Managing Quality Case: Manila Laundry
Managing Quality Case: Manila Laundry
The owner of Manila Laundry has decided that a quality improvement program must be implemented in his dry cleaning service. Customers bring clothes to one of five stores or pick up stations. Orders are then delivered to the cleaning plant twice each day (morning and afternoon), with deliveries of orders being made to the stores at the same time, allowing for same-day serve by customer request.
Although Manila Laundry is a larger-than-average cleaning operation, total annual revenues for the dry cleaning service are approximately P600,000. Therefore, any suggestions must be relatively inexpensive. The other parts of the company are a shirt laundry (retail and wholesale), wedding gown cleaning and preservation, fire restoration (smoke removal from fabrics after a house fire), leather and suede cleaning, and drapery cleaning and hanging.
The stores are opened at 7:00 A.M. by a full-time employee. This person is relieved at 3:00 P.M. by a part-time employee, who closes the store at 6:00 P.M. When the clothes are received from the customer, a five-ply ticket showing the customer name, phone number, due date, and special requests is prepared. One ply is given to the customer as a claim check and the store keeps one ply (to show what it has in process). The clothes and the remaining plies of the tickets are put in a nylon laundry bag for delivery to the plant.
At the cleaning plant, the departments are:
Mark in: Each order is removed from the bag; items are tagged for identification later and sorted into large buggies according to due date, type of garments, and cleaning requirements. Buggies are moved to the cleaning department as they become full. Also at mark-in, garments are checked for spots, stains, tears, or other special handling. The problem is written on a strip-tag (a ½ in. wide paper tape) and attached to the garment with the identification tag.
Cleaning: The buggies are emptied into the cleaning machine
The owner of Manila Laundry has decided that a quality improvement program must be implemented in his dry cleaning service. Customers bring clothes to one of five stores or pick up stations. Orders are then delivered to the cleaning plant twice each day (morning and afternoon), with deliveries of orders being made to the stores at the same time, allowing for same-day serve by customer request.
Although Manila Laundry is a larger-than-average cleaning operation, total annual revenues for the dry cleaning service are approximately P600,000. Therefore, any suggestions must be relatively inexpensive. The other parts of the company are a shirt laundry (retail and wholesale), wedding gown cleaning and preservation, fire restoration (smoke removal from fabrics after a house fire), leather and suede cleaning, and drapery cleaning and hanging.
The stores are opened at 7:00 A.M. by a full-time employee. This person is relieved at 3:00 P.M. by a part-time employee, who closes the store at 6:00 P.M. When the clothes are received from the customer, a five-ply ticket showing the customer name, phone number, due date, and special requests is prepared. One ply is given to the customer as a claim check and the store keeps one ply (to show what it has in process). The clothes and the remaining plies of the tickets are put in a nylon laundry bag for delivery to the plant.
At the cleaning plant, the departments are:
Mark in: Each order is removed from the bag; items are tagged for identification later and sorted into large buggies according to due date, type of garments, and cleaning requirements. Buggies are moved to the cleaning department as they become full. Also at mark-in, garments are checked for spots, stains, tears, or other special handling. The problem is written on a strip-tag (a ½ in. wide paper tape) and attached to the garment with the identification tag.
Cleaning: The buggies are emptied into the cleaning machine