How a growing dry cleaning company turned operational chaos into systematic success
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When customers lined up at Clean Press on a busy Friday evening, they hoped to pick up their clothes for the weekend. Instead, they heard "Sorry, your garments won't be ready until next week." Their manual inventory system had failed to keep up with their growth. Basic supplies were running out regularly. The central cleaning facility struggled with mounting delays. Quality suffered. You name it.
Clean Press started off as just one store operating in the EMEA region, so as any other business, they had tons of manual processes which worked well for their one location. But the problem now was that they had scaled to open multiple other stores throughout the region. And as you would expect, their systems couldn’t handle all the changes that were coming to them all at once. Overhauling the bulk of their processes was the obvious solution but where could they have started from, while they were simultaneously battling their day-to-day operations and declining service? They had a strong desire to transform their operations to match their success.
So we peeled back the layers, spent time with their team and dove deep to understand every aspect of their business. As a company, Clean Press’ mission was simple: provide high-quality, convenient dry cleaning services to everyday people. They found their market quickly. Their combination of eco-friendly practices, convenient locations, and exceptional service earned them a loyal following.
They very quickly expanded and their growth began to strain their foundation. What we found was more than met the eye. Store managers spent hours counting supplies and placing orders, often miscalculating what they needed. Some developed their own tracking methods, creating inconsistencies across locations. To summarize,
“We built something special here,” Olu, one of their directors, said. "Our customers trusted us with their wedding dresses, their business suits, their family heirlooms. That trust took years to build. Now we risked losing it because we couldn't manage our basic operations."
It turned out they needed help on multiple fronts:
A modern inventory system to handle multiple locations
An efficient production process for their central facility
Digital tools to improve customer experience
Quality control standards across all locations
A strategy to rebuild customer trust
The running theme became: How could Clean Press preserve what made them special while scaling their operations to match their growth?
Understanding Clean Press: From Inside Out
"You need to feel the heat of the pressing machines to understand our business," Anne, a press operator, tould us on our first day. She was right. We spent our first two weeks working alongside the Clean Press team, learning their world from every angle.
🧩 Getting Our Hands Dirty
We shadowed morning shifts with the counter staff, afternoon runs with delivery drivers, and evenings at the central facility. And each role revealed different pieces of the puzzle.
The Front Lines: We watched customer drop-offs and pickups, saw how staff improvised around system gaps, witnessed the daily rush period, and listened to some customer stories and complaints.
The Central Facility: We followed garments through the cleaning process, timed each production step, observed machine maintenance schedules, and tracked order flow patterns.
The Management View: We shadowed managers during inventory count, reviewed 2 years of business records, analyzed customer feedback patterns, and mapped out communication flows between locations.
The data told one story, but the people told another. A store manager had created an excel spreadsheet to predict busy periods. A counter staff member kept a personal notebook of regular customers' preferences. These unofficial systems held valuable clues about what the business really needed.
To find the root cause, we employed several analysis techniques. Using The Five Whys and starting with "Why are we running out of supplies?" led us through several layers:
Stores ordered too late
They couldn't predict demand accurately
Manual tracking systems failed
No centralized inventory visibility
Growth outpaced their systems
We then created visual flows of operations, highlighting bottlenecks: order intake chokepoints, production backup areas, communication gaps, resource allocation issues.
🧩 Working Together
Throughout our analysis, we maintained frequent contact with Olu and his team. Weekly progress meetings became problem-solving sessions. Staff members offered insights that refined our understanding. This collaborative approach highlighted solutions that may have been missed had we not worked together.
"You're asking questions nobody has asked before," one team member told us. "It makes us think about why we do things in certain ways."
By the end of our analysis phase, we had:
A clear map of operational challenges34
Staff buy-in for potential changes
Tested hypotheses about improvement areas
Practical insight into daily operations
Understanding of company culture
This deep understanding laid the foundation for solutions that would work in practice, not theory.
Building the future at Clean Press
We penned a comprehensive plan to help transform their operations from ground up, and here’s how we planned to help them succeed.
First, Smart Inventory Management, which meant the old system of manually counting supplies had to go. We designed something more digital: thinkcloud-based tracking across all locations, automatic reordering based on usage patterns, real-time visibility for all managers. We added RFID tags to track garments. A store manager could now tell a customer exactly where their clothes were in the cleaning process. No more guessing, no more uncertainty.
Then, we found that the heart of their company — the central facility — needed a stronger beat, so reorganized the facility to create smooth, efficient flow. This meant we adjusted the layout to reduce walking time, collaboratively built standard procedures for the different garment types, visual management boards to track progress, and recommended the use of new, improved, and eco-friendly equipments.
To ensure consistency and high quality service across the board, we built quality checks into every step of the process. This looked like, training programs for cleaning technicians, checklists, inspection stations with proper lighting, and better customer feedback loop for continuous improvement.
Quality isn’t something you add at the end, you should always build it into every step of your way
Then we replicated the Clean Press experience digitally — web app for tracking, automated updates on order status, and digital loyalty programs to help boost customer satisfaction and ultimately, retention.
🧩 Implementation Support
We knew that changing everything at once would overwhelm the team so we created a phased roll-out plan, broken into buckets of 3 months at a time.
🧩 The Financial Picture
Based on our recommendations, the expected results over the long run were:
95% reduction in stock-outs
20% decrease in inventory costs
30% increase in processing capacity
40% improvement in customer satisfaction
25% reduction in operating costs
And to achieve these, it definitely required capital and resource investment, as well as team commitment. To facilitate this, we included additional support measures — hands-on training for team members, regular check-ins, clear communication channels, celebration of any early wins, and recognition of improvement ideas. "Your team already knows this business inside out," we told Olu. "We're just giving them better tools to do what they do best."
🧩 Looking Ahead
These changes would do more than fix current problems. They would create a foundation for future growth. Each new location could plug into proven systems. Each new employee would step into clear processes. Clean Press could grow with confidence, knowing their operations could handle the expansion.
🧩 A New Way of Working
12+ months after they implemented our recommendations, the numbers told part of the story. The people told the rest.
Stock-outs dropped by 77%, order tracking hit 90%+ accuracy, processing capacity rose by 35%, turnaround time dropped 70%, operating costs reduced 15%, customer retention improved by 20%, 40% web app adoption rate, and digital feedback participation increased over 100%.
As a result of the better way of working, employee turnover also decreased and team morale boosted. And suprisingly, looking environmentally, water usage reduced by 40%, carbon footprint reduced by 30%, chemical usage decreased by 40%, and their energy efficiency increased.
Their new way of working created new opportunities: Clean Press is now expanding to new markets, attracting investor interest, and making differences in sustainability within their industry. All while their brand recognition strengthens.