Afew years ago, Bill Kirkland, a laundry services manager in British Columbia’s Interior Health Authority (IHA), was facing serious problems with managing healthcare linens. 
 
The challenges that confronted Kirkland in 2004 included the absence of a standardized system for linens, numerous product SKUs to manage, inadequate space to expand and a limited budget with which to run the laundry facilities. About that time, the Health Region issued Kirkland a mandate: He either had to improve operations and become competitive with area commercial laundries, or shut down.
 
On the horns of this dilemma, Kirkland saw ...