Reaching out to embrace change

Any organisation that stands still, or is content to live on its past reputation will very soon be swamped by more flexible and more responsive competitors who are prepared to embrace this rapid pace of change.

The good news is that for organisations that are able and willing to accept the challenges of being a modern global player, the opportunities are far greater than ever before not just for developing new markets but for gaining larger in-roads into existing market areas. At Electrolux Laundry Systems, we count ourselves among this new breed of business.

To prepare ourselves better to meet these new business realities, Electrolux Laundry Systems has recently restructured. We are no longer just an international manufacturing business with sales organisations in major industrial markets, however well that structure may have served us in the past. Today, we are refocusing as a customer-driven organisation, bringing together products from all of our manufacturing units to create state-of-the-art laundry solutions that exactly fit the needs of our customers.

As part of the restructure, Electrolux in the UK has attracted significant internal investment. These funds are designed to increase customer-driven deliverables and clearly underline the commitment of the total Electrolux Group to this most important market. Moreover, direct access to Electrolux Laundry Systems's global manufacturing network will ensure that customers receive products and support exactly when and where they require them.

Overall, these are logical steps forward as we progress our broader strategy to develop as a single global organisation. More than ever, Electrolux Laundry Systems, marries the right product portfolio with the right intelligent solutions. Our objective is no less than to ensure that our customers receive the very best performance and the very best service, however fast their world, and ours, changes.

Case study Hilton Hotel, Park Lane

The 28-storey London Hilton on Park Lane is one of the landmarks of the capital and the flagship property of the Hilton Group plc. Situated in the heart of Mayfair and overlooking Hyde Park, this luxury hotel is central to all London's famous attractions and sights. All 450 rooms have stunning views, whilst recent refurbishment has ensured that the 55 individually designed suites are amongst the finest in the country.

The Park Lane hotel now boasts an impressive laundry, completely equipped by Electrolux. The hotel now washes everything in house, from shower curtains to duvets, curtains to all staff uniforms. This was not always the case.

The hotel used to outsource a large amount of its laundry and this was the case with their bathrobes. Then a number of customer complaints about the quality of the robes forced a rethink about laundry arrangements. Roger Messenger, the laundry manager turned to Electrolux for advice.

The Aquaclean system had been installed at the Hilton Park Lane for some months but had never been used. The Electrolux Laundry Systems team calculated the cost savings for washing in house, rather than outsourcing, and realised the savings were substantial. With the aid of JohnsonDiversey, the Hilton Laundry staff were all given in-depth training on the machines, programs and chemicals that should be used with this system.

Aquaclean is a wetcleaning system which offers improved productivity at a low cost. Since this was implemented at the Park Lane site, not only is the quality of the robes far superior, but there have not been any complaints about these garments. The hotel has also saved one-third of the cost by doing this in-house and now has total control over the quality of its laundry.

With 450 rooms, banqueting facilities for over 3,000 and a complete valet service consisting of all guest laundry and drycleaning, the Hilton group is always looking for ways to improve efficiency and productivity. This was part of the reason it had the CMIS (Certus Management Information System) installed.

CMIS gives you vital statistics from your Electrolux washers. This data can then be used to identify and remove any wastage, thus minimising costs. It also alerts the user to errors and logs maintenance work, thereby maximising uptime. This is the first system to be installed in western Europe.

Electrolux is the preferred supplier to the Hilton group and over the last year has reviewed the Park Lane hotel's laundry requirements with a view to improvements.

With the introduction of training for the laundry staff, and the success of both Aquaclean and CMIS, Roger Messenger, (laundry manager for Park Lane) believes that the equipment and relationship with Electrolux as a whole "has improved one-hundred percent".

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