The future, here and now in Basel: the fully automated sorting of flat linen and workwear

Nieuws & innovaties

All eyes on Basel

During the Annual Meeting of the East German Laundry Association in Rheinsberg, Bardusch Basel received the WRP Star in the Exemplary Logistics category. With this award, the laundry also receives the title of "most modern laundry service in Switzerland and the entire Bardusch Group.” We would like to extend our congratulations!

A few years ago, the management of the Basel branch was planning a laundry layout with an ambitious goal: enormous cost savings.

A new workwear system was installed in 2020. The goal was to create more space for logistics and shipping, and to reduce the second work shift. Prior to the new system installation, 180 garments were loaded onto hangers every hour at each station, today the number of garments is around 375. In addition, the flow of garments is picking up speed through the use of a special separator. Digitalization is having a very strong impact in this area. The entire repair process is digitalized and all data is automatically transferred to the ERP system for invoicing. Bardusch also went the extra mile when it came to logistics automation: A Jenway storage conveyor maximizes the production flow downstream of the folding machines with fully automatic refilling of the stored stacks of laundry. In this way, every item is completely traceable and automatically assigned.

The highlight of the laundry service, the fully automatic sorting of dirty laundry using robotics from our partner Inwatec, has been in operation since this spring. Now even more eyes are on Basel! There is a whole armada of robots there that automatically sort flat linen and garments. Here, state-of-the-art logistics technologies increase productivity, as well as safety and well-being of the operators. The robotic lines for flat linen are integrated into a Futurail bag storage system.

The targets were definitely exceeded – space requirements went down and productivity went up. The system keeps up the speed of the linen flow, because optimizing the linen flow increases the output of all machines.

We are very pleased to have been able to support Bardusch in this important project. And it continues: In a few months, the entire logistics system will be supplemented by the GeniusFlow system, which uses the data from the sorting area, i.e. from the reading of the robots, for capacity planning of the garment sorting and storage. This is an exciting subject that we will report on at a later date.

One thing is for certain: All eyes are already on Basel and on this fantastic project that serves as a role model. Congratulations to the whole team at Bardusch Basel for the WRP Star!

We invite you to explore the new Bardusch Laundry on our Youtube channel.