Complete fire protection at Synergy Health
‘Our work protects your world.’ It could just be Mactwin’s new pay-off.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
Synergy Health is the company that carries out this pay-off.
It is one of the largest laundry companies in the Netherlands with 13 branches and 25 in-house projects.
Safety is high on the agenda.
In 2011, Synergy Health took a critical look at the fire alarm and evacuation systems of all locations.
Some installations were outdated, others were insufficiently in line with the business processes that had changed or been relocated over the years. Synergy Health is a global organization specialized in sterilization of medical equipment and textile care for the healthcare industry.
In the Netherlands, Synergy Health offers a complete package of services, such as the rental and washing of linen, professional and operating room clothing.
We are guests at the largest Dutch branch in Tiel.
“No less than 220,000 kilos of laundry are washed here per week,” says Arno Senders, business manager of the Gemert and Tilburg branches and fire safety project leader.
Increased risk of fire
There is an increased risk of fire in the laundry.
Arno Senders: “The wash halls are full of machines and control cabinets in which short circuits can occur. Especially in combination with moisture and a lot of dust particles, this poses a potential danger. Furthermore, flammable chemicals are present and dried, but insufficiently cooled laundry can start to heat in containers. This risk is especially present a few hours after closing time. It goes without saying that we must take sufficient measures to identify a possible fire as quickly as possible. After all, we want to protect our people well and be able to guarantee our business continuity. In addition, the insurer also sets requirements for our fire safety.”
Last year, Synergy Health took a critical look at its fire alarm and evacuation systems .
Some installations were already quite old and at some locations the circumstances and/or business processes had changed to such an extent that the fire alarm system had to be adapted.
In addition, Synergy Health was of the opinion that management and maintenance in particular could be made more efficient if only one security partner was used.
After inspecting the installations, it was decided to have 8 installations completely renewed.
Arno Senders: “Mactwin came out on top in the tender round.
Not only did they have a good price, but we also had a lot of confidence in their expertise and the proposed Bosch fire alarm system with Dual Ray Fire Alarms.”
Future-oriented solution
Mactwin has advised Synergy Health extensively.
These are the words of Erik Poulussen, advisor at Mactwin.
“The conditions in the laundry are far from ideal.
There is moisture, dust and steam and fluctuating temperatures.
In addition, there are conveyor belts and rails in almost all production halls to transport dirty and washed laundry.
However, the proposed solution with Bosch Dual Ray detectors is ideally suited for this type of situation. They accurately and quickly detect an incipient fire and are insensitive to temperature fluctuations and other disturbing elements, such as steam and dust. Unwanted fire alarms will therefore be kept to an absolute minimum. The fire alarm system with integrated evacuation that we recommend is technically completely up-to-date and of course complies with the latest regulations. With this installation, Synergy Health is ready for the future. Thanks to its modular structure, the system can easily be expanded in the future.”
Good experiences
In the meantime, all but one of the installations at all locations have been replaced.
The experiences with the new installations have been excellent so far.
“For a while there was a problem with the back-up connection error message. Due to the unstable network of our network provider, we received a lot of unnecessary notifications. That caused some irritation in the organization. We are now working with another provider that has a stable network and we have not had any unnecessary notifications. We were also able to quickly suppress an incipient fire at this location. The installation has already proven itself in that respect,” says a satisfied Arno Senders.
“And Mactwin has turned out to be a partner that really takes care of us. They maintained contact with our insurer and the fire brigade during the process and they arranged the certification for us. Also, we don’t have more than two contacts at Mactwin. If something is wrong, we know who to call and we also have the certainty that it will be arranged or resolved. That works very well.”
Administrator Training
Senders: “We are well aware that fire safety involves more than having a good, certified fire alarm and evacuation system. That is why we have also written new procedures and had the new managers of the fire alarm systems trained by Mactwin. That training was very instructive but at the same time confrontational. The responsibilities of these people are great and anything but non-committal. They are responsible for the proper functioning of the installation. They must accurately report every incident and every alarm (real or unnecessary) in logs. They also have to periodically check the installation. All of this takes time and requires discipline. We will pay full attention to this in the near future.”