Linen & Uniform Service); and Andrew Steiner, a family owner of Canadian Linen/AmeriPride, who currently oversees its Canadian operations as a senior vice-president.
Industry issues were dis- cussed, and American attendees were surprised by some of the things Canadian operators face. Heavy immigration to Canada from dozens of countries has changed the diversity of the labour market. “That’s O.K,” said Topornicki, “but it compli- cates training, communication and safety efforts when you have (as Topper Linen does) 11 different languages spoken among the employees.” Access to low- or no-cost health care is a big reason why so many immigrants come to Canada, Topornicki said. He quickly added that the health care is not ‘free’. Businesses and individuals pay taxes to fund the government’s ‘single-payer’ model of health care finance. While the fees for the gov-
ernment-funded health care pose costs for businesses, the government’s need to stretch its budget and control costs has created the right environment for outsourcing of laundry and other non-clinical services, said Bartsch, whose company focus- es solely on health care with innovative products. His per- spective is of interest because Ecotex operates plants on both sides of the border, and there- fore he experiences health care funding issues in two markets. Andrew Steiner
is a
fourth-generation family owner who’s now taking on increasing executive responsibilities. Hav- ing worked for many years in IT, customer operations and mar- keting, he currently oversees the company’s Canadian operations and regularly visits its 16 pro- duction facilities, which employ approximately 2,200 people across the country and serve a wide variety of customers, with an emphasis on work wear and safety-related garments. “We have a diverse customer base in Canada,” Steiner said, noting that about half of the products
it provides are industrial, with a strong presence in hospitality, food & beverage and facility services businesses.
After the panel presentations, attendees broke into groups to discuss industry issues in more depth.
ECOTEX HEALTHCARE PLANT TOUR
TRSA program attendees visited one of the biggest plants the organization has toured when they visited the Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service plant in Mississauga, ON. The build- ing covers 307,000 square feet, about 205,000 of which is cur- rently in use for production. The rest is for office space and future growth. “Demand in the Toronto region for outsourced health care textile services is growing,” said Randy Bartsch, who welcomed visitors to the plant.
All visitors donned hairnets to reduce potential cross-contam- ination. They broke into groups to visit various stations in the plant staffed by plant managers or vendors, who gave an over- view of that particular area of operations and took questions from attendees. The plant’s cus- tomer base includes long-term and acute-care hospitals in and around Toronto, serving some of the largest hospitals in Can- ada. Yearly production totals roughly 78 million pounds, including flatwork, health care garments, scrubs supplied on a rental basis to hospitals, and personal clothing for residents of long-term care facilities. The latter items are processed separately as customer-owned goods, and include about 13,000 pieces per week. A staff of 500 employees work a total of 11 shifts per week.
The plant’s pack-room oper- ation was viewed through large windows, to avoid the risk of cross-contamination. It includes six STERIS autoclave units that sterilize about 5,000 operat- ing room packs a day. Roughly 1.4 million packs are processed annually, with a very low reject rate of 0.0003.
Attendees also visited the soil sort area, which was staffed by Ecolab representatives who showed seven chemical dispens- ers feeding wash chemicals into five 400-lb. washer/extractors and two Lavatec tunnels. Ecotex recently installed the Smart Ultraviolet Light Advanced Oxidation System (SULAOS) on one of their tun- nels. Paul Jewison, CEO of Tex- tile Care Services, Rochester, MN, gave an overview of the system, which takes water from the tunnel press area and pass- es it through a UV system and injects hydroxyl radicals into it to clean the water. The cleaner reuse water is then returned to the rinse area of the tunnel. Also seen was a SmartTherm heat recovery system from Thermal Engineering of Ari- zona (TEA), which incorporates a shaker screen filter before waste water enters the tub-and- shell heat reclaimer to improve heat-reclamation and reduce total suspended solids.
In the wash aisle, one of the plant’s five Lavatec tun- nels was processing goods. All five tunnels operate using bot- tom-transfer technology, and goods are processed at a rate of 0.45 gallons per pound.
INTERESTING INNOVATIONS
An automated conveyor sys- tem for carts includes a moving track installed in the floor that transports carts across large plants. Staff place carts on the track and they slowly roll away. An automatic cart wrapper utilized cage-style carts with
An informative tour of various departments of Ecotex plant.
bars on each side and a lid on top. Placed in a fenced area, a robotic arm then moves around the cart, covering it with plastic so that it is sealed off from any contaminants it could encounter on its way to a hospital or long- term care centre. The system stops automatically should any- one enter the area while it’s in operation.
After the tour, each group entered a presentation room where they could experience the range of proprietary Eco- tex solution products and other innovations in health care textile products.
MORE TOURS PLANNED For more on the Canadian plant tours and round-tables, and similar upcoming programs, contact Tom Newell, vice-pres- ident of operations, at tnewell@
trsa.org or TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci at jricci@trsa. org. n
Jack Morgan is senior editor of Textile Services. He graciously let us borrow his reports for this article. Contact him at 877-770-9274 or
jmorgan@trsa.org.
2017 November/December FABRICARE CANADA 17
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