Unqualified washing in laundry plants causes re-washing, increases costs, and even triggers customer complaints and customer loss. Quality-related KPI should focus on washing quality and loss of linen.
Washing Results and Linen Damage
● Rewash-rate
(Weight of Rewashed Linen ÷ Total Weight of Processed Linen) × 100%
Rewashing is caused by insufficient cleaning, residual stains, or substandard disinfection. People should find the causes:
inadequate chemical dosage, improper washing temperature… Or the staff doesn’t obey standard operating procedures.
● Damage/Loss Rate
(Quantity of Damaged/Lost Linen ÷ Total Quantity of Processed Linen) × 100%
Linen damage may result from worn machine drums or long washing cycles. Linen loss is often caused by management oversights during sorting and transportation. It is important to reduce linen loss through equipment maintenance and process standardisation, and cut down on customer compensation costs and linen replacement costs.
● Compliant Rate
According to the customers’ complaints, like “uneven ironing”, “damage to the linen”, “unclean washing”, laundry plants should analyse the common types of orders and customers and quickly make solutions for advancement and avoid the escalation of the problems.
Customer Satisfaction and Retention
Customers are the foundation for a company’s survival. Ignoring KPIs in the customer dimension may lead to the loss of customers without knowing the reasons. People should pay special attention to the following indicators.
● Customer Retention Rate
(Number of Existing Customers at Period End ÷ Number of Existing Customers at Period Start) × 100%
If the retention rate declines, laundry plants should investigate whether the loss of customers is caused by issues such as deteriorated washing quality, delayed deliveries or uncompetitive pricing, and adjust service strategies in time.
● Net Promoter Score (NPS) & Public Reviews
Calculate the NPS through questionnaire surveys (percentage of promoters − percentage of detractors) and monitor customer reviews across OTA platforms, industry forums, and social media channels.
Summarise and promote best practices derived from positive feedback, and respond to and resolve negative comments in a timely manner to safeguard brand reputation.
● Employee Turnover Rate
Though seemingly unrelated to customers, it is in fact closely correlated. High turnover rates will lead to reduced operational proficiency and insufficient service stability, which in turn badly affects washing quality and customer experience.
If the turnover rate is high, laundry plants should analyze the root causes: excessive workload, sub-industry-level salaries, or non-ergonomic equipment operation. Also, the working environment and incentive mechanisms should be improved.
Master the KPI Selection Skills
The enterprises in the linen laundry industry have different business types and scales. Blindly copying others’ KPI systems is difficult to implement. Following these skills can help build a KPI solution that suits one’s own needs.
● Step 1: Business Objectives
First, clarify the enterprise’s short-term (e.g., 3–6 months) and long-term (1–3 years) objectives.
- Short-term objectives
Reduce water, electricity, and gas costs by 10%.
Keep the rewash rate below 2%.
- Long-term objectives
Increase the revenue share of medical linen services to 40%.
A customer retention rate of 90%.
- Select corresponding KPIs around objectives.
To reduce water, electricity, and gas costs, people should focus on tracking metrics like water/electricity/gas cost per kilogram of linen and equipment utilisation rate (cut energy consumption from idle operation).
To increase the revenue share of medical linen services, people should monitor metrics such as “medical linen service revenue growth rate” and “number of new customers in the medical industry”.
● Step 2: The SMART Framework
- S (Specific)
Metrics must be clear. Avoid vague expressions such as improve efficiency and use precise statements: increase the Pieces Per Operator Hour from 20 kg to 25 kg.
- M (Measurable)
Metrics need clear quantitative criteria:
use “customer complaint rate below 3%” rather than the vague “reduce customer complaints”.
- A (Achievable)
Targets must be realistic. If the current rewash rate is 8%, setting a short-term target of “reducing it to 1%” is not practical, and it is easy to cause team burnout. A more reasonable goal is “lowering it to 5% within 3 months”.
- R (Relevant)
Metrics must be about business objectives.
If the goal is improve customer satisfaction, tracking the employee turnover rate is more relevant than monitoring the equipment depreciation rate.
- T (Time-bound)
Make a clear deadline for each KPI:
reduce chemical cost per kilogram of linen by 5% in Q4 2025.
● Step 3: Regular Reviews and Adjustments
A company’s business objectives, market conditions, and equipment configurations change over time, so its KPI system also needs regular reviews (e.g., on a quarterly basis).
- If a specific KPI has consistently met the standard over a long period (e.g., the rewash rate has stabilised below 1%), the target can be appropriately raised (e.g., reducing it to 0.8%) or replaced with a more challenging metric.
- If a KPI is consistently unachievable (e.g., the goal of “reducing chemical costs” is unmet due to industry-wide raw material price hikes), it is necessary to re-evaluate the target’s feasibility or adjust the implementation approach (e.g., switching to cost-effective chemicals).
- When the company expands into new business areas (e.g., adding medical linen washing services), corresponding KPIs should be introduced (e.g., medical linen disinfection compliance rate, medical client satisfaction score) to ensure the sound development of the new business.
Conclusion
During the transformation of the linen laundry industry from extensive to intensive operations, KPIs are no longer simple data-tracking tools. They are core engines driving cost reduction, efficiency gains and enhanced competitiveness.
For laundry plant operators, they should abandon the traditional mindset of prioritising experience over data and build a tailored KPI system in dimensions of revenue, costs, maintenance, quality and customers. Continuously tracking, analysing and optimising these metrics helps turn every data point into a driver of business growth.
Post time: Dec-19-2025