ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Visits to two laundries at Walt Disney World (Florida) including its new resort linen processing facility highlight the agenda for TRSA’s next Production Summit and Plant Tours, Feb. 23-24. This twice-yearly event updates attendees on emerging industry-wide best practices and gives them ideas for new plant operations strategies as they make and renew contacts with peers and experts.
Observing operations such as the Disney World facilities and attending industry presentations at the Summit tunes participants into the latest techniques for laundry efficiency and effectiveness. Attendees will view Disney World’s Costume/Specialty Plant as well as the facility opened in June 2015 known as the resort’s Fourth Laundry Operation. TRSA will be the first industry group to visit the operation, which largely serves value lodging properties while handling items such as top sheets for every type of hotel. The costume plant processes uniforms and theatrical outfits in addition to specialty-care items including ornately decorated linens.
Chief among Summit presentations will be a Conflict Resolution for Managers workshop with Guy Harris, a U.S. Navy lieutenant and engineering department head who became a corporate training consultant. He’ll guide attendees in teaching employees to settle their disputes, explaining how they can get to the root of their problems faster and defuse tense situations more effectively. Summit participants will become more effective trainers of fundamental skills that people at odds must improve to end their impasses, such as controlling voice tone and body language and communicating clearly.
Panel discussions at the Summit will cover topics including production standards implementation, imparting tactics for enforcing and evaluating such standards and maximizing their value to process improvement; and emerging industry technologies, the latest and greatest advances in plant systems and related technologies and how they address common problems that thwart efficiency. Another panel will recount Walt Disney World Textile Services’ laundry capacity planning that led to the development of the Fourth Laundry Operation.
A problem-solving session will feature many small group discussions suggesting ways to address a problem or opportunity currently facing Summit attendees. Topics for these talks will be submitted on the Summit registration form, which asks laundry operators to propose questions they would ask fellow attendees about pressing operations issues. Previous discussions have covered matters such as:
• Employee relations (finding and retaining talent)
• Energy costs
• Inventory management
• Productivity improvement
• Quality control
• Safety best practices (OSHA, risk assessments)
• Water-saving strategies
Summit activities begin with presentations in the early morning of Tuesday, Feb. 23 at the host hotel, Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, with sessions throughout the day and a reception in the early evening. Plant tours are set for the following morning followed by the emerging technologies panel concluding at 2:45 p.m. For further details and registration, go to www.trsa.org/productionsummit.
