Operators within the hospitality sector face the challenge of remaining profitable and efficient during a time of economic uncertainty while continuing to maintain standards and keep staff and guests safe from viruses. This has placed increased pressure on cleaning and hygiene requirement across the industry, including on-premise laundry. So how are managers juggling the dual demands of infection control and chemical costs?
On-premise laundries serving hospitality venues receive a diverse range of fabrics to be washed on a daily basis. For example, within hotels and holiday parks, laundry requirement is traditionally focused on chef whites, uniforms, bed linen and towels while the sport and leisure sector’s need differs as operators increase their offering to members.
This diversification within leisure facilities means that, in addition to the washing of towels used in swimming pools, on-premise laundries must now process other fabrics such as sheets, cloths and robes from spa and beauty treatment areas. These are often heavily soiled with muds, essential oils and emollients and require more intensive wash formulas and chemical additives.
In order to manage varying demands within on-premise laundries, there has emerged a need for advanced chemical dosing systems with the capacity to handle high load requirement across multiple machines while maintaining the greatest standards of precision and consistency.
This, combined with the need for technicians covering multiple sites to manage their workload more efficiently, has led to the development of IoT-enabled pump systems that allow operators to remotely access their systems’ data and programming interface 24/7 via smartphone or computer.
A key benefit of IoT for engineers is that instant access to up-to-date operation manuals, intelligent auto-tuning sensors and online step-by-step technical support can accelerate installation, setup and commissioning and reduce associated time and costs.
Once the system is operational, data is collected on values such as wash cycle status, chemical consumption and equipment performance which can be viewed retrospectively or in real time.
With this invaluable information at their fingertips, users can make informed decisions on the programming and adjustment of wash formulas in order to optimize performance and minimize chemical consumption.
Common features include the option to view chemical consumption in financial terms, with “cost per load” data enabling wastage to be identified and projected detergent and fabric softener savings to be precisely calculated.
Cutting back on chemical, energy and water consumption in this way means operators can improve efficiency while being able to budget with greater confidence and streamline stored chemical volume – particularly useful in small hotels where space is at a premium.
Meanwhile, the availability of live system status and alarm reporting allows engineers to immediately identify anomalies and schedule maintenance accordingly rather than be alerted to faults only when they cause a breakdown. As well as helping prevent system failure and unplanned downtime, this avoids the need to outsource laundry washing at great cost and inconvenience in order to remain operational.
SEKO is a global manufacturer of chemical dosing systems for multiple sectors and has vast experience supplying its leading on-premise laundry equipment – including the highly-regarded Wash Series IoT-enabled units – to hotels, holiday parks and leisure sites worldwide.
Click here to explore the Wash Series.
