Proper policies prevent profit leaks
here is some good
news on the horizon for the drycleaning industry. The economy
has begun its long-awaited return to growth and most experts,
including Kiplinger, predict economic growth in the third and
fourth quarter of this year.
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For example, what time do your employees
start work each day and why do they start at that time? On the
retail side of the business your CSRs must work the hours that
the store is open. After all, everyone knows that if
you’re open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., someone has to be there to
wait on the customers.
In the plant it is possible to be more
flexible. Starting times are often determined by when an
employee can get to work. Some employees have transportation
issues while others have child care issues.
Too often, the hours that best fit the
employees’ needs do not fit the needs of the company. As
a result, I have been in plants where the inspector starts work
before the pressers. I have also been in plants where the
drycleaner/spotter begins work at 6 a.m. even though he or she
has nothing to clean because the clothes that came in the
previous afternoon were not tagged in.
It is these small details in your business
that allow five to ten percent of your money to slip through
the cracks.
How about lunch breaks? Do you have a
company policy? Are they scheduled for a specific time and for
a specific length of time? Or, do you allow your employees to
take lunch when they feel like it? Do they clock out for lunch
and do you deduct their lunch from their total hours?
Back when you had only a few employees
these were not big issues. Paying attention to these small
details is more important today than it has ever been.
Let’s travel through your plant with
one customer’s clothes.
A customer drops off an order. This order
has two pair of men’s pants, a sport jacket and five
dress shirts. The front counter is busy, so the tagging is and
should be done in a central area.
From the moment a customer drops off
clothes, everything you do will have a positive or negative
affect on the efficiency of all subsequent operations. Here are
some common things to look for when tagging in clothes:
• Do not mix laundry items on the
same ticket with drycleaning pieces. This will slow you down at
assembly.
• Make sure that every tag is placed
in the same location on like items. The people in assembly
should not waste time trying to figure out where the tag is
located on every garment.
• When tagging-in, all garments
should be inspected for stains, color loss and necessary
repairs. Because you are already handling each garment
separately during tag-in, this is also the best time to inspect
it.
• Require your CSRs to unbutton all
buttons on all shirts. When this is not done, the shirt
pressers lose time and more buttons need to be replaced.
• All garments must move to the
drycleaning and laundry departments in an organized and timely
manner. Whether you use 100-piece lots or day lots, pieces must
travel through the plant together.
• To ensure efficiency in all
subsequent operations, tag-in all items the day they come in.
• When distributing work to the
drycleaning pressers, all items must be distributed in
accordance with promised completion time.
The number of square feet needed for
assembly is directly proportionate to the size of the lots.
Larger lots require more hanging, which, in turn, requires more
space. More space requires more walking. Walking is
non-productive time.
Once the garments go through final
inspection, assembly and bagging they are returned to the CSRs
for racking. This is usually at the end of the day and is often
a frantic time because the customers are returning to pick up
their clothes and some orders are incomplete. They are
incomplete because one or two items got out of sequence.
Why?
They had to go back for spotting, pressing
or a minor repair. This happens every day in every plant.
To avoid the end-of-day chaos, assign one
individual to the task of tracking these re-dos. Whenever a
piece gets out of sequence, the information should be posted to
a white board. At a specific time each day (2 p.m.-3 p.m.) that
person should start tracking down all re-dos.
This procedure can dramatically reduce the
amount of time being wasted looking for “missing
items”.
Back to employee scheduling. The policy in
many plants is that all items that come in by 10 a.m. will be
ready after 5 p.m. the same day. This system creates a sense of
urgency in the plant and, in most cases, forces everyone to be
more efficient. However, this system loses its efficiencies
when:
Employees are allowed to set their own
schedules (start times, lunch breaks, etc.).
All employees are required to work until
all orders are completed. In these situations, three or four
people are running around for 45 minutes looking for a few
missing pieces where one person should suffice.
Inefficient scheduling of hours creates
idle time for production workers. I have observed drycleaners
waiting for orders to be tagged in; pressers waiting for pieces
from the drycleaning/laundry department; and assemblers waiting
for orders to be pressed. In order to maximize your return on
sales, these inefficiencies must be eliminated.
Knowing how many pieces you have to
process every day gives you the ability to determine how many
labor hours are needed at each operation. By monitoring your
daily piece volume, you can schedule the time each employee
starts work, takes lunch and goes home at the end of the day.
Now is the time to fill in the cracks and
add that five to ten percent slippage back to the bottom line.
It’s all about getting back to the basics. Pay attention
to the details. Install and maintain good basic policies and
procedures for a more efficient operation.
In the game of business the more you know
the better you can play the game.
Alan Robson is a private consultant
dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry.
Contact him by telephone at (941) 408-8819 or send e-mail to
him at: alan@bizbuilderonline.com or visit the Biz Builder web site: www.bizbuilderonline.com.
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