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The Ommaroo Hotel is a family-run sea front hotel, celebrating over 100 years of warm and friendly service to locals and visitors alike. It’s comprised of 82 en-suite bedrooms and various lounge, bar and restaurant facilities.
Business Improvement Project
Fiona Kerley (MD) and Karin Wery (Manager) participated in the Business Improvement Programme with a view to looking at the laundry system as the current process created a lot of movement throughout the hotel.
They mapped out how the current system worked and developed spaghetti charts to visualise how much non-value add activity is consumed just getting laundry items to and from the bedrooms. This was quite an eye-opener when they added timings and distances moved for each member of the laundry team.
Having gathered data and information, they set up brain-storming sessions with the full laundry team – something which hadn’t been done before. Further discussions took place with the hotel management team and a range of external suppliers.
Also, the current laundry service building is located outside the hotel main building and is no longer fit for purpose. There is poor insulation and it is in a state of disrepair, plus as a listed building, repairs, if viable at this stage, would be costly.
Improvements made
- Relocate the laundry room in to an area fit for business, closer to the place of work
- Integrate laundry services into one area, rather than across three
- Storage area for linen to be clearly marked with sizes for quick and easy reach
- Consolidate all housekeeping stock (cleaning materials and supplies, plus linen) and initiate an annual stock audit
- Order more linen stock to relieve pressure on laundry staff
- Employ at least one laundry porter from April to October to support Housekeepers
- Investigate technology which can improve communication between Housekeeping Team and Reception (is a room ready for check-in yet?)
- Move the Hotel Check-In time from 2pm to 3pm.
Project benefits
A key benefit has been involving staff in improving the laundry process and creating a much less cluttered environment. The new process will release 8 hours per day of non-value add to be used for additional housekeeping duties which is important for overall customer service. As the hotel continues to modernise, develop and expand, they will continue to develop key staff to create a more profession and efficient image of the business.
Team experience
"We hadn’t appreciated how much scope there was for business improvement and efficiencies within this one department of our hotel. The course has encouraged us to work through our current system and develop plans to implement changes which we hope will have a positive effect across the hotel in the months to come" - Karin Wery, General Manager
The aim of the business improvement programme is to support established organisations to become more efficient and to deliver sustainable growth that will create market competitiveness and a solid operational platform for the future. It is managed by Jersey Business, funded by the Government of Jersey and delivered by Accelerate.