The customer

As an expert in comprehensive services for professional and hospital laundry, Schweighofer Textilservice GmbH in Rankweil (Vorarlberg) offers a comprehensive rental service for hospitals, rehabilitation and care facilities. The family-owned company takes care of the entire process, from picking up dirty laundry to hygienic processing and punctual delivery.

The business is demanding very large quantities meet low margins, while energy and gas prices in particular have risen sharply. At the same time, Schweighofer Textilservice attaches great importance to sustainability. Energy-efficient procedures, waste reduction, and resource-saving processes are firmly anchored in the company. In order to achieve economic and ecological goals in equal measure, a reliable data basis is required.

A fragmented data landscape makes it difficult to maintain an overview

In their day-to-day work, the teams accessed different systems. These included financial data from external Excel files, manually recorded sensor data, ERP information from AdvanTex, personnel data from a separate program, and fleet data from the UTA portal.

These separate data sources required a great deal of manual effort. “In order to identify trends, we had to compare Excel files with the  respective annual values side by side,” recalls Daniel Hutter, responsible for IT/IMS at Schweighofer Textilservice. “At that time, we lacked a central and uniform database for making informed decisions.“

New solution for greater flexibility, performance and user-friendliness

Schweighofer Textilservice was therefore looking for a system that would enable both standardized reports and spontaneous ad hoc analyses. The solution had to easily integrate new data sources, leave the basic data unchanged, be high-performance, easy to use on a daily basis, and offer the possibility of further developing applications and dashboards internally.

Qlik Sense® best met these requirements. The decisive factors were its intuitive use, the straightforward connection of new data sources, and the ability to further develop dashboards internally.

Qlik partner ppmc impresses with proximity, expertise and trustworthiness

Schweighofer Textilservice was supported in the implementation by the ppmc group. The decisive factors were geographical proximity, many years of Qlik expertise, and outstanding data competence.

The introduction to Qlik began with the finance application, which was implemented based on a ppmc template (ppmc.spot.finance) with predefined structures. “The implementation effort was manageable, and the finance application was up and running very quickly,” confirms Daniel Hutter.

On this basis, further applications for various departments were developed in the next step. “The collaboration was straightforward and solution-oriented, and we were able to rely on ppmc at all times,” reports Daniel Hutter. “At the same time, the team supported us in building up internal expertise so that we can now largely develop applications and dashboards ourselves. And we know that we can get support quickly when we need it. The lines of communication are short, and help is always reliable.“

Wide use within the company

Qlik® is now used in almost all areas of the company, supporting production as well as management, human resources, inventory management, IT, and the vehicle fleet. The platform has become an integral part of daily work and serves as a central source of information for many operational and strategic decisions.

Evaluation of operational data

One important area of application is the evaluation of operational data collected from industrial cleaning systems. Sensors continuously measure values such as gas, water, electricity, wastewater, and various temperature points in the heat exchanger. The data is read every 15 minutes and automatically transferred to Qlik. This means that up-to-date information on production and energy consumption is available at any time in a structured form.

Complete representation of the processes

A particularly comprehensive application has been developed around the ERP system, which plays a central role internally. “It combines many different data sources and provides a comprehensive overview of all relevant processes in day-to-day business,” explains Daniel Hutter. “It is based on customer and product information from the ERP system, energy data, personnel times from time recording, and other operational key figures.“

External access by customers

This application is also particularly important for working with major customers. Schweighofer Textilservice has set up separate secure access for two of them. They use an app specially designed for them and can independently check whether agreed delivery quotas are being met and how their orders are progressing.

Visual support in production

Visual overviews fed directly from Qlik are also used in production. A dedicated energy app was developed for this purpose, which displays the production hall visually and shows all relevant measurement points. Target values, actual values, and tolerance ranges are displayed in traffic light colors. “We have installed monitors at several workstations so that employees can see at a glance whether processes are ppmcag.com on schedule or adjustments are necessary,” explains Daniel Hutter.

Fleet management

The vehicle fleet is also mapped in Qlik. The data comes from the UTA portal, which provides the billing information for the vehicles.  Schweighofer Textilservice operates around ten vehicles, including several larger trucks for deliveries to hospitals and smaller vehicles for the mat and clean-walk business. The information is consolidated in Qlik and used for evaluations of vehicle usage and costs.

Support for the integrated management system

Schweighofer Textilservice also uses Qlik for key figures from its integrated management system. Values from the areas of environment, energy, and quality are displayed. This allows normative specifications and internal target values to be reliably monitored and documented.

Transparency and security through centralized data

With Qlik, Schweighofer Textilservice now has a central database that creates transparency in all areas of the company and makes decision-making much easier. Automated data flows replace the previous manual transfers, largely eliminating sources of error. Historical values can be compared over several years, which significantly improves budget planning in particular.

“I had my first ‘aha’ moment right away in the finance app. For the first time, several years› worth of data was presented in such a way that developments could be clearly superimposed on each other. Previously, we had to gather various Excel spreadsheets for this purpose. In Qlik, historical values are available in a structured format, which means that budgets can be created much more reliably and, in less time,” explains Daniel Hutter.

More precise process control and greater sustainability in production

Qlik also acts as a central control tool in production. The automated transfer of sensor data—from gas, water, and electricity to temperature,  flow, and heat exchanger values—enables highly accurate monitoring of ongoing processes. Deviations become visible at an early stage, which is crucial because high volumes with low margins require particularly efficient work.

Qlik plays a special role in the area of sustainability and compliance. “Current environmental and energy standards require us to monitor our wastewater and process values very closely,” explains Daniel Hutter. “Qlik helps us to identify trends in limit values for measurements such as temperature, pH value, and wastewater volume at an early stage and to respond accordingly, which greatly simplifies our daily work and regular reporting requirements to management and external auditors.”

One example illustrates the difference that data structure makes. It was only through the structured presentation in Qlik that it became apparent that the apparent exceedances of the wastewater temperature limit did not originate from ongoing operations, but from periods without water discharge. This insight would have been difficult to gain with manual records.

Reliable facts for communication with customers

In addition, Qlik also increases transparency for customers. The ability to monitor delivery reliability themselves significantly reduces the number of queries. Collaboration becomes more objective because everyone involved is working from the same database.

Noticeable time savings and safe processes

Overall, Schweighofer Textilservice saves time in its daily work. “The effort involved in preparing for the management board in production has been reduced by up to 50 percent,” says Daniel Hutter. “

The largely automated and centralized database creates security for employees and promotes a better understanding of their own key figures. Decisions can be made more quickly and on a more informed basis, which takes the pressure off the entire operation.“

About PPMC

ppmc has been a recognized expert in customized business intelligence solutions and digitalization consulting since 2007. ppmc provides comprehensive support to customers in the Alpine Rhine Valley and the DACH region, as well as international companies, ranging from  consulting, licensing, installation, development, and training to support. ppmc covers the key areas of data strategy, data integration, data analytics, data reporting, and data governance & compliance, and supports companies in the sustainable optimization of their data  landscapes. With a deep understanding of individual requirements, ppmc creates solutions that are not only technically impressive, but also strategically effective.

About QLIK®

Qlik® transforms complex data landscapes into actionable insights that contribute to business success. More than 40,000 customers worldwide use our portfolio, which stands for modern, business-ready AI/ML and consistently high data quality. Our strengths are data integration and data governance, and we offer comprehensive solutions that work with a wide variety of data sources. Qlik›s intuitive real- time analytics uncover hidden patterns and enable teams to overcome complex challenges and capitalize on new opportunities. Our practical and scalable AI/ML tools lead to better decisions faster. As a strategic partner, we improve our customers› competitiveness with our platform-independent technology and expertise.