Laundry Lightens Its Load with RFID

Garments brought to the plant by truck are dumped into bins that weigh the clothes so too many don’t end up in the system at one time. The bins drop each load into an automated system that washes, dries and presses the garments. A conveyor then automatically passes the garments to stations, where Grantex workers examine them to see if any need repair or replacement. Workers then put each garment on a clothes hanger, and hook it onto the Jensen rail system, where a Tagsys reader identifies the garment by its tag and records its presence at the plant. If a garment requires additional work, the operator at the station presses a button to send it to a separate area where the work is carried out.

Readers identify and automatically route garments

Once a garment’s tag is read, the automated system software makes sure the garment is correctly routed throughout the rest of the plant and records any repair work carried out. It prints this information on a report and bill that accompanies the laundered garments delivered to the customer.

After garments pass their initial inspection or have been repaired, they travel along the rail until they pass another reader, where the RFID tags are read and the system sorts the shirts and pants according to which employee the garments belong to. The system matches up a shirt with a pair of pants and automatically wraps a twist tie around the clothes hangers to bundle the two items together. The bundled garments are grouped with others belonging to the same client account. Before the RFID system was installed, Grantex workers had to manually sort and bundle the garments.

“We have produced more than 9 million correct bundles with this system without an error,” says Singer. That kind of accuracy virtually eliminates previously common mistakes, such as the incorrect pairing of garments, allowing Grantex to provide superior customer service.

Grantex invested around $1.5 million in building its automated laundry system—a significant investment for a company with annual revenues of $6 million. Roughly $40,000 was spent on RFID readers, and $250,000 was attributable to tags, which were priced at 70 cents each and cost an additional 30 cents to sew into a garment. But Singer maintains the investment has greatly improved productivity and its customer service, and that within six years, he expects to recoup the $1.5 million the company spent on the laundry system.

“We did this to give our customers the best possible and most reliable service,” says Singer. “We invested to perpetuate this business for generations to come.”