Case Study

Track and analyze the status of workwear inventory

PHILIPS selects Polytex workwear management solutions to track and analyze the status of workwear inventory, achieve higher level of hygiene, enable more frequent workwear testing, simplify operations, and reduce workwear stock levels.

Background

The Philips Medical Research and Development Center develops dvanced image processing and digital analysis solutions for 3D CT scanners and is one of the largest private research organizations in the world. With dozens of large-scale facilities and thousands of employees, the management of clothing and workwear items is a highly regulated, complex and costly operation.

Philips tracks and analyzes the status of workwear inventory with Polytex machine

Top Five Achievements

Polytex helped the Philips Medical and Research and Development Cent to achieve these goals

  1. More frequent ESD testing cycles for workwear items.
  2. Simplified operations for highly regulated laundry process.
  3. Significant reduction in workwear stock levels.
  4. Higher level of hygiene and less risk of contamination.
  5. Documented compliance with regulatory requirements.
Philips customer review

Customer Testimonials

The Polytex solution helps us meet the high regulatory standards of the FDA and TUV. With the Polytex Total-Care Manager application we can easily track and analyze the status of our workwear inventory and generate reports to comply with the regulatory standards. Polytex provides us continual support with extremely high responsiveness and professional service.

Itzik Ben-Shushan

Site Engineering, IS OPS, Philips

Customer Needs

Philips needed an efficient solution to manage, track, analyze and generate reports for a large volume of workwear items. Philips also needed to comply with FDA/TÜV regulations to ensure a high level of hygiene and with ISO 7 requirements to minimize the risk of contamination in accordance with ESD regulations.

Requirements

The Philips management team defined these operational requirements:

  • Handle Large Volume of Workwear Items: Deploy an efficient solution to manage workwear items on a daily basis for over 1,000 employees..
  • Comply with Industry Standards: The solution must comply with the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations based on FDA/TÜV requirements and with the ISO 7 level of cleanliness and hygiene.
  • Maintain ESD Regulations: Employees must be provided with ESD protective workwear items to minimize the risk of electronic discharge generated by staff clothing.
  • Reduce inventory: Philips wanted to reduce workwear stock levels while ensuring continual access to clean clothing.

The Solution

To meet the requirements of the Philips project, Polytex made these recommendations:

  • Pooled Workwear: To reduce inventory requirements, Philips switched from personal to  pooled workwear.
  • Multiple Automated Units: Given the large number of employees requiring easy access to workwear, Philips installed three Polytex garment dispensing machines and four return machines.
  • Usage Tracking: The cloud-based Polytex Total-Care Manager was installed to support the entire garment distribution cycle including item management, employee permissions and accurate usage tracking.

Results

The Polytex solution had a huge impact on the daily operation of the Philips cleanrooms. The Polytex solution achieved these results:

Productivity
All workwear is laundered and ESD tested on a weekly basis compared to twice a year prior to deployment of the Polytex solution.
Workwear Monitoring
Philips can now track and analyze the workwear via the Polytex Total Care Manager.
Compliance to Requirements
Philips can generate and submit reports to FDA/TÜV as evidence that it is meeting regulatory standards.
Level of Hygiene
The automated workwear solution eliminated the need for manual intervention during the distribution and collection process.
Inventory Management
The transition from personal to non-personal workwear led to a significant reduction in the volume of inventory items.

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