remove the garments from the boxes and separate
them by type—pants, coats, shirts, vests, and so on.
The workers then place the loose garments onto a belt
conveyor supplied by FKI (now Intelligrated). The
conveyor transports the garments to a receiving station, where an operator removes each item and scans
the permanent bar code sewn onto the garment. This
logs the garment back in as a receipt.
After they’re logged in, garments are deposited into
hampers that are wheeled to the facility’s in-house dry
cleaning department. Pants, vests, and coats are dry
cleaned, while shirts are wet washed. The cleaned gar-
ments are pressed and hung on hangers. Plastic bags are
placed over shirts and white tuxedos to keep them clean
as they make their way through the warehouse. From
the cleaning area, the hanging garments are transported
to a collection point via a screw conveyor, which resem-
bles a large shaft with grooves like a screw. The hangers
ride down the spiral grooves as the shaft turns.
