The Straits Times, March 9, 2011
Mr Chan Tai Pang, the chief executive officer of Laundry Network, is so sold on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that he has staked millions on it. He has invested about $1 million in two RFID-enabled laundry tracking systems. One saw action at last year's Youth Olympic Games (YOG) here. The other one is now in use at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). On top of that, he has invested $400,000 to develop a system designed to automate the tracking of hospital linen and garments. The new system, which will be ready by May. Mr Chan says he is now in talks with some hospitals but declined to name them. While he had consultancy and funding help from the National FID Centre to kick-start his business with the YOG and RWS, Mr Chan is striding out on his own with his hospital laundry system.
Developed with United States software firm InvoTech Systems, the system entails having each piece of linen tagged with an RFID chip. The linen can be piled into a big container and pushed pass an RFID reader for a bulk scan. The system builds on what Mr. Chan used at the YOG and RWS, where RFID technology ensured that cleaned uniforms were returned to their owners in 24 hours. "Without uniforms, the 5,000 athletes and staff at the YOG cannot participate and croupiers at RWS cannot be inside the casino. Operations will stop - it's as simple as that."
In RWS, about 16,000 to 20,000 pieces of uniforms are collected for laundry daily and returned to their owners. The task can be completed in 24 hours by 30 workers. Without RFID technology, he would need twice the number of workers and about 36 hours to do the same. At RWS, an employee retrieves his cleaned uniform by scanning his name badge, which has an RFID chip, using a reader in the locker room. This triggers the retrieval system, which is a conveyor belt, to send the right uniform to the employee in about a minute. To send soiled clothes to be cleaned, an employee scans his badge on the laundry locker and opens it, hangs his clothes on the conveyor belt and closes the locker. RFID technology does the rest.