Dressing For Cleanroom Success: Cutting Costs In Cleanroom Apparel

Diligently re-bidding cleanroom laundry service isn’t the only thing that you can do to manage cleanroom garment costs. The gownroom is the venue where the cleanroom garment program must perform. The garment wearer needs to be placed at the center of the process in order to reimagine the discreet laundry contract as a component of a broader cleanroom garment system.
Gownrooms are the gateway to any cleanroom and help set expectations for cleanroom behavior. The gownroom is also of course ground zero for any contamination control program. There is no other time or place when your employees must truly turn up for work. When they enter the gownroom, employees must be alert to the crucial part they play by paying careful attention to gowning requirements.
The gownroom is where the need to protect a clean environment from human contamination meets human nature. The reality is that, for a host of reasons, people simply don’t like cleanroom uniforms. Yet at the beginning of every shift, employees must conform with a process that many dislike and find frustrating — at precisely the time when they need to be particularly attentive and focused. During this awkward, uncomfortable process of gowning and going to work, any shortcoming in the system can be construed as lack of confidence in the entire process, and become justification for disregarding usage guidelines; resulting in exploding costs.
We know from psychology that the quality of life of employees has a direct impact on the quality of the product or service being produced. We all want motivated employees; workers who are attentive, proactive, and problem-solvers. The key to achieving that is creating a sense that individuals are respected, understood, and valued. So it is in the gownrooms and the five minutes spent there six to nine times per day that makes the difference. Once the experience of gowning is no longer an irritation, compliance improves, reducing use and cost. Structured and supported gownroom experiences help foster motivation by communicating through actions that individual wearers are valued and encouraging them to gown carefully and adhere to the system. If no one is looking out for the wearers, the wearers simply take matters into their own hands by making on-the-spot decisions about garment use. An efficient, effective program can remedy this and reduce costs at the same time.