Laundering Of Clothing (Cat B)

Hello Again,

Not been on the site for a while, but, I always turn back to you when a dilemma arises, so here I am again.

The dilemma today...

Cat 'B' 7.4.4 Controlled laundering of clothing shall be carried out. A system shall be in place to ensure the effectiveness of laundering process.

Now then, Best Practice Guidelines suggests that an approved, contracted and audited laundry should be used. Although this is the easiest way to control the laundering of clothing, it is also the most expensive way. Has anyone sucessfully managed to find a way of controlling the laundering of clothing without the use of a contracted laundry for Catagory B?

We are a Catagory A corrugated packaging plant but we would not have to do a lot to become Cat B. Laundry, or rather the cost of (for 200 employees), is the only thing that is presently holding us back.

Please help.

Great Site Simon.

John Lambert

Has anyone sucessfully managed to find a way of controlling the laundering of clothing without the use of a contracted laundry for Catagory B?

Hi John.

I don't know of any BRC/IOP certified sites that launder their own workwear but I do visit a couple of customers certified to BRC Global Food that have in house laundries ( both are major household brands with 400+ employees at each site). From what I could gather the control of laundry in house is fairly straightforward as there is no outside clothing to cross contaminate. Bear in mind that the standard does not actually say how the laundry must be controlled. It is of course up to your auditor as to what they think constitutes controlled laundry, but IMO the prohibition of home cleaning and a reasonable set of procedures to prevent cross contamination ( if any such risk exists on your site of course) would constitute controlled laundry.

Hello John,

To me you have the choice of subcontracting to an outside laundry or having an 'in house' laundry - as Martin says I don't think you could not have the required control letting people take workwear home and wash themselves. So both of the available options are costly. If you have the time to set up and manage and the space I would go for "in house". In my experience of so called 'professional' laundries their quality is rubbish with shrinkage, colour fastness, not delivering, losing garments and garments that look like they've been screwed into a ball for maximum creasiness.

If you took laundry 'in house' with 200 employees it would be a full time job for somebody, but all you would need is a suitable hygienic room, a decent washing machine, a tumble dryer an ironing table, an iron and my mum.

If you followed Good Laundry Practice (GLP) such as segregating clean and dirty workwear, not using any nasty chemicals and handling and storing clean garments in a manner to protect them and you also included auditing of the laundry system and visually inspecting garments as part of your audit pogramme; I think this would be control enough.

Should I tell my mum to give you a call?

Regards,
Simon

One important thing I forgot to mention this morning - you would also need to uniquely identify each garment for traceability and keep records which could be a simple spreadsheet so that you could see what belongs to who, when it was issued and how often it is being changed / laundered.

Regards,
Simon

Thanks for all the responses. I am running my Management Review this afternoon and your recommendations will help my cause immensely. Also, I think that the cost implications of the in-house options will be well below the contract laundry option.

Going to price up a few machines now.

How much does your mum want and is she ok to commute to rural Lincolnshire?

Thanks,
John

Guys,

Thanks for all the info, however, at my management review, I was simply informed that we make boxes and are not a laundry so we won't be going down the in-house option after all.

I don't know. You try to save money and that's the thanks you get.

Maybe though, this topic will help someone else.

Bye for now.

John

FOR INFO:

Washing Machine with 35Kg load capacity = £8000 - £10000
Dryer with 35Kg load capacity = £4000 - £6000
Cost of Employing Simon's Mum = £14000 - £15000
Cost of outbuilding and services ect = £8000 - £10000
Being told that we are not a laundry = PRICELESS

I didn't realise it would cost so much to set up 'in house' - I suppose it's much easier to get an outside contractor. But beware all the quality problems mentioned earlier.

I asked my mum and she wasn't interested anyway.

Regards,

Simon

I didn't realise it would cost so much to set up 'in house' - I suppose it's much easier to get an outside contractor. But beware all the quality problems mentioned earlier.

To match the service provided by a contract laundry you would also have to go the expense of installing a machine to place mysterious stains and odours on garments, a machine that makes clothes uncomfortably stiff yet massively creased at the same time and a secret location to store the garments that you remember purchasing but seem to be permanently missing from the clean garment lockers.

To match the service provided by a contract laundry you would also have to go the expense of installing a machine to place mysterious stains and odours on garments, a machine that makes clothes uncomfortably stiff yet massively creased at the same time and a secret location to store the garments that you remember purchasing but seem to be permanently missing from the clean garment lockers.

Oh yes we nearly forgot the stink-starch creasing machine; or the new turbo version that also reduces garments size by 10% a spin.

What have I started???

Thanks for all the responses. I am running my Management Review this afternoon and your recommendations will help my cause immensely. Also, I think that the cost implications of the in-house options will be well below the contract laundry option.

Going to price up a few machines now.

How much does your mum want and is she ok to commute to rural Lincolnshire?

Thanks,
John

hI jOHN


All that information really helped me as we are small food company in ireland who launder in house and as i am relatively new to the manufacturing area I soaked those tips right up.Cheers

Hi Val,

Good to see that at least one person has benefitted from this topic.

Cheers

John

as long as you don't use Bold i'll be ok!!

Fairy is far nicer and gentler!

c x

Hi Val,

Good to see that at least one person has benefitted from this topic.

Cheers

yeah but not my mum.

Thought you said that she didn't want the job anyway.

Thought you said that she didn't want the job anyway.

A woman can change her mind you know....it's her perogative!!

Hi Val,

Good to see that at least one person has benefitted from this topic.

Cheers

Almost exactly 4 years later and another member is benefiting from this invaluable information.

I am off to join battle with our Management Team, on a white charger and wearing shining armour (actually I am going by foot wearing a stained and crumpled lab coat laundered at home).

Thanks people.

Thanks for bringing this topic up again - I had a really good laugh!!

Rosie

shall any one give me any format for laundering of cloths

Laundry In & Out Control Sheet

 

Date: …………………..                                            

Day: ……………………

 

 

Dispatched Laundry

Received Laundry

 

 

No

Items

QTY (piece)

Laundered Items

QTY (piece)

Laundered Items Conditions & Comments

   

 

1

 

White Coat- Small

 

 

White Coat- Small

 

 

 

 

2

 

White Coat- Medium

 

 

White Coat- Medium

 

 

 

 

3

 

White Coat- Large

 

 

White Coat- Large

 

 

 

 

4

 

White Coat- X Large

 

 

White Coat- X Large

 

 

 

 

5

 

White Hoods

 

 

White Hoods

 

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dispatched by: ……………………….                                        Received by: ……........................

"Attaching succeeded"   

thanks 

dv8dawn