By Gabriel Camacho, President – CLM
The possibilities of automation in technology are now almost limitless. But in many manufacturing industries, the potential of automation is far from fully realized. Industrial laundry equipment is one such industry.
Reducing overhead costs is one of the most attractive characteristics of automating systems.
Although the wash-aisle is almost fully automated with technologies such as RFID technology, ultra-clean water filtration technology, and intelligent controls, when it comes to maintenance, innovation is lacking.
Bringing industrial laundry machine repair and maintenance into the Age of Automation with diagnostics service that empower users to find solutions and fixes is absolutely necessary. Laundries need maintenance solutions that are faster and more cost-effective than the antiquated, burdensome process of ‘waiting for the guy to come out’ we all know and dislike.
For businesses like hotels, who have large daily volumes of laundry to plow through, the old-fashioned method isn’t just annoying – it’s expensive.
For industrial laundries, it can seriously affect profits. It goes something like this: Your machine breaks down on a Sunday evening. You attempt to diagnose and fix the problem, before realizing you’re way out of your depth (perhaps literally!). You call the manufacturer and if you’re lucky, arrange to wait around for a service tech to come and fix the issue at some vague point the next day between the hours of 10am and 6pm. Profits are dwindling with every second of downtime.
It needn’t be this way. Computers come with pre-installed software to let us know if there’s a problem, and help us fix it. Cars tell us when we need to change the oil, or add air to the tires. In fact, self-diagnostics has been built into the automotive industry for decades – nobody has to learn how to identify maintenance issues with their own car or computer, so why should they with washing equipment?
Industrial dryers and laundry equipment are now as sophisticated as any other automated machinery. It’s high time the industry’s troubleshooting technology is brought into line, and the old methodology hung out to dry.
