We are really excited to announce the release 9.06.00. This release contains many new features as well as system security enhancements. As you know, ABS provides you with all news with our Release Notes that you can expect within the next weeks. In this News Letter we like to highlight:

• Container Billing
• Sustainability features
• Facility Services (new module)
• Card Connect Credit Card transactions
• Route Assistant including Payment in Advance

Version 9.06.00 will be bringing you:

Container Billing (extended options)
Protect your property and avoid misuse of containers & carts. Additional contract agreements will avoid losing containers and avoid improper use. Allow your customers to have sufficient transportation material for the laundry services but apply additional charges to compensate any other use and loss.

Sustainability and ABSSolute
Since many years many organizations has seen a great reduction in paper use; thru Automatic E-mailing of invoices and delivery documents, the mobile App “Packing Assistant” instead of packing notes and the use of the “Route Assistant”.  Now this has been taken to the next level:

• Recycling ragged items? ABSSolute will now help the employees in charge of removing worn out textiles by offering a visual presentation of the fabric of the items – enabling a quick and correct pre-sorting of the ragged items, before they are sent for recycling.
• Routes to be combined: in case multiple plant locations provide services to the same customer or region, the option is added to share the same route from multiple plants.
• Adding services to existing stops… see next subject “Facility Services

Facility Services module
During Covid multiple organizations have introduced additional services to their existing accounts, combined with the existing linen- or garment delivery. This Facility Services module is allowing direct sales items to be added to a stop. Orders can be taken at the customer location on the Route Assistant. The delivery can be done during a next day/week stop or immediately from the available Truck Stock. Practical examples are PPE products, First Aid exchange/replenishment, sanitizers and re-fills.

Card Connect
ABSSolute now has the full integration with Card Connect available. This enables invoices to be automatically charged via Card Connect including an interface with data returning payments into your Accounts Receivable system. Card Connect requires a subscription.

Route Assistant with Payment In Advance
In case accounts are services with Direct Invoices and Cash On Delivery, the Route Assistant now supports the handling of pre-paid amounts. This option now avoids additional manual notes to be made.

And there is more! Please check the release notes of ABSSolute 9.06.00.

Dust Control / Mat handling
Last year with the 9.04 core release we released the “Dynamic Mat Storage” and the mobile app “Bulk Packing Assistant”. This has proven to increase the efficiency at the route packing departments. Now extensions are made for supporting the internal and external logistics with so-called Mat Carry Units. This is again supported by mobile apps such as the Bulk Packing Assistant and the Route Assistant.

Route Assistant App with delivery point pictures, GPS location logging & Route Check In
Now also the logging of the GPS coordinates for the stops is visible within ABSSolute as well. The distance of the real customer location and where the truck stopped for servicing the customer(s) is shown. This will be a good basis for optimization of the route & stop sequences. This in combination with the use of the Route Check-In meeting can be a valuable discussion point with the RSR/Driver.

The Route Assistant now contains the picture capturing of stop locations. This enables the RSR/Driver to capture specific drop off locations (like the red door) or even maps of the customer’s location showing the physical mat/washroom locations.

CRM: Contact Manager 2.0
The Contact Manager supports recording of communication with your customers. Contacts/calls with messages or attachments can be entered in ABSSolute and the Route Assistant App. Calls can be created automatically via Alert options such as “customer stock norms are too high” or “check required on too low volume load” of containers. The new ‘Contact Monitor’ gives the overview of all contacts.

New Mobile Solutions

My Uniform Assistant
This app to brings your services to the real end-user: the wearer!  Check where his/her inventory of garments is, check his/her replacements on its way, requesting attention for repairs and register ‘lost and found’ like “I lost my keys/wallet/phone” in my garment.  This way, the customer’s garment manager is not needed for this type of communication with the laundry.      

Packing Assistant
Instead of using printed packing documents, the app will present the packing instructions to the packing employee in the correct sequence. No handwritten notes and real time updating the merchandise requirement for the customer, route or day. In case of shortages, the containers can be “parked”. The app will automatically check the completion of a customer.

Truck Load Assistant
Loading the truck based on the correct and complete load, load sequence and route deadline; it has never been easier! The app will verify that no mistakes in loading truck are made anymore. Now anyone can load the trucks in the correct way. Alerts can be send to the Route Representatives that the Truck Load is completed.

ABS is proud to announce our newest Android app:
Truck Load Assistant

Based on industry research, we identified that laundries from all over the world have a common challenge; ensuring that the trucks always leave on time, and with the right content inside.

Our new app is therefore designed to be both slick and quick. We are introducing the next level of automation where the RSR/drivers Route Assistant app can download directly, as soon as the truck loading is completed. Enabling them to leave complete, with no delays.

We tell you more in this video:

Over the last 18 months there were until now some cases in the laundry industry where ICT infrastructure was compromised by malware bringing the daily operations at risk.

Commonly the following approach is followed:

• A hacker compromises an end-user workstation, often starts from spam or targeted emails
• Gathers credentials to access other workstations & servers (Credential Theft)
• Destroys backups / de-activates backup system
• Copying valuable data
• Encrypts or hostage server infrastructure and as much workstations as possible
• A “request” for a large ransom amount to decrypt data and release systems

In case it happens to your organization: To overcome malware infections, it is very important that there is a recovery plan in place. You must be sure that you can rely on your backup solution & standby systems when needed. Your backups should be resilient for ransomware attacks and tested on a regular frequency.

There is not an overall or one-step solution to avoid ransomware attacks. ICT infrastructure and operating systems should be kept up to date, periodically patched and hardened against Credential Theft. Recommended industry best practice security products must be implemented, and active monitoring should be in place.

ABS technicians are ready to advise and support you when required.

• Logo Mats
• Standard Mats
• Mops/Wipers/Shop Towels
• Disposables

This innovation is a perfect harmony between the use of the ABSSolute system, the use of mobile technology and using the available (mat) storage space as efficiently as possible. With an advanced algorithm, the Bulk Packing Assistant will assist your staff to putting logo mats in the perfect spot for storage. The target is to reduce route preparation time and optimize floor space. In practice, floor space for mat storage could be reduced with 30%!

Picture 1 below:
Bulk Packing Assistant

• Pack: from storage to route
• Store: from drying to clean storage
• Return: from route back to storage

Picture 2 below:
The packing process starts with selecting day and then the route. The system recognizes the route sequence, and the progress is shown.

Picture 3 below:
All mats that are required are presented in the storage location order to reduce walking distance. The storage location (e.g. A12) is shown. In case mats or storage locations are uniquely coded, scanning is enabled.
For standard non-unique mats, just a confirmation is sufficient.

The advantages:

• Paperless and modern technology: staff motivation!
• Less floor space needed thru optimized dynamic storage (saving approx. 30%)
• No need for expensive automated storage systems: keep it simple
• High productivity due to limiting picking area / walking distance
• Real Time progress information per route/day
• Useable for unique (RFID) mats and non-unique mats/products
• Useable for all pool products that are bulk loaded per route
• Monitoring packer performance
• Monitoring shortages
• Perfect inventory control

It all starts with GLOBE4, Gotli Labs’ latest product for production tracking and time recording, directly linked to your machines.
Data recorded in GLOBE4 will immediately flow into the ABS data warehouse and will be visible as ready-to-consume information at the dashboards. Real time updated performance tiles per department highlight possible bottlenecks and efficiency drops, enabling you to respond in time.

Combining data from ABSSolute with data from GLOBE4 effortless provides typical laundry KPI’s like ‘Revenue per Lb(or Kg)’, ‘Direct labor cost as % of revenue’ to name a few.
Are you still spending time using Excel creating those numbers?

Besides there is production data on customer level that can be combined with customer data from ABSSolute. Comparing customer revenue with (man / machine) hours spent for it, is just one example.

As a result there are 4 main dashboards:

• ’Globe Today’ providing real time status at a glance.
• ‘Globe Insights’ providing analysis and trends on any date range
• ‘Globe Employee Insights’ select an employee and have all info at single page, including performance, overtime and absence.
• ‘Globe Customer Insights’ shows today’s status as well as trends based on historical data for the selected customer

Finally, all the above can be self-service customized and extended to your data and your needs, without involving ABS or Gotli Labs.

Benefits

• Real time info on both employee and machine efficiency
• Real time info on machine availability and occupation
• Real time info on batch location by customer and sort category
• KPI’s and trends on Revenue/Lb.(or /Kg) and Revenue/Manhour
• Detect dryer problems with drying time analysis
• Statistics on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Analysis on who is most efficient at a certain job
• Analysis on at which jobs someone performs best
• Customer level info as basis for profitability analysis
• Product level info as basis for cost calculations
• Fully customizable and extendable to your data and your needs
• Stay informed anywhere, any place, any time, any device

Residential Items
Hans: “At the nursing and elderly homes and other healthcare institutions that are dealing with long stay residents, the staff can use the WEB Portal Residential Laundry Services. Within this WEB portal the resident’s details are recorded, recognizing the GDPR rules. All laundry items such as underwear, outer wear and other linen items can be marked with a heat seal label. Normally this contains a small data matrix QR code that makes the item unique.
The labeling feature is embedded in the WEB portal that the customer (nursing home) can use. There is only a need for a label printer that will be linked to the application and a heat seal press. From now on, the exact inventory of a resident can be monitored. Normally a washable personalized laundry bag is used for collecting and transporting the residential laundry. Often a weekly pick-up and delivery rhythm is covering the full laundry service”.

Soil Sorting at the laundry
At the laundry employees will receive the Residential Laundry and will verify the content of the laundry bags. In case that there are new items that have no label attached, the laundry staff will print a label and attach this to the item. At the touch screen the sorting instructions per item are shown. Even specific requirements from the resident can be honoured.

Hans: “Some residents want a special treatment like dry-cleaning. This can be handled against specific pricing. When all items are scanned into the laundry the tracking and tracing within the laundry starts. In most cases the process from soil sorting to finishing is fully automated”.

Finishing and Clean Sorting
At the finishing and quality check department the preferences of the resident are recognized, some want to have the shirts manually ironed and pressed, others like to have shirts finished in the tunnel finisher. Once all is clean, dry and finished as requested, the items are either sorted by means of a sorting system with hangers or sorted during manual folding.

Hans: “Many people who first visit a laundry with a hanger sorting system are impressed. Shirts, pants and sweaters are moving fast on hangers, but it still is a little strange to see 1 sock, 1 bra or 1 handkerchief passing on a hanger (sne picture).

After this sorting and the customer is completed, the last action is done. Based on the folded or hanger delivery agreement, items will be manually folded and the stack will be completed and hanging items are combined.
When most of the items will be returned in a folded manner, often a paternoster sorting (see picture) is used. Each resident will be sorted in 1 bin and during folding, the correct bin will be presented. When all is folded and sorted, the resident laundry is taken out of the paternoster and bundled to be returned to the resident”.

Clean return
Transportation of the resident’s laundry is done in containers. Each container is pre-sorted per floor so the staff at the customer can easily deliver to each room. The costs of these laundry services are often automatically sent to the organization’s admin systems. The costs of the laundry services are then combined with all the other services.

Residential & Rent Services
Hans: “One of the new services that we see in this market is to rent laundry products to the individual residents. Think of the individual laundry bags, towels, napkins, sheets, pillow case and other items. Recently items such as one-way products are added as well. This additional service is reducing the need for specific logistics since all items are now directly delivered from laundry to room”.

Benefits of the Residential Laundry Services:

• Residential Laundry Inventory control: does one have sufficient items
• Environmental friendly; professional laundry and re-useable laundry bags
• Optimized logistics: lowest cost of handling and sorting
• Complete track and trace
• Modern WEB Portal
• No re-entry of information
• Better insights – improving efficiency and profitability