INDUSTRY VISIT REPORT

ON

Submitted by:
Akshit Gupta (19DM024)

Submitted to:
Dr. Sourabh Bishnoi

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This Industry visit was a great learning opportunity and I would like
to express my deepest gratitude to all the people involved directly or
otherwise, in making it possible for me to complete it successfully. I
am grateful to BIMTECH for providing me an opportunity to do
Industry Visit on Wash-Draft. I would like to express sincere thanks to
Dr. Sourabh Bishnoi, Professor BIMTECH and my Faculty mentor for
all the help and support in completion of the project. Lastly, I am also
obliged to the faculty members of Marketing department BIMTECH
for providing me their suggestions and reviewing our work. This
report would have been incomplete without their guidance.

Akshit Gupta
Post-Graduation Diploma in Management BIMTECH,
Greater Noida, U.P.

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 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr. Akshit Gupta Roll NO. (19DM044), Mr. Ajay
Kumar (19DM022) and Aditya Sagar (19DM018), students of
(BIMTECH) has worked on an Industry Visit titled “Wash-Draft” in
Trimester 3 in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Post
Graduate Diploma in Management program. This is his original work
to the best of my Knowledge.

Date: 04 March 2020

Signature.............
Dr. Sourabh Bishnoi

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 CONTACT DATES WITH MENTOR

1st Office (About the Visit to be February, 5

conducted)

2nd E-mail (Submission check) March, 4

TABLE OF CONTENT

SERIAL NO. TOPICS PAGE NO.

01 Visiting Glimpse 06

02 Executive summary 09

03 Research Summary 10

04 Consumer Journey Map 12

05 Laundry Process 15

06 SWOT Analysis 18

07 7 P’s 19

08 Dry Cleaning 20

09 Stain Removal 23

10 Valet Service 25

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 11 Conclusion 25
About Wash-Craft
They are Passionate about Organic Dry-Cleaning
They are professionals in the Organic Dry-Cleaning and Laundry
Business, which means they always stay up to date on the latest
technologies, cleaning methods, and solutions for dealing with stains
or delicate fabrics.

Plus, they maintain the highest standards of business integrity by

following local and national regulations and environmental safety
rules.

They are passionate about changing the way people think about
laundry & dry cleaning.

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 Key Learnings
 Industrial Visit (Wash-Draft) brings clarity to important management concepts, as
students practical experience first-hand how these concepts are put into action.
 Industrial Visit Bridge the gap between classroom theoretical training and practical
learning in a real-life environment.
 It provides an opportunity for me to ask questions related to their area of interest.
 With regular industrial visits, I am able to identify their prospective area of work like
marketing, finance, logistics, etc.
 This also gives me platform to enhance my interpersonal skills.
 I got to see the best practices opted by different Studio for similar work.
 Since the IV’s are planned in various sectors, I find it easy to select relevant
organizations for my assignments.
 Using the case study approach within the visit to bring out critical thinking with me.

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VISITING GLIMPSE

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Executive Summary
Doing laundry is a simple task that takes up valuable time for many people. This time could
be better utilized if there were a way of having your laundry done for you in a timely,
predictable, and trustworthy manner. Although companies such as Tumble-dry Cleveland
exist in this competitive space already, we feel there are tactics that could be implemented
to improve their model. While timeliness, convenience and cost are all factors in the
decision to use a laundry service, we found these all to be secondary to the customer’s main
concern; trust.
Wash-Draft group focused on the issue of operation within a laundry service, specifically
targeting trust. They observed trust as the key obstacle to this service, and have
differentiated their model from current offerings (such as Tumble-Dry Cleveland) to
overcome these objections. Their improved customer experience allows their customer to
choose a person, not just a company, to do their laundry. They believe, due to their
research, the trust issue can be overcome. This will increase the customer base and the
proliferation of this service, allowing for greater speed of growth across a larger segment.

Problem Statement
Customers suffer from difficulties in making time to do their laundry due to unpredictable or
long waiting times for washers and dryers. However, customers also don’t trust laundry
services to keep to their word on delivery times while keeping their clothes protected and
private. Demographics There are multiple problems to overcome when entering the laundry
service business.
The first issue that they faced was the challenge of determining who our customers were.
The initial research was based entirely off apartment buildings and other mass residential
establishments. The idea behind this was based off accessibility and scale. If a service
targeted a specific building, it could have access to 50 or more families, each with
potentially limited access to washing facilities. This would be a much more cost-effective
approach to targeted marketing than trying to reach 50 households. We found, through our
research, that while some people in apartments would be willing to use this service, it was
not something we could isolate to specific buildings. This observation caused us to realize
that targeting specific buildings would not be a valid strategy alone. They had determined
some demographics that seemed to be more inclined to use this type of service. Tumble-Dry
takes the majority of their customers do not live in apartments. Most of the customers for
this service were recent transplants to Cleveland (something they had recognized during
their research) and mothers in households of four or more. The busy mother who
needs/wants more time for more important events and tasks was a segment that our
research had completely missed.
This insight helped them better to understand the true customer base for this service. Other
characteristics for the customer willing to use a laundry service included young
professionals, income in the upper-middle class or above, and existing users of dry cleaning

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services. Armed with this information they started to tackle the most serious problem facing
this industry, trust.

Trust
Throughout the surveys, interviews, and own personal feelings, they continually faced the
same objection. Clothes define them; they are their expression of the individuality. Their
clothes are as much a part of them as their personalities. This connection to the clothes
leads to a deep feeling of distrust to others handling our clothing. We fear that they might
not be returned in the same condition, they might be damaged, shrunk, stretched, or even
lost. Discoloration and other concerns also exist to deepen this lack of trust. When dealing
with our unmentionables, women fear even more perverse issues could exist.
Unfortunately, existing companies have little other than their word to combat this deep
seeded mistrusting of laundry professionals.

Hypothesis
Main Idea to Address Tumble-Dry Laundry Service and Trust Problems The group believes
the best course of action is to create an application that serves as a multi-solution platform
for both people needing to do laundry and people who are laundry-washers seeking
additional customers, while promoting trust and customer service.
Consumers have an attachment to their clothes that extends beyond the physical objects
themselves. We value our clothes far greater than the price tag associated with them. As
such, people need to trust a company or person before they handle their clothes. This leads
Wash-Draft to the most challenging obstacle to overcome in this space; how to build initial
trust. By offering exceptional, trust-centric, customer service, they believe they have the
best opportunity to overcome this issue.
A local business operating in this segment told them that customer service is severely
lacking in this industry. By offering exceptional customer service, they would represent an
unexpected shift in the minds of consumers. By exceeding customer expectations, Wash-
Draft would position ourselves to take advantage of word of mouth referrals, which,
because they come from people the consumer trusts, would increase our initial trust with
these new customers. Also, by employing local area job seekers, we would be potentially
benefit from their circles of influence as well. As they tell friends and family about their job
with Wash-Draft, this would spur curiosity in the product. Again, because they trust the
person they heard about Wash-Draft from, they would be more likely to try the service
while also being more trusting initially.

Research Summary:
General Themes
1. Resistance to Change
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay”- Harold Wilson Potential
Native Tumble-Dry customers are stuck in their ways and do not see a problem in
their current state of doing laundry. Further, native Tumble-Dry do not trust an
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 unfamiliar service. This theme captures one of the most important components of
selecting an initial target market as launching this service will be tricky in the current
state. One way to adapt to this on demand service is through education and cross
selling

2. Restoring Trust
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them” –Ernest
Hemmingway.
Upon utilizing a service where a stranger washes a person’s private items, a sense of
an invasion of privacy is most likely to be felt by the customer as his or her private
items are out for the “world” or this complete stranger to see. This theme captures
the need to reinforce trust by increasing the sense of privacy and reassuring the
consumer the items will be safely handled and returned. One way to do this is to
have privacy bags and allow users to establish a relationship with their clothes
washer.

3. Establishing Efficiency
“There is no waste in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed,
and ineffective motions” - Frank Bunker Gilbert, Sr.
The average person spends most of his or her life working and sleeping. This theme
captures the desire for consumers to make the most of their available hours. Since
there is a limit on members of the target market’s time, there can be a way to make
the most of it.

4. Lack of Customer Service

“The customer experience is the next competitive battleground” -Jerry Gregoire.
The customer should always be placed at the heart of a business. The current
Cleveland laundry industry is notoriously terrible at providing quality customer
service. This theme is important as customers who are being targeted with these 13
higher incomes by on-demand services will expect a great amount of attention. One
way to do this is through a loyalty program or online platform that allows consumers
to track their progress and maintain an open channel of communication so they
don’t feel neglected.

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Consumer Journey Map
Wash-Draft first-time user experience exemplified how a new user within the young
professional, non-native Cleveland target market would create an order on the Wash-Draft
app. Also discussed were the major themes that emerged through the design research
stemming from various sources, bringing to life how it shaped and co-designed the Wash-
Draft Platform. A journey map of encompassing Rahul’s journey, the consumer, but also
Vipin journey, the laundry washer’s process can be seen below.

Business Case:
Benefits
The return on investment for successful implementation of the Wash-Draft business model
includes the following:
Becoming the first major market share leader in the Ghaziabad. On-Demand Laundry Service
Industry. To date, no local business has attested to being the market leader in the laundry
pickup and delivery service industry in Ghaziabad. Larger cities such as New-Delhi, Pune,
Mumbai and Gurgaon have multiple successful laundry franchises including Washio and
Wash Club. However Wash-Draft has unique challenges these larger cities can overlook,
making barriers to entry slightly more challenging for the same business model. One of
these challenges Wash-Draft faces is a smaller urban population in combination with a
conservative native population. However with the resurgence in downtown Wash-Draft and
the expanding population of outsiders coming in, there is an influx of potential customers
that a Cleveland business could capitalize on. Additionally, population in Ghaziabad is also

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growing, therefore also presenting another business opportunity for this service and
expansion into other similar cities.

Expanding into the B2B Arena

As previously stated, there are a lot of advantages of taking a look at the design challenges
within the Wash-Draft B2B laundry service industry. If Wash-Draft is successful in the B2C
sector and is combined with a thorough understanding of customer- business relationships,
there could be a great potential in expanding into the B2B sector as well. Through this
process, applying a B2B and B2C model utilizing the Wash-Draft platform and a modified
version to meet the business customer’s objectives, expansion into Delhi and Noida would
seem to be a future goal as well.

Laundry Studio
The ‘Laundry’ can be defined as a place where the washing & finishing of clothes are carried
out.
Types of Laundry
1. Commercial Laundry
2. On-premises Laundry

COMMERCIAL LAUNDRIES
1. These are also known as offsite laundry or contracted laundries.
2. These cater to hotel on a contract basis.
3. Usually the soiled linen are laundered & delivered back to the hotel within 24-48
hours.

ON-PREMISES LAUNDARIES
1. These are also known as on-site laundry or in-house laundry.
2. It is the hotel’s own laundry situated on its premises.
3. It may be run by the management or managed on a contract.
4. Services are faster (maximum of 8 hours), hence the stocks are reduced.
5. There is better control, better supervisor, and hence a long life for linen.

PLANNING AN OPL
1. Location
2. Size
3. Ventilation
4. Equipment selection
5. Labour
6. Other cost(Miscellaneous)

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LAUNDRY EQUIPMENTS
1. Washing machine
2. Washer-cum-extracting machine
3. Dry cleaning tumbler/ drying machine
4. Flatbed pressure
5. Steam iron
6. Calendaring machine
7. linen trolleys
8. Working table
9. Hampers

Layout of an On-premises Laundry

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 Laundry Process

1. PRE-WASHING
a. The soiled linen are collected from all the departments of the Hotel like F&B,
Kitchen, Banquets, etc.
b. The soiled linen are then transported to the laundry in two ways, first is, the
soiled linen are put in the trolley and are then taken to the laundry via elevators
and the second way is that the soiled linen are dumped into the linen chute
which is directly connected to the laundry.
c. The soiled linen are then sorted on three basis i.e. by the type of fabric, colour of
the fabric, and degree of soiling.
d. After sorting the soiled linen, the linen are weighed according to the washing
machine capacity and are put into the washing machine for wash cycle.

2. WASHING
The washing depends on 4 things which varies as per the fabric:-
3. RINSING

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 This is done by using hot and cold water, which are usually recovered 7 recycled
from earlier steps during the last rinse in order to save water.

4. HYDRO-EXTRACTION
Hydro means water & extraction to remove. Extraction removes at least 80% of the water
from the linen used in the rinsing process. It also reduces the drying time.

5. FINISHING
Includes 5 Stages.
a. Drying
b. Ironing
c. Folding
d. Storing
e. Transferring

Wash-Cycle

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1. Flush
In this process, the washing machine automatically sucks the high level of water in
which the soiled linen are added at medium temperature to reduce the soil load for
the upcoming suds flushes.

2. Break
In this stage, the high alkaline product is added, which may be followed by additional
flushes. The break cycle is usually carried out at a medium temperature and low water level.

3. SUDS
This is the actual wash cycle in which acid part of the hoppers is sucked by the machine. It
takes place in hot water at low water level.

4. INTERMEDIATE RINSE
This rinse cycle removes soils and alkaline to help the bleach work more effectively later. In
this process 50-60% water is removed from the linen.

5. BLEACH
In this stage, the washing machine sucks the bleach automatically from the hoppers in the
hot water at a low water level. Bleach kills bacteria, whitens fabrics and removes stains.

6. RINSE
The washing machine sucks the high level of water and remove detergent and soils from the
linen.

7. INTERMEDIATE-EXTRACT
This high speed spin removes left over detergent and soil from the linen, usually after the
first rinse step. It removes 70% of water from the linen. The washing machine spins at 200
RPM.

8. SOFTENER/SIZING
Softener and sours are added to condition fabric. This cycle is run at a medium temperature
and at low water level. Starches are added to stiffen cotton fabrics. Sizing may also replace
the sour/softener step.

9. FINAL EXTRACT

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 A high speed spin removes most of the moisture from the linen. The length of the spin
depends on the fabric type, extractor capacity, and extractor spend. Around 95% of water is
removed in this stage.

Time Allotted In Every Phase of Wash

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

 The managing members, Annie and Nikiwe have similar values and principles
 The managing members are committed and dedicated
 Applicants have good communication skills
 The applicants have a good understanding of the market and the processes involved
in dry cleaning and laundry services 
 Annie’s business management and entrepreneurship skills coupled with Nikiwe's
experience in laundry management will add value to the business  

WEAKNESSES

 The applicants lack financial management skills

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  The lack of separation between ownership and management may create a problem
in terms of control and accountability
 Currently the organisational structure is informal; it is however likely to improve
once more employees or members are added on to the team
 The contribution made by the owners in terms of owners’ contribution is less as
compared to the required outside borrowings – this is likely to outlook a gearing
problem

OPPORTUNITIES

 The coming of the 2020 world cup has induced growth in the hospitality industry.
There is a possibility of hotels, bed and breakfasts, lodges and so forth of outsourcing
dry cleaning and laundry services
 The availability of advanced technology in the form of industrial washing machines
and dryers will be an opportunity for the business

THREATS

 The threat from well-established competitors

 There is a threat from new entrants as there are relatively low barriers of entry
 There is a threat from customers as a majority prefer to do their own laundry
 There is a threat from suppliers as they may not always have the necessary
consumables required to render laundry services

SEVEN P’s

PRODUCT

 Service sector-Wash and dry, Dry cleaning and Carpet cleaning

 Supply Department-Laundry equipment
 Consultancy-New to industry recruitment

PRICE
Following the current market price.

PLACE

 Housing area of more than 1700 households

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  Drive through concept
 Main road access
 At the entrance of the housing sector

PROMOTION
Done on a quarterly basis using leaflets and flyers.
PEOPLE

 Experienced employees hired.

 New employees trained for a month.
PROCESS

 Clothes received from client

 Washing/spot drying
 Folding/packing

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

 1-day regular delivery promise

 4-hour express service
 Pickup and delivery service
 Owner has a personal touch with the customers

DRY CLEANING
1. This is the cleaning of fabrics in substantially non-aqueous liquid medium.
2. Dry cleaning removes oils as well as many water soluble & some insoluble materials with the
help of detergents & various other agents.
3. It is done by using dry powder, liquid such as petrol, benzene, & so on.
4. Unlike laundry, dry cleaning does not cause swelling of the fibers, & so does not lead to
shrinkage, wrinkle, & bleeding of colour of the fabric and thus it is a safe method for
cleaning delicate textiles.
5. It was earlier known as ‘French Cleaning’ or ‘Chemical Cleaning’.

ADVANTAGES OF DRY CLEANING

1. Dry cleaning cleans clothes for which laundering is not suitable.

2. It causes no shrinkage to the fabric.
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3. It does not flatten the pile of fabrics such as velvet.
4. Finishes such as moireing are retained even after dry-cleaning.
5. Colours do not bleed on dry-cleaning.
6. Stains are more readily removed by dry-cleaning.
DISADVANTAGES OF DRYCLEANING

1. Dry-cleaning is expansive as compare to the laundering.

2. Many dry-cleaning solvents are harmful to health if inhaled for long duration.

3. After cleaning with solvents, a certain unpleasant smell tends to be retained by

the articles.

Process of Dry-Cleaning

1. Marking
When soiled linen garments are delivered for dry-cleaning, they are first sent to the
marking areas. Here, a piece of white fabric with a number or some other code
stamped on it with indelible marking ink is securely attached to the garments. Every
article is marked individually to facilitate identification.

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2. Sorting
The garments then pass on to the sorting areas.it is done on the basis of soil level,
colour and in this case the fabric/cloth pouches are checked for the valuables of the
guests.

3. Application of Absorbent
Absorbents are applied to remove grease spots from all kind of materials like French
chalk, bran or flour etc.

4. Pre-Spotting
Heavily soiled areas of the garments are treated with solvents. Volatile dry solvents
such as amyl acetate to remove oil-borne stains, while non-volatile solvents are used
on paint and varnish stains.

5. Cleaning
A load of approximately 45kg is transferred to the dry-cleaning cylinder. Very
delicate cloths are placed in a net bags first. An appropriate solvent is circulated
through the clothes.

6. Extraction
Excess solvent is removed from the garments by centrifugal action in a revolving
perforated cylinder contained in a tumbler.

7. Drying
After extraction, the garments are dried in a dryer that has a perforated drum
enclosed in a tumbler. The temperature for the same should not exceed 70 degree
as otherwise it may catch fire

8. Filtering and Distillation of the solvent

Solvents are expensive and therefore filtered out, distilled, and reused, they are not
allowed to evaporate after use. But used in recycled manner

9. Inspection
Dried garments are inspected to check that they are perfectly clean. If necessary, they are
spot-cleaned a second time.

10.Finishing
In this process, the garments are restored as nearly as possible to its original size,
shape, feel, and appearance.

11.Packing

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 Buttons and buckles that had been removed are stitched back on. Finally the
garments are packed in a paper or suspended from clothes hangers covered with
polythene bags. They are now ready for delivery

DRY-CLEANING MATERIALS
1. Dry-cleaning detergents
2. Absorbents
3. Solvents
4. Petroleum solvents/Stoddard solvent
5. Halogenated hydrocarbons

STAIN-REMOVAL
STAIN
A stain is a spot or localized discolouration left on fabric by reaction of a foreign substance
or absorption or adsorption of any unwanted colour, liquid etc.
STAIN-REMOVAL

Stain removal or spot cleaning is a skill that demands special attraction, special techniques, and long
experience.

TYPES OF STAINS

1. Animal stains
2. Vegetable stains
3. Grease
4. Mineral stains
5. Metalloid stains
6. Acidic stains
7. Basic/alkaline stains
8. Natural dyes & pigments
9. Synthetic dyes &pigments
10. Sugar solution with colouring matter
11. Miscellaneous

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RECOGNISATION OF STAINS
1. COLOUR
2. TEXTURE
3. SMELL

PROCEDURE FOR STAIN REMOVAL

1. Soak in cold water
2. Soak in warm water
3. Allow it to get open air bleach.
4. Apply cold alkaline solution.
5. Apply hot alkaline solution
6. Apply cold acidic solution.
7. Apply an oxidizing bleach.
8. Treat with reducing bleach.
9. Repeat the procedure if stain is still there.
10.Soak it in the glycerine for ½ an hour.

VALET SERVICE
It is the service given by housekeeping to guests in which the guest clothes are taken
and returned back from the house. It is chargeable service which is already included at
the time you pay.

Conclusion
Although laundry services are not a new concept, none of the current offerings do much
(if anything) to bolster the customer’s trust in the service. Through their unique offering,
Wash-Draft would best serve the customers’ needs while focusing specifically on their
fears. In focusing on the customer first, Wash-Drafts are offering what they believe is a
differentiated product that would likely succeed in the marketplace.
While none of the members in the group feel a desire to pursue this project beyond the
hypothetical, we encourage local businesses to prototype our suggestions into their
model. As the only laundry solution that already believes they service customers beyond
the competition’s levels, this could not only increase their influence on customer’s
perceptions that they are better than the competition, but also deter other competitors
from entering the market.

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