sem 2 - inter design studies - laundrywala

I n t e r - D e s i g n - S t u d i e s: U r b a n M i l i e u “L A U N D R Y”

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I N T E R D E S I G N S T U D I E S

Project Title: Laundries:

A business in Urban Milieu Project by: Viraj Joshi –Yellow Batch

(UG-Semester 2) Faculty Guides: Prof. Goutam Bandopadhyay

Mr. Yugendra Gupta


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Every project of such kind is never a one-man-show; it needs co-operation and help from many people.

Behind the success of this project too, there are many people, whom I must sincerely thank. I seize this

opportunity to thank them.

We would like to thank the proprietors and staff of

Royal Laundry (Loni)

Kale Drycleaners (Hadapsar)

Venkatesh Drycleaners (Hadapsar)

Dhobighat (Golibar Maidan)

And ‘Dhulaai’ Laundry Services (Hadapsar)

For their support through the project. It was impossible to complete the project without their valuable

support. I would also like to thank my IDS group-mates for all their help and co-operation.

Last, but never the least, I thank the faculty heads to introduce ‘Inter Design Studies: Urban Milieu’ in

the course, as it added many insights that a design learner like myself find very useful in the future studies.

Through this, we also got a chance to work together as a group, and our share of collective fun and learning,

their support and help through the course was motivating, and most required.


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INDEX

-Introduction- Pg 4

1.History Pg 5

2. Types of Laundries Pg 6

3. Small Scale Laundries Pg 7

3a.Case Studies Pg 7

3a-i.Royal Laundry (Loni) Pg 7

3a-ii.Kale Drycleaners (Hadapsar)-Pg 11

3a-iii.Venkatesh Drycleaners

(Hadapsar) Pg 13

3b.Tabular Study Pg 14

3c.Working Process Pg 15

3d.Cultural/Social Life Pg 16

3e.Economic Life Pg 16

3f.Observations Pg 16

4. Medium Scale Laundries Pg 18

4a.Case Studies Pg 18

4a-i. Dhobighat (Golibar Maidan) Pg 18

4a-ii. Dhulaai (Hadapsar) Pg 25

5. Large Scale Laundries Pg 37

5a.Band Box Laundry Services Pg 37

5b.The White Tiger Laundry Services Pg 38

6. User Research Pg 39

-Retrospective- Pg 40

Bibliography Pg 41


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INTRODUCTION

In this semester’s inter-design studies, we concentrate on urban milieu and find out how things function in the urban areas. As designers, when we grow up, we have to tackle the problems of rural as well as urban India. To face the daily design problems of India, we need to know both urban and rural aspects of the Indian population. We’ve been given the topic ‘Laundries’, this semester, which is an age old profession, and also has an extremely important position in the urban milieu. Through this course, we aim to study the entire process of how the laundry system works, and what place it has in the Indian urban society, economy and culture.


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1. HISTORY

There have been many anecdotes of Dhobis in Indian history through the ages. The earliest known dhobi was quoted in Ramayana, when Sita and Ram came back from their exile from the kingdom, a Dhobi’s wife came to Ram for justice, as her husband did not accept her after she was not home for one night. This made the Dhobi doubt her wife. After this, a question arose whether Ram should accept Sita, after she was away for 14 years. Thus, Sita was asked to pass the agnipariksha, which she cleared flawlessly.

There was another story, quoted in a holy Hindu manuscript called ‘Gurucharitra’ about a Dhobi who resorted to penance in his late years. The incarnation of Lord Vishnu called ‘Datta’ was happy on the penance he served, and decided to give him one wish. As the Dhobi was old, and had

nothing left to enjoy in his current life due to his age, he asked for being a king in his next life. This wish was granted to him. According to this manuscript, this has happened around 700-800 years ago.

There is a famous tale of a Dhobi with Akbar and Birbal. The Royal Dhobi was washing clothes in a winter night’s chill, and there was a small oil lamp around 10 meters away. The minister complained to King Akbar that the Dhobi was getting heat from that lamp, and thus did not do his work properly. The Dhobi was punished by the King. Listening to this, Birbal came up with a plan, and suspended a vessel to cook rice at a distance of 10 meters from the flame. This was seen by the minister, and he was taught a lesson!


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2. TYPES OF LAUNDRIES

Laundries in India

Small Scale

The local ones who wash clothes and iron them in their places, or mostly

outsource them.

Middle Scale

Laundries which collect clothes from other small scale laundries and wash them at bigger facilities.

Large Scale

Laundries which wash and dry the linen from

IRCTS, Airlines, or nationwide large

laundries.


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3. SMALL SCALE LAUNDRIES

3A. CASE STUDIES-

3A – I. ROYAL LAUNDRIES (LONI):

Royal Laundries, Loni-Kalbhor is an approximately 50 year old, started by the proprietor, Mr. Raju Kshirsagar’s father.

WORKFORCE:

2 people (Mr. Anil Kshirsagar, and Mr. Raju Kshirsagar), brothers currently work in the laundry and he wives of these laundrywallas wash the clothes.

PROCESS:

This laundry does not provide any logistics service, so people have to drop off and pick up clothes on their own.

Names of the customers are written on collars

to identify and organize.

The people at the laundry sort the clothes, into those which can be washed by hand, and those which have to be machine washed.


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Then, the hand wash clothes are separated and sent to the laundrywalla’s home, and are washed by the wives of laundrywallas by the riverside, with the use of branded detergents and hand techniques.

The clothes that have to be machine washed are sent to one of Hadapsar’s washing companies on the laundrywalla’s 2-wheeler.

After that, they are brought back after washing in 3 days, and are ironed in the local laundry.


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PROCESSES DONE BY THIS LAUNDRYWALLA:

Washing – At home, or outsourced. If the customer is a low-income worker, then the laundrywalla washes the clothes at home, and charges lesser.

Starching- By using ‘sabudana’. Sabudana is boiled and then, the resulting water is used to starch the clothes. This is also done on order.

Ironing- Ironing is done by the laundrywalla himself in his own shop.

COSTING SYSTEM:

Ironing Washing and Ironing

Sari Rs.25 – 50 (6 wari or 9 wari)

Rs. 50-150

Shirts + Pant Pair

Rs. 8 Rs. 30

Suits Rs. 50 Rs. 350

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE:

The laundry owners are of Maharashtrian locals, and the business has been running for almost 50 years. The proprietor himself has worked for 30 years of his life. He has no particular wish of letting his children in this business, but he will be glad if they do. He lets them be educated as much as they want. The culture and cuisine is


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Maharashtrian, and they celebrate Maharashtrian festivals.

ECONOMIC LIFE:

The laundry gets a net Rs. 25,000/- every month, excluding all the expenses incurred. The detergent is bought from normal outlets. The main resource that is required is the wood for the iron. The cost of wood is Rs. 25/- per kilogram and around 4 kilograms is used per day.

Apart from this expense, they have an expense of travelling 8 kilometers almost daily to Hadapsar, for either outsourcing his clothes for washing or for getting resources like wood for his iron.

These are his major expenses; otherwise, the daily household expenses are a part of his expenses.

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PROBLEMS:

There is a problem of the load-shedding in the area, so the power is cut for 6 hours a day. Thus, the business cannot go on without the use of a wood-iron. The wood-iron is also very heavy, and the handle gets immensely hot. The irony is that the laundrywallas are used to it, and do not feel pain in using the iron.


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3A – II. DNYANANJALI DRYCLEANERS (HADAPSAR):

Dnyananjali Drycleaners, Hadapsar is a laundry in a larger area than Loni-Kalbhor.

WORKFORCE:

There are 3 people who work in the laundry, the owner, his wife, and a person who is hired in the laundry.

PROCESS:

The process is much similar to that of the first laundry, except for the fact that all clothes are outsourced for washing, and none of them are washed in the laundry itself. This process also needs 3 days. Also, this laundry doesn’t have any logistics. So, the customer has to drop off and pick up the clothes. A two-wheeler is used to send the

clothes to the washing company, which handles the washing for the laundry.

PROCESSES DONE BY THIS LAUNDRYWALLA:

Washing –Outsourced.

Starching- Outsourced.


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Ironing- In-house.

COSTING SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC LIFE:


Sari Rs.25 Rs. 70 Shirts + Pant Pair

Rs. 14, Rs. 7 separate

Rs. 30

For every Rs. 5 that the owner gains, the worker gets 1 and a half rupee, i.e. 30% of the total income.

Considering all the expenses taken, like the light bill, which is around Rs.1250-1500/- per month, the owner earns around Rs. 18,000/- per day, and the worker earns around Rs. 5500/- per day. It is easier to use the electrical iron, being a more urban area than Loni-Kalbhor.

This laundrywalla irons around 100-150 clothes a day.


The employed worker, Mr. Raju Bhosale, was from Goa, and had served a similar laundry for 20 years over there, and then shifted here for better salary. He has been working here for more than a year ever since.

The owner, Mr. Kale himself works in a factory and thus, keeps his day busy in the factory. After coming back after his hours of work, he works at the laundry too.

Both of them are Maharashtrian.


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3A – III. VENKATESH LAUNDRIES (HADAPSAR):

We go further into the city to find out about laundries, and run into ‘Venkatesh Laundries’ in Hadapsar.

This is a 10-12 year old laundry, owned by Mr. Santosh Gaikwad. He has 2 sons, who work at the same laundry.

These people also outsource their washing work to various washers in the Hadapsar industrial area.

They have the highest costs through all the cases we researched so far. They handle about 300 clothes a day, and earn about Rs. 21000/- a month.


Sari Rs. 20 Rs. 60 Shirts + Pant Pair

Rs. 16 Rs. 40


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3B. TABULAR STUDY-

Laundry 1 Laundry 2 Laundry 3

Name Royal Laundries Dnyananjali Drycleaners Venkatesh Laundry

Location Loni-Kalbhor Hadapsar Hadapsar Age of Business About 50 years About 20 years 10-12 years

Manpower 2 3 3

Deliveries For Hotel Sanskriti only No No

Outsourced? Some All All Ironing Yes Yes Yes

Starching Sabudana Outsourced Outsourced

Iron Type Coal Electric Electric

Total Process Time 3 days 3 days 3 days

Clothes per day 100-150 100-150 About 300 Income including

expenses per month Rs. 25,000 Rs. 18,000 Rs. 21,000


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3C. WORKING PROCESS-


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3D. CULTURAL AND SOCIAL LIFE

The people who own the laundries or work here belong to Maharashtra. Thus, it’s a local business. It has risen with the rise of cities, and as an urban area developed, they felt a need for pressers and washers. The people celebrate Maharashtrian festivals, and talk in Marathi. The businesses have been running for times as long as 50 years. There are a few new ones, but the more established ones have started years ago. Their forefathers have been in the same business, and they wish to have their sons in the same business. There are some people who have migrated from different areas in India, and have started this business, they rarely visit

their native places, and speak Marathi like the localites.

3E. ECONOMIC LIFE

These laundries have expenses of raw materials like detergents, electricity bill, and also expenses for buying wood for wood-iron, apart from their household expenses. They also need to go to drop and pick up clothes from washing facilities where they give their clothes for drying. They earn around 20-25 thousand rupees a month. The expenditures for those using electrical irons on electricity are around 1200-1500 rupees a month, for average 100-150 clothes a day.

4F. OBSERVATIONS

Thus, we found out that small scale laundries are just front ends of collecting clothes and dropping them. The entire process of washing and drying takes place in the large facilities where the clothes are outsourced. These people lead a very simple life, which is going to continue through the ages. They also do not consider technological betterments easily, because of their established business through the years. They


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are people who just follow what their parents have been doing, without any major design or technological interventions. They do have their logical reasons for that, but the breakthrough does not come into play.


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4. MEDIUM SCALE LAUNDRIES

4A. CASE STUDIES-

4A – I. DHOBIGHAT (GOLIBAR MAIDAN)

The Dhobighat where we went was built by the British, so, it is at least 300 years old.

WORKFORCE: This Dhobighat had an about 45 people working there, all from different families, working and serving different masters. Each family, group of persons or single person was allotted space in the Dhobighat to wash their clothes. There are different people to wash, and yet different who starch the clothes.

EMPLOYMENT: Employment to the people who wash clothes in Dhobighat is given by different people. The employers include caterers, marriage-managers, hotels, hospitals, and small scale laundries which outsource their clothes for washing. Their working hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.


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PROCESS: The process in a dhobi ghat is as follows:

LogisticsBack to customer who drops off clothes

Stacking

Stacking of clothes from the same user

Ironing

The homes of dhobighat workers or back to laundrywalla.

Drying

On ropes in the dhobighat premisis.

Starching

The next morning

Washing

The same day

Clothes Drop off

By the customer to the Dhobighat


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They have irons at their homes where they press the clothes that are given to them by caterers, hospitals and hotels. The ones given to them by laundries are not pressed at all; they are taken back to the laundries for pressing.

They have a small furnace-like stone structure, which has a fixed aluminum vessel, in which, water is heated for removing grease and oil stains.

Also, they have a good cloth dryer, run by mechanical energy of a person’s hand. This is used when there are rains and sun-drying is not possible.


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The people who work in the Dhobighat are either local Maharashtrian, or have migrated from southern parts of India. They have always been working in the Dhobighats, since their forefathers.

They have had primary education until 10th standard, but have joint the Dhobi business ever since. Their children are also going to join the same occupation after their schooling. They have set their houses very close to where they work, and have thus set up the ironing business at their houses. They return the clothes that they take from laundries back for ironing. But the ones from hospitals and caterers are ironed at their homes.

They come together to celebrate social events and festivals like Holi, Diwali and Ganesh Festival. They have chicken and dogs as pets.


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ECONOMIC LIFE:

The income of the people who work here is around 20-30 thousand rupees per year. Their expenses include the price of detergents and cleaning chemicals, electricity bill for ironing, and the tariff they need to pay for their washing space in the Dhobighat, which is about 12 thousand rupees a year.

They claim that they earn 50% of what the laundrywalla charges.

The Pune Cantonment currently owns the Dhobighat, and

HISTORICAL HERITAGE:

The Dhobighat was built about 300 years ago by the British while they reined India. And it is a hereditary occupation ever since.

The entire Dhobighat has been made of stone, and hence has never been renovated since it’s making.


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PROBLEMS FACED:

With this profession, there are many problems faced by the workers.

These people have no other occupations, so, in the rainy seasons, they face a total shut down of business, and their customers rely on washing facilities. This is their major problem. They do not earn anything in the monsoon.

Another major problem is with the chemicals they use for starching and cleaning. The washers have water accumulations in their fingers due to those chemicals. They have complained and have gotten the constituents changed, but that has reduced the quality of cleaning. This is another major problem faced by them.

Water availability is also a problem for them. The government supplies water only from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thus, they can’t work after and before that.


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Dhobighat:

Area: Golibar Maidan, Pune Cantonment Area

Workforce: 45 people from different families

Employers: Marriage Managers, Caterers, Small Scale Laundries, Hospitals

Native Place of Workers: Maharashtra / South Indian states

Earning: 25 thousand rupees per family per month (approximate)

Annual Expenses: 12 thousand rupees per family for using the dhobi ghat, and expenses of detergents.

Turnover: 17-20 thousand rupees(approximate)

How old the Dhobighat is: 300 years, approximately


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4A-II. DHULAAI: (HADAPSAR)

After seeing the Dhobighat at Golibar Maidan, we decide to visit and study a more modern washing facility, ‘Dhulaai’ which happened to be the largest and the only one in Pune with such advanced machinery. All their machinery has been imported from different countries like Italy, Germany, U.S.A., etc. Dhulaai started around 8 years ago.

WORKFORCE:

There are about 50 people that work in Dhulaai. Their hierarchy is as follows:

Director

Facility Supervisors Asst.

Supervisor Facility Staff (Skilled)

Facility Staff (Semi-Skilled)

Store Supervisors

Store Staff


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PROCESS:


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COLLECTION SYSTEM: The customers have a choice of dropping their clothes in the Dhulaai store, or calling the Dhulaai home delivery service. This service is only for selected roads in Pune. Then, the clothes are collected at the store.

ORGANISATION SYSTEM: Bills are made, according to the name of the customer. Every bill has it’s own number, and number of clothes, their fabric and their brands are written on the bill. The clothes’ pockets are checked for the customer’s belongings, and the concerned customers are then called.

LOGISTICS: ‘Dhulaai’ has bought their own vans and mini-trucks to carry their laundry work from the stores to the washing facility. These vans have been branded according to their identity, thus, this also does a job of advertisement for them.


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SORTING:

They sort the garments according to colour, fabric, brand, and whether to dry clean, hand wash, or machine wash. Thus, all reds for dry-cleaning are together, and all reds for machine wash are separated from them.

CHECKING CLOTHES:

Customers with damaged clothes are called immediately, and are asked whether it they are aware of the damage, and whether they wish to continue the wash, as the mechanical washing action may damage it even more.

PROCESS:

There are two kinds of washing machines, normal wash, and dry-cleaning machine. Through the dry-cleaning machine, even the clothes come out dried, and thus, special drying is not required. The liquid chemical, ‘PERCHLOROETHYLENE’ is used for dry-cleaning. Also, some clothes are hand-washed.


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The connections behind are those of the washing chemicals to the automated washing machines. The chemicals are sucked in in right amounts when the desired program is run.

This is an automated washing machine. Also, after the washing is done, starch can be added to the same machine to starch the lot of clothes inside. The smaller photo on the prev. page was a dry-cleaner.

This is a drying machine. Clothes, after washing, are put here for drying. Hand washed clothes are sun-dried behind the facility infrastructure.


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This is the calendaring machine to iron the bed sheets, mattresses, pillow covers, curtains, and similar long clothes.

This is a shirt collar and cuff ironing machine. Notice the space for collar in the centre, and similar but smaller pressing spaces to the 2 sides of the central collar space. Thus, cuffs and collar is ironed at a time. For the places, where ironing can’t be done by mechanized methods, hand ironing is also done.

Mechanized ironing for clothes is done with machines similar to this one in size, and different in structure.


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The people at ‘Dhulaai’ pack their clothes in their own printed plastic bags while returning. Also, they

provide a service of hangers to customers if they ask for it.

They also have their own print on the cardboards that are meant to be kept inside the shirts in order to keep them straight.

These people handle 800-1000 clothes a day.


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An interesting thing done by ‘Dhulaai’ is, that they check their clothes for damages due to mechanized processes, and if in case there are any repairable damages, they are repaired immediately at the facility, and if they are irreparable, a ‘quality note’ signed by ‘Dhulaai’ is attached to the garment, apologizing for the damage, and saying that it was irreparable at their level.

REGROUPING AND DISPATCHING:

The clothes are then regrouped according to the customer’s bill ID, and are sent back to the stores, where they are given back to the customers.

The entire process takes 3 days to finish.

MAINTENANCE OF MACHINES:

‘Dhulaai’ is one of it’s kind in Pune, and their machines have been bought from Italy, Belgium and U.S.A., through an agent in Mumbai. Thus, they do not rely on these people for basic repairs. They have equipped themselves so well, that they can repair 90% of the anomalies in their machines.

In case a machine completely shuts down, they have a backup machine ready for the same purpose. For the people at ‘Dhulaai’, service in time is most important.


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ECONOMY AND RESOURCES:

They claim that they used about Rs. 2.5 crores while setting up the facility 8 years ago. They earn Rs. 1- 1.5 crores a year, excluding their expenditure on resources. They used to cater hotels some time ago, and earned an average of Rs. 2 crores a year back then. Now they plan to take back their hotel customers after their renewal and expansion of the facility.

They require around Rs. 30 thousand a month for the electricity supply, and have monthly expenditures on fuel for dryers, for water, and salaries. Water comes to them by tankers every single day. They use up 8-10 thousand liters of water every day. Private water suppliers supply this water.

PROBLEMS:

The people at ‘Dhulaai’ say that business cannot run without problems, and solving problems effectively is business. Through the years, they have faced problems like:

Lack of labourers.

Percloroethylene causes an environmental problem because of it’s fumes, India does not have many laundries that use perchloroethylene, so this isn’t a major problem, but might arise in future.

Many labourers are alcohol addicts, due to high salaries. Thus, anti-alcoholism programs were initially run without the director, but without any fruits.

Lack of resources, or late delivery of resources.

Competition from other laundries which are 60-70 years old.

Customers blaming for bleeding clothes.

They follow over-time when there are more clothes. (In the ‘season’)


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LABOUR SET-UP:

The skilled or non-skilled workers of ‘Dhulaai’ who are males have migrated from northern parts of India, and most of the females are Maharashtrian. Dhulaai has provided setup for homes for these people, in a nearby area. The rent for these people’s housing and accommodation is paid by ‘Dhulaai’.

The director himself ran a program in his workers for non-alcoholism, but was not fruitful in doing so. He believes that they are addicted to this due to high salaries.

The director helps maintain the unity of the factory by celebrating the staff members’ birthdays and providing breakfasts and food items on certain special days of the year.

BRANDING AND ADVERTISEMENT:

Being the only laundry service of it’s kind, ‘Dhulaai’ hasn’t felt the need of advertisement. They initially tried hoardings and newspapers, but

thought that the cost was not worth the effective feedback. ‘Dhulaai’ has it’s own vans and trucks that carry clothes from the outlets to the facility. So, that does the job of advertising.


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CUSTOMERS:

Dhulaai aims on the new-generation customers, and generally does not encourage the customers who have khadi or plain white clothes, like local ‘netas’.

They have had big hotels like Le Marriott, Taj and West Inn as their customers, but now refrain from accepting their clothes, as they are expanding their facility.

They say that their most privilege customers are their oldest ones. They also run programs to increase recycling, such as ‘Return a hanger to Dhulaai, and you will get Rs.2 off on each cloth.’

They have express delivery system for the customers who need clothes urgently, and they apply extra charge for that. They have vouchers for old customers for discount.


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Name: Dhulaai

Area: Ramtekdi Industrial Area, Hadapsar

Workforce: 50 people

Machines Available:

Washing, Dry Cleaning, Drying, Calendering, Ironing etc.

Amount Invested: Rupees 2.5 Lakhs, 8 years ago while establishing.

Annual Income: Rupees 1 – 1.5 Lakhs a year

Expenses About 30 thousand for electricity every month, expenses on fuels for dryers, water tankers etc.


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5. LARGE SCALE LAUNDRIES

Large scale laundries are the ones which cater to a larger group of customers, and larger organizations like chains of hotels, the railway corporation, the tourism corporation, airlines, etc. There are many such famous laundries in and around India. Study of such laundries could not be done by field visits due to their distance from the college, but I’ve tried to include them using the internet.

5A. BAND BOX LAUNDRY SERVICES-

Band box is a very famous laundry service in Bangladesh. It is a highly mechanized laundry service, which caters to many hotels and large institutions and corporations in Bangladesh.

It started in 1988, and has been running effectively ever since. It provides all the services in laundries such as dry-cleaning, ironing, machine wash, to clothes ranging from shirts to big curtains etc.

It has it’s own equipped logistics system, and also a very good facility for the cleaning and ironing. They are completely mechanized in their processes.

Bandbox also provide out door cleaning services like:

Floor Care: Cleaning, Scrubbing, Polishing, Buffing & Crystallization.

Carpet Maintenance: Washing, Drying & Shampooing.

Curtain Care: Washing & Pressing. Window Care: Window Pane/Glass Cleaning. Upholstery Care: Sofa Cleaning & Shampooing.


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5B. THE WHITE TIGER LAUNDRY SERVICES-

White Tiger is an Indian laundry service company, which operates at a large scale. It has it’s main office in Noida, and functions in entire northern India. They have employed imported machinery from different countries like U.K., U.S.A., etc.

They provide deliveries in 24 hours, and do not apply any charges for those deliveries. They claim to use 100% R.O. purified water, and chemicals that do not harm the environment in any way.

Services provided by ‘The White Tiger’ are:

Wet care Dry care Steam pressing Starching Darning Onsite cleaning Moth proofing Wrinkle free pressing Delivery within 24 hrs. Special packaging methods Free pick up & delivery


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6. USER RESEARCH

Age group: The people who use the laundries generally belong to all ages, but those who directly come in contact with the laundries are

a. 16 – 24 – students, who do not mind giving clothes at small scale laundries, as also dhobi ghats

b. 24 + - people who earn and can pay for laundries resort to the laundry services.

Economic class: There are trends in economy of the people who use the laundries.

a. Low income group – Generally wash clothes at home, and iron at home, and might resort to laundries only for functions like marriages or festivals.

b. Middle income group – These people generally wash clothes at home, and give clothes for ironing. They also give some of their clothes for dry-cleaning, which require special care. They generally tend to cut costs on washing clothes, by washing them at home instead.

c. High income group – These people do not mind sending their clothes for cleaning, dry cleaning, as well as ironing.


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-CONCLUSION-

Seeing all the case studies in laundries, the small scale, medium scale and large scale, I learnt many things, most important of which is that you cannot fail to deliver your service as you have promised.

When a customer is waiting for you and counting on you to finish your job in good quality, and in time, you become the prime stakeholder, along with him, and you have to deliver the best in time, or the entire social system is shattered.

Another thing I’ve learnt, that in a country like India, where we follow our traditions, and are also fond of the western culture, we can’t resort completely on the western system, for any service. We have to incorporate some

traditional Indian methods to our service, and it is only then that the service runs well.

Also, in the service industry, customer feedback i\s the most important. So frequent customer interaction is very essential for a good service company.

In context to design, I feel that there is always room for better design, even in the best of old systems. We can make them better by editing some portion, as the needs of man change with time, and better design is always essential in any system, and design should always be according to need of time, not ahead or behind it. It is only natural, that good design lasts for some finite time, and has to be changed by better design. It is a cycle.


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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

The sources of all the information for the laundries has been direct from the mouths of the people who run the laundry.

The following people have been very helpful, and we thank them for their contribution:

1. Mr. Raju and Anil Kshirsagar, Proprietors, Royal Laundry, Loni-Kalbhor 2. Mr. Kale, Proprietor, Dnyananjali Laundry, Hadapsar 3. Mr. Raju Bhosale, Worker, Dnyananjali Laundry, Hadapsar. 4. Mr. Santosh Gaikwad and his 2 sons, Proprietors, Venkatesh Laundry, Hadapsar. 5. All the people we spoke to in the Dhobighat, Golibar Maidan, Swargate. 6. Mr. Vikram Jain, Director, ‘Dhulaai’ laundry services. 7. The entire staff of ‘Dhulaai’ laundry services. 8. http://www.whitetigernet.com/home.htm - White Tiger Laundry Services 9. http://www.bandbox.info/achievements.php - Bandbox Laundry Services

http://www.whitetigernet.com/home.htm

http://www.bandbox.info/achievements.php

sem 2 - inter design studies - laundrywala

Documents

g e v i r

u n d r y

history pg

process pg

retrospective pg

bibliography pg

observations pg

j j o s h