Resorts World Sentosa using RFID track garments

Garment tracking at RWS Singapore

According to Chan, RWS invested S$5 million (US$3.6 million) in the uniform management system and laundry service which has allowed the integrated resort operator to reap savings from reducing its staff requirements by two-third and floor space by 50 percent.

An example of manpower and cost savings lies in the uniform management platform installed at RWS, which has a “two-way interface” with the laundry vendor’s own IT system, he said. This setup allows his staff to monitor the amount of laundry entering its facility without having to go down to the resort.

Furthermore, the system automates the delivery order (DO) receipt for each day’s garment delivery–sent and received–which helps free up time and manpower for his staff to focus on other areas of business, he added.

With regard to the sorting of garments, Chan revealed that RWS had installed RFID readers at the opening and end of the chute, where employees dispose their used uniforms, to track the movement of the clothing.

To achieve “99 percent accuracy”, readers were installed in two directions so that they can better capture the signal emitted by an RFID tag even if the garment is crumpled as this would distort the signals, he said.

Garment tracking starts and ends at the uniform collection room so employees need not worry that their movements will be monitored throughout the resort, Chan said.

He said the RWS deployment is a “proof-of-concept” that illustrates Laundry Network’s expertise and technical ability to launder and manage up to 20,000 pieces of garment daily. The company is able to handle loads of up to 60,000 garments daily, he added.

Laundry Network also has plans to set up two RFID-based self-service kiosks for consumers at both Anchorpoint and Parkway Parade shopping malls “later in the year”, Chan revealed.

He said this service will be extended to a pool of “VIP customers” that will be given a RFID-enabled “prestige card”. These consumers need only to drop off their soiled clothing at the kiosk, swipe their card through the reader and, once their garments are processed, have their clothing sent back to them.

Each kiosk will set the company back around S$20,000 (US$14,566) and S$30,000 (US$21,849), he added.

Asked about plans to use RFID to track individual consumers’ garments, Chan said the company will only look to implement that in a year’s time. He cited the high investment cost of around S$100,000 (US$72,830) and S$200,000 (US$145,660) as the reason why Laundry Network is reinventing its business in stages.