An automated sorting and bagging system saves Partagec Inc. more than 15,000 staff hours annually, and by reducing manual handling it greatly reduces contamination risk.
For the past 50 years, Partagec, Inc., owned and operated by the Canadian province of Quebec, has collected soiled linen from hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities in the greater Quebec City metropolitan area and returned clean and sorted items. Partagec launders more than 400,000 pounds per week, which represents 900,000 pieces of linen a week, including sheets, drapes, patient gowns, towels, bibs, diapers, and all the other laundry utilized by healthcare professionals and patients. Operating two shifts per day five days a week out of its 80,000-square-foot facility, Partagec employs 124 full-time and 50 part-time people.
In 2011, Partagec’s management and engineering staff began exploring ways to reduce the manual handling of 600,000 small linens per week, including such items as towels, pillow cases, and diapers. By 2014, the laundry installed a first-of-its-kind sorting and automated bagging system, which eliminated more than 15,000 hours per year spent in manual handling.
