LA Summit Showcases F&B, Industrial Plants
Attendees at TRSA’s March 18-19 Production Summit & Plant Tours saw numerous innovations at two leading LA-area plants: At left is Republic Master Chefs, Long Beach, CA; and at right is Prudential Overall Supply, Irvine, CA.
TRSA’s Production Summit & Plant Tours made its first visit to the West Coast a successful outing, with plant tours at a pair of Los Angeles-area member laundries.
Summit attendees convened in the morning on March 18 and split into two groups to make the bus trip from the event’s host hotel, the Embassy Suites LAX South in El Segundo, CA, to two top-notch facilities – Republic Master Chefs Textile Rental Services in Long Beach, CA, and Prudential Overall Supply’s Irvine, CA, location.
After arriving in Long Beach, the group was met by Republic Master Chefs staff and executives, including Brad Shames, president, and Bob Brill, vice president, who welcomed the group to the facility in an outdoor tent that was furnished with coffee and other breakfast foods for the visitors. Following the greeting, the participants toured the plant in several smaller groups.
Attendees received an overview of Republic Master Chefs’ trailers and step vans, its soil department, chemical- and water-reclamation systems, bar mop bagging machine, flatwork finishing area, steam tunnel for garments and its new handheld system for tracking goods. Representatives from Plexus Industries, Automation Dynamics, Norchem, Tingue, Brown & Co., Leonard Automatics and MCC were on hand to field questions throughout the tour.
Following an on-site debrief of the tour, the group reboarded the bus and traveled to Irvine, CA, to see Prudential Overall Supply’s facility. The bus was greeted outside of the plant by Prudential staff, dressed in matching red, white and blue neckties. They stood underneath a banner welcoming TRSA to the plant. Stefan Schurter, senior vice president, gave the attendees an overview of the company and its history from an outside patio area, while attendees enjoyed coffee and snacks before heading inside for a detailed tour of the 31,100-square-foot plant, which opened in 1976 and services all of Orange County.
After entering the facility, attendees received an overview of how garments travel along the rail system according to barcode for ease of distribution. After walking past these garments moving along the rail system, the attendees walked to an area outside of the plant, where Prudential trucks deliver soiled goods for sorting. After stopping at the soil-sorting area, the tour continued to several stops, including a look at the company’s trucks, boiler room, chemical room, wash floor, garment finishing area and stockroom. During the tour, representatives from Ecolab and Colmac were on hand to detail the equipment in the plant.
After a debrief outside on the patio at the Prudential plant and a parting gift to tour attendees from Prudential staff, the bus headed back to the Embassy Suites LAX South for a trio of afternoon sessions. Kevin Schwalb, TRSA’s vice president of government relations, discussed the latest regulations coming out of Washington, DC, that are on the association’s radar, such as OSHA’s rule requiring companies to report hospitalizations within 24 hours of the incident. Eventually, this information about safety incidents will be reported through an online system with public access via the Internet.
Following Schwalb’s presentation, Eric Davis, director of environment, health and safety, AmeriPride Services Inc., talked about safety best practices. Davis honed in on spontaneous combustion fires in industrial laundries and what operators can do to prevent them from occurring and damaging property and textiles. Davis then turned things over to Michelle Terry, a lawyer at Webster, Kaplan & Sprunger LLP. She specializes in employment law, and she wrapped up Day 1 of the Summit with a presentation on employee relations. Terry touched on federal and state labor laws and how to ensure compliance with these statutes by setting consistent employment expectations and conducting regular staff evaluations to address employee concerns and provide feedback, among other tactics.
The Production Summit resumed the following day with a presentation by Gerard O’Neill, president and CEO, American Laundry Systems, on the various types of equipment that operators can use throughout the plant to minimize energy use. After O’Neill completed his talk, attendees broke into three groups to participate in facilitated breakout sessions. The sessions were organized by market sector – healthcare, industrial and linen.