PPOH – Pounds Per Operator Hour

Pounds-Per-Operator-Hour, or PPOH is one of the most important efficiency statistics you can calculate for a laundry facility. This average value represents just how much linen each operator is processing every hour. It is a reflection of the design parameters, management, operating conditions and workflow optimization utilized in a laundry facility. You take the volume of linen processed, divided by the number of hours needed to process it divided by the number of employees doing the work. The higher the number is, the higher the efficiency of production and the lower the labor cost is. PPOH is absolutely a function of how well you design, operate and manage your laundry. You want employees to be able to accomplish the highest amount of work with the least amount of movement to do it. This is achieved by strategic placement of the laundry equipment within the laundry, utilization of appropriate automation components and by having many years of experience with how to design a laundry for optimum efficiency.

No matter how efficient the equipment is and how much energy is eliminated from the process, the biggest savings by far will always come from reducing the number of hours or amount of labor needed to process the linens. That is a very hard fact. We all know how modern advances help to reduce the amount of labor required to deliver a product. Better equipment and computer controls have enabled companies to provide higher quality products and services with less and less labor. A laundry is no different. Labor is the most expensive component.