BryanLGH - Case Study

Customer Profile:

BryanLGH Medical Center in Lincoln, Neb., is a not-for-profit, locally owned healthcare organization with two acute-care facilities (550 beds total) and several outpatient clinics. Its national award-winning care includes the areas of cardiology, orthopedics, trauma, neuroscience, mental health, women’s and children’s health, and oncology.

The medical center’s department of nutrition and dining services serves 4,000 meals per day—2,500 at its east campus and 1,500 at its west campus. This total includes meals served to patients, visitors and physicians, in addition to the children enrolled in the facility’s two daycare centers.

Challenge:

The medical center decided to renovate its 47-year-old dishroom to create a more efficient cleaning operation. At the heart of the dishroom was a flight-type warewasher purchased in 1991. Dean Young, director of nutrition and dining services, wanted to upgrade the warewasher to a new model to take advantage of better technology and energy-saving enhancements.

“It’s always a pleasure to incorporate equipment that takes care of our production and service needs, but at the same time pleases the people who have to run it on a daily basis.”
Dean Young, director of nutrition and dining services BryanLGH Medical Center

Young also wanted to update the dishroom to be more efficient. The medical center, on the east site, has one full-service cafeteria and one compact café operation. Both operations handle patient trays from selected areas and service both guest and staff trays. However, the cafeteria dishroom, where the renovation occurred, is the major location for cleanup, with the plaza café featuring a much smaller dishroom operation. Since these retail foodservice outlets are far apart, patient trays and china had to be transported a long distance to the café dishroom (and back) three times a day during the renovation process.

Solution:

Objectives:

• Upgrade BryanLGH’s dishroom with more modern, energy-efficient equipment.
• Simplify and expedite tray and ware cleaning.
• Redesign the dishroom to allow for more space and for easier access to the warewasher and cleaning stations.

Products Involved:

• Hobart’s FT900 Flight-Type Warewasher is one of the most energy- and water-efficient flight-type warewashers in the industry. Standard features include Hobart’s advanced Opti-Rinse™ technology system, insulated hinged doors and microprocessor controls, plus options such as Hobart’s Energy Recovery system and a dual-rinse system.
• Aerowerks Soiled Tray Handling System provides a custom-designed solution to meet the dishroom requirements of BryanLGH. The cafeteria trays are brought back to the dishroom via a tray-accumulator conveyor that can amass up to five times more volume of trays in the same space when compared to a conventional belt conveyor. The system combines with an Aerowerks Upracking System that provides an ergonomic, centralized scrapping table with separate accumulation conveyors for dish racks and plate wares.
• Continue use of existing Hobart WastePro™ Pulper.

“The FT900 is easier to operate, easier to clean and easier to service than our previous warewasher.”
Dean Young

Actions Taken:

• Young purchased the Hobart FT900 Warewasher because of its energy efficiency and cost-saving abilities.
• Young purchased the Aerowerks Soiled Tray Handling System because of its labor-saving benefits in the scrapping process and its ability to accumulate large volumes of presorted dishware for quick, efficient loading, enabling the Hobart FT900 to run at full capacity for smaller periods of time throughout the day.

Results:

Campus-wide

“One of the key benefits of the integrated design is that we can run the FT900 warewasher only as needed and stage soiled ware.”
Dean Young

• Reduce utility costs: The medical center stands to save up to $15,000 a year in energy costs due to reduced rinse water and energy use.
• Lower labor costs: Foodservice employees no longer have to be in the dishroom at the beginning of service hours to clear cafeteria trays. They can turn on the accumulator and let it automatically collect trays for up to an hour. Young estimates this feature has saved the medical center an hour or more of labor every day, resulting in an estimated savings of approximately $5,000 annually. Dishroom staff members were also able to redirect their efforts to other areas of the operation during key times of the day for needs such as stock storage and the catering service.
• Increase energy efficiency: The FT900 consumes 50 percent less rinse water and 50 percent fewer rinse chemical agents compared to the medical center’s previous warewasher.
• Gain productivity: The FT900 warewasher efficiently cleans and dries ware and trays. This design alleviates the need for separate drying racks that can take up valuable space.
• Reduce labor for employees: The ergonomic design of the Aerowerks Upracking System features two multilevel conveyors. The upper power roller enables operators to easily push full dish racks onto the motorized rollers for automated hands-free loading into the dish machine. The lower double-slat belt accumulator transports loose dishware and provides additional accumulation if the powered roller conveyor is backed up. Operators no longer have to lift full, heavy dish racks for staging and reach is comfortable. Empty trays slide directly onto a tray lowerator cart, and when the cart is full, employees can roll it a few feet to the opening of the warewasher for loading later.
• Eliminate bottlenecks: Prior to the renovation, foodservice staff had to process guest/ staff trays and patient trays at the same time, off a straight-line return conveyor on the same scrapping table, which often caused a bottleneck. The new system enables food-service staff to store the cafeteria trays on the accumulator so they can attend to patient meal carts as they return.
• Save valuable dishroom space and improve the flow of ware: The redesigned dishroom enables operators to receive trays, scrap, and sort and accumulate the ware to the ware-washer, all at one station. The new setup provides space to stage up to six returning patient tray carts at a time. One person can unload the trays from carts or the accumulator or both just by pivoting.
• Increase employee efficiency: The centralized scrapping table is equipped with two electric-eye spray rinses. These hands-free sprays let foodservice staff use both hands to clean dishes, not trays. A knee-activated switch enables staff to advance the dish-ware accumulation conveyor as needed, ensuring a full-belt line so that the load operator of the warewasher has a steady, constant stream of ware.
• Gain easier access: The medical center’s previous warewasher had doors that lifted up. The new FT900 features doors that open like cupboard doors, which are easier to access and don’t require high or recessed ceilings.

Foodservice’s #1 supporter. Hobart, where equipment and service join together in support of you. Hobart makes a full line of equipment for the foodservice industry, including cooking, food machines, warewashers and Traulsen refrigeration. We support our customers when and where it counts the most. In the field, at your place. With nearly 200 locations and 1,700 factory-trained service representatives across the country, we’re always close by to install, maintain and service your equipment. If that’s the kind of support network you’ve been looking for, contact your Hobart representative today by calling 888-4HOBART.

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