I was talking to Nurdin, my dry cleaner about how many clothes he loses in a year. He cleans tens of thousands of garments across his 3 stores. He hesitated and then said, may be in the teens. Not sure it is Six Sigma standard, but still pretty impressive when you consider clothes are often delivered to wrong owners, and that error is not discovered for days or weeks by customers - so technically they are not "lost".
According to the IFI - the International Fabricare Institute, there are 30,000 dry cleaners across the country - mostly mom and pop shops. The industry has been challenged by rising petroleum prices (affects solvents and other chemicals) and reduced demand from the move to casual work dressing.
Nonetheless, or perhaps because of the need to become more efficient, the industry has been investing in technology. This 15 minute video (view using IE - Mozilla does not work) from Dajisoft shows Integrated POS, tagging of clothes, assembly, final verification and reporting of errors - impressive level of process automation.
The store I go to has 2 drive through lanes. But nothing like the services the Zoots chain offers in the Northeast - like 24 hour delivery using personal lockers, web access to order status etc. Similarly, PurpleTie in the Bay Area offers an Internet based service with home or office pick up and delivery.
Every 2 years, the Clean conference convenes. At the one in Las Vegas next year, expect as much discussion on software, RFID and other IT as there will be on filters and solvents.
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