REGION–PŘÍBOR
Research and Development
in the Field of laundry Technology
Alliance laundry Systems has been operating in the Czech Republic since 1991. Throughout the
years, the company has built a foothold upon solid base values, and today they belong to the world’s
leaders in the production of industrial laundry equipment. In recent years, Alliance has invested
more than 300 million dollars into R&D to improve speed and simplicity, colloquially said, to improve
washing.
In discovering the future of washing, the global Alliance
Laundry Systems company is developing a culture that has
underestimated innovation in the past. Currently we live in
a world that strives for balance between a good lifestyle
and decreasing environmental harm. Since washing textiles
Jan Vleugels
COO of Alliance Laundry
It is known that you innovate, besides other things, business
processes: can you explain this in more detail?
Sure. We established our R&D department (research and
development) here in the Czech Republic back in 1993. As
one of the first foreign-owned companies in the region,
we quickly recognized the in-depth engineering skills
and tradition here. As a result, today we manufacture
a wide variety of washers, dryers, and irons, all of them
entirely developed by our own local R&D department,
sold worldwide, and globally recognized as high-quality,
premium products.
We don’t just excel at product innovation; we also
focus on our business processes. In operations,
we recently implemented enterprise software for
maintenance and quality but also to have an efficiencymonitoring system combined with further automation.
Throughout the plant, we have introduced a totally
new performance management process in which all
managers are responsible for the objectives of their
direct reports. Renewed European Sales & Operations
planning increases the availability of our products and
the introduction of our own developed freight software
has resulted in substantial cost savings. Customers
have reacted very positively to the large organizational
investment in Customer Relationship Management.
And the procurement team has achieved record cost
savings by using our global supply chain.
Phillip Rigole
Plant manager of Alliance Laundry
Has Alliance Laundry reacted to an increased demand
for the cleanliness and disinfection of laundry?
Alliance Laundry has developed a full range of
barrier washers for hospitals that are offering the best
protection for their employees and patients and the
best prevention against the spread of microorganisms
88 ǀ POSITIV 4/2020
is such an important part of life, it also offers a great future
in its development and decreasing the damage it might
do to the environment. That is why Alliance research and
development teams from the US and EU apply scientific
solutions to all aspects in this field.
Which role does Alliance Laundry play in the labour
market in the region?
With 700 employees, Alliance Laundry plays an important
role in the regional labour market. Moreover, our plant
provides a rather unique combination of manufacturing
and R&D under one roof. As a manufacturer of final
products, combined with intensive vertical integration,
more than 90% of the mechanical parts are produced
in-house, we provide great opportunities for a large
variety of different skill sets, technologies and positions.
Our engineering team can benefit from close interaction
with manufacturing, after-sales services, suppliers, and
the sales team. Our engineering team creates fully
finished products, including complete development in
mechanics, electronics, and software. Supported by
a fully-equipped, state-of-the-art Science, Technology,
and Research Lab (STAR) “in house.”
Long-term partnership with our customers is supported
by our Customer Care team, technical service
representatives, and genuine parts distribution center.
At first glance, many people who might not be
familiar with our business, laundry does not look very
interesting or exciting, but for me personally, and I can
speak for many of our employees, the combination of
all the above creates a company with a wide variety
of activities, technologies, interactions, challenges,
opportunities, and, finally, delivers a product that
provides one of everyone’s most essential needs: clean
clothes, towels, and bedsheets.
and superbugs. Studies show that linen is a major factor
for the transfer of infections, so our products are often
used in nursing homes and healthcare to stop crosscontamination. We have offer these machines for many
years but the demand has increased substantially since
the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Pribor plant
this year has shipped a large number of machines to
European countries, Russia, India and other countries
worldwide.