ST. PAUL, MINN. —Ecolab Inc. introduced Apex, a new warewashing system that helps restaurants gain better control of their warewashing process by decreasing costs and environmental impact through optimized efficiency. Apex uses a unique combination of products, equipment and consulting services to address the operational challenges in foodservice warewashing. A complete warewashing system, the Apex products include four detergents, two rinse additives, a presoak and manual pot and pan detergent.
Ecolab’s sales-and-service associates use a tablet PC and wireless technology to communicate with the Apex system’s controller to download, process and analyze data to establish each restaurant’s “rack-to-guest ratio.” By monitoring and improving this ratio, Ecolab associates are able to help reduce total operational costs.
“The cost to wash dishes is $.50 per dish-machine rack,” says Jim Chamberlain, vice president of sales for Ecolab’s Institutional Sector. “A very small percent of that cost is chemical, while the bulk of the cost comes from labor, energy, water and other indirect expenses. Our new Apex system optimizes the number of racks washed, thereby helping each restaurant to reduce its costs and environmental impact. It also improves our level of service to the customer.”
During the once-a-month preventative service call performed by an Ecolab associate, the restaurant customer automatically receives a personalized, electronic service report. This report:
• Tracks the rack-to-guest ratio;
• Graphs the operational efficiency trend over the last six service calls;
• Estimates the monthly total expense in the warewashing process;
• Lists savings generated from maintenance and repair services performed by the Ecolab service associate; and
• Itemizes recommendations and their potential impact to further lower total costs.
In addition, the Apex system further supports Ecolab’s sustainability initiative with non-caustic chemistry and 95 percent less packaging material. Apex products come in a compact solid form that significantly reduces transportation shipments compared to bulkier liquid detergents. The new product line also includes a low-temperature dish-machine program called Apex TSC that has the same operational efficiency reporting capabilities. With the addition of a new solid dish-machine EPA-registered sanitizer, the Apex TSC is the first all solid low temperature dish-machine program in the industry.
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