels have any impact on worker health,” says Ricci. “By measuring leachability, ARCADIS simulated a conservative, realistic model of potential transfer of residue that reaffirmed our confidence that there is absolutely no risk to reusable shop towel users.”

Unlike previous studies of reusable shop towels, TRSA retained independent analysis from a renowned industrial hygienist, Dr. Patrick N. Breysse, Johns Hopkins University, who conducted a systematic evaluation of previous studies.

These “estimates of exposure, data and assumptions used a deterministic analysis that cumulatively overestimated worker exposures,” says Breysse, and the ARCADIS study, “while conservative, provides a more refined and realistic health assessment.”

TRSA’s findings indicate there “is little or nothing to be concerned about with the use of clean, laundered shop towels,” Breysse observes, expressing disbelief in the prior overestimates of exposure. For example, the amount of lead exposure from shop towel use previously calculated was equivalent to the quantity faced by workers who manufacture lead batteries. In contrast, the TRSA study put the daily dose of lead from shop towel use at 1,000 to 10,000 times below the acceptable exposure level, “by far a more realistic result.”

“Overall, the assumed conditions of towel use represented by this exposure model are conservative, such that the resulting exposure estimates likely overstate actual exposure,” explains Kevin Connor, Ph.D., principal toxicologist from ARCADIS. These high estimates of the amounts of the 27 chemical elements “were not above regulatory thresholds for judging potential human health hazards.”

TRSA had also conducted a separate burn study of disposable shop towels that revealed that many of the same residues found on laundered reusable shop towels are also present on disposable shop towels.

Copies of the ARCADIS study are available by contacting TRSA’s Ken Koepper, 703-519-0029, ext. 109, or kkoepper@trsa.org.