The size of the machines is important for the correct flow of work in the laundry, but this depends on the type of clothes to be washed and the type of customer of the laundry.

As reference:

The large machines, greater than 45 kg, are for large batches of laundry, where the entire amount of clothing that enters the machine can be washed with the same program. Normally, we are interested in loading the machine with similar clothes. We must keep in mind, what do we do with the clothes when they come out of the washing machine? If it is terry cloth, which goes directly to the dryer, we must have a dryer according to size so that we do not have to divide the batch, we already know that handling wet clothes is not an easy task. If it is flat clothing, we will unload the machine on the trolley in a way that facilitates the introduction for the ironer. In general, large batches are interesting for the ironer, these are usually high production machines, thus ensuring continuous flow without having to leave the machine running without producing due to lack of garments. It is easy to see that we will get large batches with large clients, who deliver large quantities of clothes to the laundry.

Small machines, less than 45 kg, are very useful for small batches of clothing. They are like this when we have many different types of clothes to process or when we have many small clients whose clothes we do not want to mix. A classic example for the need for small machines is when we process clothes for Wet Cleaning, where the batches are typical of a dry cleaner. When there is small batches, it is because we are normally more specialists in the process, in general we will have more programs in the machine, to better adapt to the type of garment and as a consequence more types of specific chemical products for each process. Small batches are usually more suitable when the next process is ironing (manual or mannequin), without accumulating a quantity of clothes waiting to be processed.

Only with these previous reflections, we can realize the importance of “knowing” how “we are” as a laundry and our objectives. This defines the machinery needed for the laundry. An error in this definition can lead us to have an inefficient laundry, with higher costs than they should.

One of the first questions we should ask ourselves when we want to open a laundromat is, what kind of clients will we have? This is known in two ways, which are the customers we want to serve or who are the potential customers within the radius of influence of the laundry. I will give an example to make it clear what we mean by this. If I already know that the clients I want are medium-sized beach hotels, I will be prepared to collect towels and similar sheets in large quantities, it will be much better to design the laundry with large-capacity machines, if instead, my laundry is located in the mountain, where my clients are small hotels, refuges, rural tourism houses, it will be better to design the laundry with small-format machines.

If we have had the laundry set up for a long time, it is good to carry out this reflection often. This is going to explain many of the things that happen to us inside the laundry, since this influences everything (flow, way of working, etc…). These reflections will help us focus on possible future growth. We can also realize that we have not succeeded in the definition of laundry that we had proposed, because from this is when we can readapt our laundry, without this knowledge we will not be able to tackle the issue successfully.

Onnera Laundry Academy