In most sectors, laundry is a necessity. Hospitality needs clean sheets to run, healthcare needs clean garments to control infection, fire services need clean uniforms for their own health, and a huge range of people rely on laundromats to ensure they are clean and presentable for work.
Unfortunately, with natural disasters seemingly on the rise and persistent supply chain issues across the globe, there are many possible unexpected events that might disrupt your laundry operations. If you don't have a plan B or any sort of plan for a disaster, we strongly recommend you do so. Hopefully, you'll never need to thank us for it.
A business continuity plan
A business continuity plan is a document that will help get your company or institution back on its feet after a disaster. It is not a plan for during the crisis, but immediately after it. Your plan should consider factors like what your backup laundry option is in the short term, or do you have a stockpile of critical parts for repairs and maintenance. The global supply chain issues can further complicate matters if no stockpile is available, as replacement parts may become very costly to replace in a timely manner.
In the event of a significant disaster, you should also get a qualified service tech to inspect your commercial laundry equipment to ensure it is safe to operate. Commercial machine mishaps are no joke, albeit rare.
One example is a hairdresser within a mall that had a poorly ducted dryer, which eventually caught fire due to the build up of heat. The entire mall was closed until the fire brigade could get it under control. Get your machines installed right and maintained properly - you don't want to have to deal with a disaster.!
If you're looking for some help, check out this handy government page for some tips on making a business continuity plan, or get in touch with our laundry experts to see how we can help you!
The best solution...
Is a pre-emptive one!
During and after a crisis can be a stressful time. Having a solid plan that you can just follow will help remove some of this burden from you. In the middle of a crisis it's easy to make mistakes, or to simply not have time to consider all of the possible options and risks of your solutions.
During the flooding earlier in 2022 we helped a customer install replacement machines shortly after the disaster, only to have to uninstall them at 930pm on a Friday night to move them to higher ground from a second flood! Having a detailed and robust plan will open you up to consider other risks, like repeated flooding, and get your commercial laundry system back on its feet sooner!
Want to hear more advice from our commercial laundry experts?
