When a company has been in business for more than 100 years, it is evident that ownership and plant personnel have worked tirelessly to create a standard of quality and reliability that’s simply unmatched.

Clean Uniforms and More had installed a Braun open pocket wash alley nearly 24 years ago. When they were looking to upgrade and increase capacity in their  New Bedford, MA facility, all of the equipment was still operating daily!

Mark Bodzioch, President of Clean Uniforms and More!, was very satisfied with his Braun Open Pocket system. After reviewing options, he decided to again partner with Braun on the modernization and retool of the wash alley. “While others may offer similar designs, no one offers Braun’s proven track record of safety, efficiency, cost, and longevity”, said CJ Spencer, Braun Northeast Regional Sales Manager who worked directly with Mark and his team on the project. “Some machines had well over 30,000 operating hours on them!”  Good maintenance programs and regular Braun Preventative Maintenance visits kept the wash alley in operation up until the new equipment arrived.

Braun worked continuously with the Clean Uniforms’ team over the course  of five years on the equipment design  and scope of work for the wash alley retool project. The decision was made to break the project into phases, as Clean Uniforms could not afford to shut down during the retool process. The team at Braun worked in concert with Clean Uniforms to develop a detailed project work breakdown schedule to determine appropriate timing for equipment removal, as well as both the installation and training of the staff for all of the new equipment.

Braun’s approach to integrated project management was leveraged to maintain the project schedule in accordance with the agreed-upon objectives and set forth by Clean Uniforms. They coordinated the equipment delivery and freight loading plan to coincide with the rig-out of the existing equipment and the off-loading of the new equipment. Braun’s expertise in equipment rigging was key give the aggressive timeline for project execution. In addition, Braun worked closely with the Clean Uniform’s retained 3rd party MEP (Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing) contractors to execute the equipment and utilities systems installation. Equipment specifications as well the utility connection overlay was provided to the MEP contractors in advance of the installation to expedite the schedule. During phase one, the existing Braun dryers were removed and replaced with the newest and most efficient  Braun 500PT dryers.  

Once the dryer phase was complete, the focus moved to the washers and shuttle.  Also, given the need to enhance operations, safety, as well as productivity Clean Uniforms worked with Braun to support the soiled rail system replacement.

The new wash alley upgrade would increase washer capacity by replacing the older 400 open pocket washers with the newer and narrower N2 design, allowing Clean Uniforms and More!
to add an additional washer in the same footprint.  Furthermore, to add an important measure of safety, the new washers would be chute loaded by a rail system. This new equipment is the pinnacle in safety for open pocket wash alleys and runs without dedicated employees inside the wash alley.

As the Braun Chute Load design is tried and tested, it can be incorporated to work with most rail system providers.  In this case, Clean Uniforms and More already had a preferred rail provider, and Braun worked with their rail provider’s technical team on the scope of service requirements to make Mark’s vision come to life.

“In several phases, Braun was able to replace the dryers, washers, shuttle, and upgraded discharge conveyors…all the while keeping Clean Uniforms and More! operating with minimal weekend interruptions.  Labor has decreased, production has increased by 3 loads per hour, and safety has increased as well”, stated Mark Bodzioch.”

“The facility retool required minimal downtime with extremely tight schedules,” stated Cliff Quick, Director of Inside Sales and Project Management, G. A. Braun, Inc. “Our goal is to complete projects safely as well as on-time and on-budget. It is also of critical importance to execute project activities in line with the goals and expectations of our client partners through comprehensive analysis, consultation, design, and installation,” stated Quick.