The Uniform Linen Leasing Company: history and operations since 1942

UNIFORM LINEN LEASING COMPANY (U&L)

The Uniform Linen Leasing Company was first established in1942 as a small privately-owned company, it aid in production of services such as; renting, cleaning, maintaining and delivering workplace uniforms and lines to local restaurants and hospitals. The founders of the company are William and Charles Miller. The U&L due to technological adoption has grown and has expanded their services throughout the United States. It has increased their services to include rental lease and direct purchase programs.

The Uniform Linen Leasing company is facing competition, one of their largest threat is in the area of increased operational costs, these are rising due to the continuous growth of the company which as a result has led to rising labor wages, workers compensation an increase and aging retirement population with pension and miscellaneous benefits, rising state of unemployment insurance and rising healthcare costs.

The U&L Company put the people's interest first in their provision of services; they provide competitively superior goods and services to their customers and fight to ensure continuous improvement of performance. This has resulted to long-term customer relationship. They ensure significant competitive advantages and fulfillment of careers and achievement of financial goals.

The chief competitor of U&L company is G&K services company.G&K services is the fourth largest and the fastest growing supplier of rental uniforms in United States and Canada. Similar to U&L Company G&K take part in supply of rental uniforms and has also entered uniform manufacturing and direct sales. Different from U&L Company it operates a fleet of 800 services and delivery vehicles.U&L Company has incorporated the corporate social responsibility which is the most important part of U&L's mission statement. The G&K service company has also incorporated the corporate social responsibility (Byrne, 2007).

Outcome from SWOT analysis indicated that the threat the U&L are likely to encounter is in the area of operational costs. To curb with this issue to avoid being defeated by its competitors U&L company has decided to open a manufacturing facility in china so as to lower the operating expenses, this plant will be used to manufacture uniforms, there will be overwhelming benefits for U&L company in terms of costs, margins and profit from this new facility in China over a short-run and long-run.

The Uniform Linen Leasing Company lease programs, supplies uniforms and linens but does not include laundry and maintenance services. The lease program should include these services so that to meet the needs of the customers who choose the leasing option.

The operation managers of U&L are concerned with how their efforts to plan, organize and control affect human behavior. They are also concerned on how behavior of subordinates can affect managements planning, organization and controlling action.

An activity that establishes a course of action and guide future decision making in U&L Company is planning. The operations manager defines the objectives for the operations subsystem of the organization, and the policies, and procedures for achieving the objectives. The clarification the role and focus in the organization is also factored in.

There is need to offer training, advisory and leadership training services so that to give business a competitive edge. The company should provide qualified and highly trained employees to be able to serve customers appropriately.

U&L handles a variety of staffing requirements such as; high volume general labor, skilled labor and IT specialists.U&L Company should become a good example of corporate citizenship and social responsibility. More so, to achieve commercial success in ways that honor ethical values, respect people, communities and natural environment.

By incorporating the corporate social responsibility it enables excellent management of manufacturing and workforce issues as well as satisfactory meeting the customers' demands and understanding their behaviors.

The corporate social responsibility has various pillars for instance; towards employees the U&L Company ensures that their staff is valued and respected. Environmental health safety, as the company is advancing environmental health safety issues should be looked into. The offices, laboratories should provide a safe environment for the staff and customers. Relevant environmental regulations should be followed. The customer should be involved for example their views about the services U&L offer. Their ideas should be taken into consideration and their complains acted upon.

The U&L Company should work with suppliers and partners who are ethical and value the same principles followed by U&L Company. The U&L Company should adopt communication technology that is reliable and fast so as to be able to respond to customers' demands and being able to provide solutions to issues that arise.

The U&L Company is committed to Green Environmental laundering practices there is auditing of entire laundering process to reduce water usage and also to prevent contamination of waste water discharged from the laundering process. The U&L Company since it takes its environment seriously utilize biodegradable ingredients which protect the ground water sources.

Increase efficiency is realized when washing liquids are recycled, this conserve water and minimize the use of harsh chemicals in cleaning, drying, steaming and ironing processes of laundered products.

The recommendation of employment of Company trained hazardous vapor detection expert who is well versed in the necessary sensors and systems required by international codes, this will enhance safety of the employees, prevent costly production shutdowns, and eliminate the risks of accidents that could decimate a facility.