Software designed for commercial laundries can have a real benefit to commercial laundry operations from top to bottom. Software solutions for commercial laundries aren't just the province of IT professionals and engineers: anybody can (and should) use them to some degree to improve their performance.
Commercial laundries have a lot of moving parts, from equipment to production employees to inventory levels (e.g., cleaning detergents).
Just like any team, commercial laundry operations can be buoyed — or sunk — by two things:
We've mentioned this time and time again, but leveraging the power of software in your commercial laundry can pay big dividends ... and not just for a select few within your organization.
The great thing about software designed specifically for commercial laundries' needs, like Spindle, is that it can be used by people at all levels of your organization.
Whether it's C-suite executives, a plant manager or a frontline production employee, software like Spindle can supercharge your efforts.
So if you're a commercial laundry professional and think software like Spindle is only for your IT or engineers, we want to tell you: it's not.
Are you a C-suite executive making big-picture strategic decisions for your company? Or a plant engineer looking to boost the long-term health of your plant's equipment?
Whatever the case, commercial laundry software, like Spindle, can help you get the job done.
Below we'll review the various job functions that Spindle can play a role in assisting:
If you're in an executive role, your goal is to see the big picture and make decisions with that in mind.
You might not need to be clued into day-to-day operational concerns, like whether or not Equipment Piece X is experiencing too much downtime or how much time Employee Y took on their lunch break last Tuesday.
However, you do need to be able to quickly view and react to massive amounts of data to make important decisions.
This is not a new concept ... a 1976 article in the Harvard Business Review talked about the power of computers to aid managers in their jobs, referring to the structures used as "decision support systems."
Of course, a lot has changed since 1976 in terms of computing power and overall technological capability.
But some things haven't changed, as the article makes note of references to needs for consistent data reports and support in strategic decision-making, to name a couple of use cases.
Fast forward to the present, and executives in the commercial laundry sector are still looking for the same things: visibility in the form of easy-to-visualize data that helps inform big-picture decision-making.
When it comes to the typical commercial laundry, it's easy to think first about the loud, boisterous machines that get the cleaning and drying done.
But what about the people?
Your workforce can be the biggest X factor for your organization. A motivated, consistent, low-turnover workforce can be a huge boon to your plant. On the other hand, unhappy workers with inconsistent production and higher turnover can cripple your plant's overall efficiency and productivity.
HR has a huge role to play in fostering a better and, ultimately, more effective workforce.
Meanwhile, a regional manager overseeing a number of plants has to have their eyes on a number of places. You can't be everywhere at once, so you need to be able to see the big picture on a regional scale.
Furthermore, if something appears to be going particularly well at one plant, Spindle can help you identify those trends. Then, if applicable, regional managers can propose taking those good practices to other launy plants in their region. That means a win for one plant can end up being a win for multiple plants.
A plant manager is kind of like the head coach of their laundry: they're in charge of making sure everything is operating smoothly by getting people in the right spots to do their jobs effectively.
So, how can a plant manager leverage commercial laundry software, like Spindle, to do their job? If you think of a commercial laundry plant like a modern football team, software is like the data analytics department that helps you understand what is really happening on the field.
Without real-time data, managers are operating with limited visibility. They're only privy to what they see when when they walk the plant floor, what they hear, what people tell them about activity on the plant floor.
Instead, real-time data collected in the Spindle platform can help managers be the best coach they can be for their team (i.e., their individual plant).
Of course, every football head coach has a team of assistants who do a lot of the nitty-gritty work.
In this case, engineers are the ones tasked with keeping all of the equipment in good shape and making sure they're in positions to succeed for the long term. Software, like Spindle, makes engineers' jobs easier and helps them be revenue savers for their operation.
As we've mentioned before, unplanned downtime is a huge problem for your plant, and is often the result of equipment failure.
Reducing instances of unplanned downtime means engineers can save time, money and lost throughput for their plant.
So, if you're an engineer, you can be the hero of your plant by leveraging commercial laundry operations software to monitor your equipment and limit downtime.
How Spindle Helps Plant Engineers
Meanwhile, your production partners are your players on the field. As the plant manager, your goal is to make sure they're put in positions to succeed.
In addition, when Spindle suggests a potential "coaching moment" for a particular production team member, it can provide an opportunity for productive steps toward improvement.
But what about how Spindle can help product partners help themselves? Among other things, visual displays at each workstation with real-time productivity updates can help trigger a cycle of good work habits.
If you're in the commercial laundry industry and you're reading this, the odds are pretty good that a commercial laundry operations solution, like Spindle, can help you do your job better and more efficiently.
These days, everyone is looking for that leg up on the competition. If nothing else, leveraging software effectively can help you in your career path. By doing your job better and more efficiently, you open up job opportunities or promotions for yourself down the road.
So, there are individual and collective aspects to the benefits of commercial laundry software solutions.
No matter which perspective you consider, using software to aid your efforts is a no-brainer.
Want to have a deeper conversation about how Spindle can help you in your role? Reach out to us and we can have a deeper discussion about all the ways Spindle help you get things done, both for yourself and your organization.
