CHICAGO — Artificial intelligence.
Five or six years ago, AI that could almost think and create was something only encountered in science fiction.
How quickly technology advances. In the past few years, generative AI options have multiplied in almost every area of daily life and in business operations. That includes industrial and institutional laundries.
What started with generating content for business-related tasks (think communication, reports, documents) has moved onto the wash aisle. Insiders have even posited that some laundries could be operated by AI without any, or at least very limited, human involvement.
It begs the question, “Where is AI heading in the laundry industry?”
American Laundry News sought input from three industry veterans who are familiar with AI, what it’s doing for the industry today, and what it might provide in the future.
David Bernstein is the founder of Propeller Solutions Group in Livingston, Texas. Rodrigo Patron is director of operations for Lace House Linen in Petaluma, California. David Griggs — one of this magazine’s columnists at large — is director of operations development with Superior Linen Service in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
What are other benefits AI provides in a facility?
GRIGGS: In the past, high automation meant lower quality because so many stains could be missed. AI is being used for quality inspections to automatically reject stained linen more accurately than the human eye. Placing this system between the ironer and folder can remove a full-time employee who is usually combing through product looking for stains.
I have already seen laundries send their rejects back via vacuum systems to be rewashed. Having this system tell our washroom to perform a stain wash on the rejected goods seems to be the next step. Our AI plant will also know to rag these items out once they have been stain-washed once.
BERNSTEIN: Quality control, linen inventory and distribution, and predictive maintenance.
The progress in quality control systems has been substantial. Not too long ago, automated linen-inspection systems on flatwork ironers were considered by many operators to be an expensive parlor trick. Things have changed. Prices have come down while accuracy and capabilities have improved dramatically. Much of that is thanks to AI and machine learning. These systems now detect staining, tears, and other defects with speed and reliability that is unmatched by human inspectors.
In the hospitality and healthcare sectors, I think about what AI can do for linen distribution and inventory management. From an inventory investment perspective, par levels will be more precise, resulting in lower inventory investments and more refined data-driven injections. Linen distribution will also be smarter, resulting in fewer emergencies and service failures.
The scheduling of labor in both the laundry and linen distribution will also be improved by AI because it will constantly adjust based on factors like occupancy (current and predicted), linen usage rates, staffing levels, etc.
But the opportunity that gets me most excited is predictive maintenance. While operators have long talked about switching to preventive maintenance, too many are still in reactive mode. With AI, predictive maintenance is much closer to being achievable for all. Knowing that a part is approaching failure before it fails is fundamentally different than finding out about the failure only after a machine goes down.
PATRON: AI can provide benefits throughout an entire laundry operation, not just in production. In our case, it has already helped simplify office and communication processes. Tasks that used to take much longer — writing emails, preparing reports, creating customer notices, translating documents, or organizing information — can now be done much faster.
That allows management and staff to spend more time focusing on operations and customer service instead of administrative work. In the future, AI could also help with scheduling, maintenance tracking, route optimization, and production analysis.
What are the challenges of using AI in a laundry operation today?
BERNSTEIN: This industry has historically been slow to adopt technology. That is not a criticism so much as an observation. What pushes operators toward adoption are the factors that are in play today: industry consolidation, rising utility costs, chronic labor shortages, increasing regulatory requirements, and more, all of which are squeezing margins in ways that can’t be offset just by improving operational discipline. Technology adoption is becoming less of a differentiator and more of a requirement.
The most significant challenge, however, is data fragmentation. Too much of today’s laundry equipment operates on closed platforms that do not communicate easily with equipment from other vendors. You can’t build an AI that optimizes an entire plant if it can’t see the entire plant.
This problem is not new. The industry has made more than a few attempts over the years to establish common data standards, but most, if not all, have failed. The encouraging development is that there are companies in the industry working to make progress on data integration and connectivity. As those solutions mature and become more widely adopted, the data that AI requires will become accessible to operators of all sizes, not just to large, corporate multi-plant operators.
PATRON: One of the biggest challenges with AI in laundries today is the cost of implementation and integration with older equipment. Many laundries, including ours, operate with machinery that was
not originally designed to connect with modern AI systems.
Another challenge is that AI still requires human supervision and good judgment. Laundry operations are dynamic environments with constant changes, unexpected situations, customer-specific requirements, and physical labor that still depend heavily on experienced employees. There is also a learning curve as managers and staff figure out how to use the technology in practical and productive ways.
On Tuesday, read about AI enhancements coming for industrial/institutional laundries.
Click HERE to read part 1 about the current uses of AI in laundries.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
