Cleanroom laundry training program for employees rewards excellence

Everett, WA–Bud Granger, vice president of Overall Cleanroom Division, takes a personal interest in the training of the company`s cleanroom personnel for its new, Class 1 backup garment processing facility in Oregon, which includes the drivers of the company`s delivery trucks, called “Cleanroom Route Specialists.” The facility, recently built to supplement Overall`s 13-year old Seattle, WA location, also added a real-time constant monitoring system to take over a variety of manual tracking and recording tasks: measuring and monitoring the DI water system, washers, dryers, ULPA filters, room particulate counts, garment particulate counts, temperature, humidity, etc.

But the company`s most important “monitoring system” is its people, judging by the training all Overall employees receive. Each new employee in the new room comes directly from the ranks of the Overall family. (The company promotes from within wherever possible, says Granger.) These employees are taken under the wings of tenured cleanroom folks averaging 10-plus years of cleanroom experience, and trained, following a strict curriculum of cleanroom instruction. Initially known as a “Technician in Training,” after fulfilling a required minimum time increment in all facets of cleanroom garment processing, an employee is designated “Cleanroom Technician I.” After another 500 hours in the position, the employee moves on to Cleanroom Technician II, and after a final 500 hours, receives the designation “Cleanroom Specialist.”

Overall`s laundry truck drivers, called “Routemen,” also undergo a “strict curriculum of training.” They spend a great deal of time being exposed to all aspects of the Cleanroom Specialist training. In addition, they`re expected to be thoroughly familiar with the unique needs and special requests of each cleanroom customer they serve. On completion of training, the Routemen receive a designation as “Cleanroom Route Specialist.”