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

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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.