Case study: Burj al Arab uniforms

The five-star Burj Al Arab property in Dubai has launched a new laundry system from Hiemac that has improved the uniform distribution process, making itsmoother, more efficient and easier to manage.

It offers a functionality that enables the colleagues to access their uniforms 24/7, and for the hotel to track the uniforms for better administration. The Hiemac Electronic Wardrobe went live in July 2015, and since then has helped departments from housekeeping to procurement with operations.

The rationale and objectives

Until this system was implemented, Burj Al Arab executive housekeeper Una Lydon says the entire process was manual. This meant every time a colleague wanted to check out their uniforms, the information was written by one of four team members at the uniform centre.

Lydon says: “We had little index cards, histories of all the uniforms. We used to close the centre by 11 pm, so the colleagues could not get their uniforms or return them at certain times of the night.”

In 2013, the team started looking at options to ease the burden, and planned for it in 2014’s budget. The objective was to make the system easier to use, allow colleagues to access their uniforms conveniently, and also to control costs associated with administration and labour.

The Australian vendor, Hiemac, was chosen and local supplier Prologic implemented the system in Dubai.

The concept and investments

While the team declined to share the financial investment into the project, Lydon claims that the hotel is the first in the region to have the fully automated Hiemac system. While other properties and companies use the rack system, the Burj Al Arab has also installed the wireless mechanism as an add-on.

Prologic’s team came on-site to carry out training for employees who would use the system. Every uniform had to be tagged with an RFID, specially encoded with every employee’s ID number. These were sewn on by the housekeeping attendants, who worked for one month to sew on RFID tags onto every single piece of uniform, and the data on every tag was inputted into the software.

Lydon adds: “We had to have engineering and IT involved as well. It was a collaboration to get everything up and running. It’s good for the environment as well — we’re not throwing paper anymore.”

The programme in practice

With the distribution centre located in the hotel’s back-of-house level one, the centre contains two electronic wardrobe carousels, garment racks and a service counter.

To ensure that the uniforms’ distribution goes as smoothly as possible, the uniform team is on site to assist at all times. The carousel brings the uniforms to any of the two automatic self-service doors where the colleagues can select their own uniforms after swiping their colleague ID card. With the capacity of servicing up to 20 colleagues at a time and a 10-second average waiting time, the system has sped up and dramatically improved the uniform distribution service at the hotel.

The system also tracks where each uniform is at every moment. Lydon explains that the wireless system picks up the RFID tags, and can alert the central system whether the uniform has left the hotel and is at the laundry, or anywhere else.

A large box has been placed close to the centre where soiled uniforms can be dropped off. A reader is placed in that area as well, along with in the corridors, that track uniforms that are sent to the off-site Jumeirah laundry.

The software system that links to the carousel updates the central records, showing whether the uniform has been picked up by the colleague, checked back in, with the laundry, or gone for repairs. It can also be used to add new employees into the system, with all data against them — including name, ID number, department, section and so on.

The system is also a management method for evaluating costs. By monitoring the cost price of washing every garment, the team knows how much is spent on laundry every day.

The results to date

Lydon reveals that the results have been very positive. “We reduced the manpower, and now the colleagues have 24-hour access. Inventories used to be complicated, but now with a switch of a button we get the inventories. We can budget for next year, we can plan ahead.”

She also confirms that the ease of use of the Hiemac system has meant that she is considering adding extra value by implementing the same for room linens. “We have most of the software to upgrade it for linen. It’s going to be for 2016 budget, so we hope to implement that towards the end of 2017.”