Adele Harris, MSA UK Bristol Service Manager discusses the Company’s role in helping to promote firefighter safety through care and maintenance of fire protective clothing

In this exclusive interview, we delve into the operations of MSA Bristol Managed Services, part of MSA Safety Services & Solutions, and explore the role the team plays in helping to keep first responders safe through the care and maintenance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and fire protective clothing (FPC).

Speaking with Adele Harris, MSA UK Bristol Service Manager, we uncover the dedication and expertise that drive this important service.

Adele Harris has been with the business for seven years, managing three service centres primarily based in Bristol.

Her customer-facing role involves interfacing with both Pay as You Go and Fully Managed Service customers, ensuring their needs are met with precision and care.

MSA Bristol’s Fully Managed Service is an end-to-end solution spanning the life of a contract.

Their services may include washing, repairing and replacing garments, along with providing a Help Desk team dedicated to responding to firefighters’ queries and handling laundry logistics.

With three service centres in the UK, MSA Bristol cares for thousands of firefighters across the UK, processing and repairing tens of thousands of items annually.

This interview delves into the processes and unwavering commitment that contributes to the operational safety and readiness of first responders.

Can you provide an overview of MSA Bristol Managed Services and the significance of your work?

Our Fully Managed Service is an end-to-end solution for customers over the life of their contract.

During this period, we perform services such as washing, repairing and replacing garments.

We may also offer a Help Desk team dedicated to responding to firefighters’ questions and queries, including new recruits and training logistics.

Additionally, we handle laundry logistics and provide the service of a two-hour emergency response.

These are some of the available benefits of our managed service contract.

Can you talk about the managed services model and its operational scale?

We have three service centres serving 23 managed service customers and a similar number of Pay as You Go customers.

We have 113 employees and care for about 50,000 firefighters in the UK.

Annually, these centres wash approximately 361,000 garments and repair around 71,000 items.

Can you describe the typical cycle for caring for fire protective clothing and what processes are involved?

We operate a seven-day turnaround.

For example, if we collect your laundry on a Tuesday, it will be returned clean the following Tuesday.

The primary objective of all our service centres is this seven-day cycle.

The Fully Managed Service generates other benefits such as returning laundry to the firefighters’ home station regardless of where it entered laundry and RFID traceability throughout the wash process.

During the seven-day process, we’re collecting, washing, drying, inspecting, repairing and delivering gear to the fire stations.

What specific services do your teams provide at the service centres?

We have a team that responds to our Help Desks, handling various activities.

These include sizing new recruits, addressing queries related to laundry or equipment and managing changes when firefighters get promoted or change locations.

In addition, we issue all new recruits with a complete ensemble of PPE, ready for their start date, and monitor the return of equipment from departing staff.

Our commitment is to do our part to keep the fire service operational at all times.

Whatever the challenge, we endeavour to find a solution, frequently within a two-hour window, for example.

Since we manage their entire FPC and PPE contract, it’s our goal to keep this gear operational.

This could mean repairing a helmet, providing replacement FPC and PPE, or resolving issues sometimes caused by the users themselves.

It’s our ability to find solutions and reduce or minimise operational downtime that makes this an outstanding service for our customers.

What are some of the benefits of having all services done in-house at MSA Bristol?

One important reason lies in our mission to help protect firefighters.

We are a purpose-driven organisation and that shared mission and our values make us act as a team.

We help to ensure that firefighters are operational and can protect our communities daily.

Everyone in our organisation understands this mission and performs their part of the chain to the highest standards.

Secondly, there are synergies from being both the manufacturer and the service provider for these garments.

Our associates repair garments daily so they are familiar with their structure and assembly, ensuring they are returned fit for purpose again.

This creates a feedback loop where we learn from how our garments behave over their lifecycle, typically seven to eight years.

Our design teams can then use this feedback for future product development.

Finally, having everything in-house means we have control and traceability throughout the entire process.

We have insights into what has happened to every garment over its lifecycle and where it is at any moment in our process.

This end-to-end oversight allows us to achieve high service levels, maintain quality and ensure timely delivery to customers.

We can also ramp up operations quickly in response to unique situations or large incidents because we have all functions in-house.

Those are just some of the benefits of keeping everything in-house.

When washing and repairing, how do your associates ensure the safety and longevity of the gear?

We use specific wash programs for certain types of contaminants.

When we inspect a garment, we have approximately 17 checkpoints, encompassing fabric layers, reflective tape, pockets, trims and fastenings on the garment.

When we repair a Bristol garment, we are able to use the same machinery, components, threads and fabric as in its original manufacture.

Over time, we’ve developed intensive repair routines based on years of experience and proven results.

Additionally, every garment is personally signed off by the inspector and the repairer.

In recent years, what growth and investments have been made in the Bristol Managed Services division?

Two major investments stand out.

One is in Scotland, where we opened a service entity in Livingston in the second half of 2021.

Its purpose is to provide service levels and commitments to one of the largest fire and rescue services in the world, which is in that region.

This year, another major investment occurred in our service centre in Bristol, where we undertook a full-scale modernisation.

We’ve introduced new cleaning and drying equipment and implemented an automatic railing system that feeds through the different process steps, from washing to the logistics process back to the customer.

This system uses RFID technology to increase efficiency and improve traceability throughout the process.

This modernisation has brought some pretty exciting changes for us.

This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.