Case study Nedlin Healthcare

Laundry opts for i-collector in its sustainable, digital warehouse

Nedlin Healthcare’s sustainable laundry in Elsloo (Limburg) has a floor area of 19,000 m2 and is the most sustainable in Europe. In terms of degree of innovation, the company is unique in its kind. With this new laundry, officially opened in September 2023, Nedlin proves that washing can be even cleaner, more energy efficient and smarter. The use of automation and robotization further increased capacity. The i-Collector plays a crucial role in this. This dynamic and efficient warehouse system packs and stores the linen itself.

Smart logistics

Nedlin’s laundry is above all a very large, smart logistics operation. A lot has been automated. It has become cleaner, lighter and safer. Robot pickers and advanced X-ray scanners ensure even better sorting and control. Folding robots ensure increased efficiency and quality. Cracks and stains are recognized using camera techniques. Luuk de Win, director/owner of Nedlin, says: “We have actually been doing nothing but reinventing ourselves for 70 years. Continuously improving and organizing this process in a smarter way is a task that is never finished.” The i-Collector is an important part of the new, more efficient process.

Latest techniques for quality and delivery reliability

Quality and delivery reliability of the laundry can be better guaranteed by using the latest techniques. The design of a digital warehouse, the i-Collector, ensures even better management of demand. As soon as the linen is clean and partly chipped, it slides from a tray into the warehouse in stacks of a maximum of 10. There, inventory management takes place at item level. When an order comes in, the correct item is picked from the racks fully automatically. Robot arms translate the order into a delivery note for the container. Delivery is guaranteed on a FiFo (first in, first out) basis. This is done with a higher delivery reliability than usual. Picking errors hardly occur anymore thanks to the i-Collector: this saves energy and ensures that stock remains in order. This way you maintain control over costs.

Efficient design of the process

The pressure on healthcare is increasing. This is due to an aging society, rising healthcare costs, CO2 savings and a shortage of personnel. “It is therefore crucial that our process runs smoothly. By organizing our processes as efficiently as possible, we contribute to keeping healthcare affordable in the long term.” says Andrea Meuwissen, commercial director of Nedlin Healthcare. To achieve this, the entire process, from the arrival of the laundry to its distribution, has been examined. This was to see where things could be even better.

High-tech innovation

“A laundry like this has never been built before,” says Stef de Win, director/owner of Nedlin. “We have researched and reinvented every part of the washing process. In the laundry, all the knowledge gained over the past decades comes together.” The high-tech production line, the reuse of water and heat and the latest washing processes form an innovative whole. The new laundry is BREEAM outstanding certified for its sustainable performance. All materials in the climate-neutral building are circular and therefore reusable for future generations. This is good for the climate and for the sustainability performance of healthcare. The i-Collector solution fits perfectly into this picture.

DenseStorage: Revolutionizing the World of Warehouse Buffering

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