Commercial Laundry KPIs

Think of key performance indicators (KPIs) for your commercial laundry plant like the human body's vitals. When you get a check-up at the doctor, you get all sorts of important numbers back, numbers that you can then compare to the numbers from your last check-up.

You might also get your bloodwork done and get data about all sorts of important health indicators. When a number goes up that shouldn't, you can determine, in discussions with your doctor, if it's something you need to take steps to prevent from worsening. 

A commercial laundry plant is no different. 

You have data all around you, constantly being generated, about how your employees are performing and how your plant as a whole is performing. 

Having a clear picture of where you stand with respect to these important KPIs is vital toward the goal of continual improvement. 

A healthy plant is one in which everything is being measured and compared against past performance. That's the only way you can really know if your plant is healthy or if it needs a visit to the commercial laundry plant doctor. 

Pounds per Operator Hour (PPOH)

Definition: Pounds of clean laundry produced per total labor hour. 

Why it matters: It’s the single clearest indicator of labor productivity. 

Benchmarks:
PPOH is extremely variable and can change widely from industry to industry (healthcare versus on-premises, for example). Much depends on the individual operation. For on-premises operations, for example, we've seen many operating at 60-85 PPOH, but they can operate at 100+ PPOH with proper management. Meanwhile, in our experience, we've seen many effective healthcare and hospitality laundry operations running between 115-160 PPOH. 

Goal: ≥50 PPOH in mixed commercial operations; higher for uniform-only or automated plants. Again, this depends on your industry, in-house operations expertise and your organization's willingness to invest time and capital in better employee training, workflows and equipment. 

Bottom line, the first step is to know what you're PPOH figures are currently, if you aren't measuring that already. Then, after you've collected enough data points, you can track trends over time. Of course, Spindle can help you do all of that, from data collection to presentation to insights. 

Rewash and Reject Rates (%)

Definition: The percentage of laundry that must be reprocessed due to stains, damage, or quality misses.

Why it matters: Every rewash consumes energy, water, chemicals, and labor—with zero added revenue.

Benchmarks:

• According to a report by American Laundry News, on-premise laundries typically run at 2–3%

• Meanwhile, commercial plants typically fall in between 3–5%
  

Goal: Keep rewash <3% and track root causes (sorting, chemical dosing, load factor). If there's a particular stage of the laundry workflow that is contributing to higher rewash or reject rates, you'll want to diagnose that as quickly as possible. In some cases, it could be as simple as employee training (i.e., employees misidentifying a product for rejection or rewash unnecessarily).

This is why having a quality control SOP is vital, as your frontline production employees are, in many cases, your first line of defense with respect to quality control. If you don't have one, make one. You might think you don't have the time, but it's better to spend the time once to create one and educate your staff on it once than have to deal with a constant flow of unnecessary rewashing or rejecting. 

Again, this number can vary based on a variety of factors. While under 3% is generally considered a good target, your main focus should be on improving your numbers. The important thing is to measure, measure, measure and aim to improve based on the numbers you have. 

If you do that, that means you have improved upon a lot of underlying, foundational aspects of your operation that will benefit you across the board, not just in terms of rewash/reject terms. 

Avoid the 'Killer Loop'

One more thing that's important to note here is the concept of a "stain loop" or "killer loop." That's when items are pulled for rewash because of an ineffective stain clean and reinserted back into the laundry's workflow to be rewashed ... only to once again be flagged for rewash. 

As you can imagine, this is a costly cycle and is a drain on time and resources. Your plant should have a clear SOP on how to handle rewashes with a final-clean solution.

If that solution works, great.

If it doesn't? Your team should be clear on what constitutes a candidate for the reject pile so you avoid the costly stain loop. 

Labor Cost Per Pound

Definition: The labor cost associated with producing one pound of finished product.

Why it matters: Like PPOH, it's another way to contextualize your workforce's efficiency and effectiveness. 

Benchmarks:
This is extremely variable and can change widely from industry to industry, and certainly from region to region. For example, labor costs might make up 15-25% of operating costs at many North American operations, but higher labor costs in other parts of the world, like Australia, can see that number creep up to 40%. 

On a per-pound basis, specific benchmarking guidelines are difficult to come by for a number of reasons. However, one survey published in 2024 — based on 2021 numbers and predominantly surveying healthcare laundries —  concluded with a total cost per pound of $0.73-$0.99 per pound, with direct labor costs accounting for $0.19-$0.26 per pound.

As the article explaining the survey notes, the underlying numbers supporting that topline figure have increased in the ensuing years as a result of overall inflation, particularly rising labor costs. 

Goal: Like other categories, determine what your current direct labor costs per pound are and work from there. 

Water Use Intensity (Gallons per Pound)

Definition: Total water used ÷ total pounds of clean laundry processed.

Why it matters: Water is one of your biggest controllable costs and is increasingly regulated. Spindle's Water & Energy product helps laundry operators keep track of their utilities and identify irregular spikes in usage. 

Benchmarks:

• Conventional washer-extractors: 1.3–3.5 gal/lb

• Continuous batch systems with water reuse: 1.3–1.8 gal/lb (efficient range)
  (Source: U.S. EPA WaterSense; Arizona Dept. of Water Resources; NC State P2 InfoHouse)

Goal: ≤2.0 gal/lb for most modern plants, with the caveat being — as it will for the following examples — that targets can vary widely based on plant type, industry served, and a number of other factors. 

Energy Intensity (Energy per Pound)

Definition: Total energy use (kWh, therms, steam) ÷ total pounds processed.

Why it matters: Heating water and drying fabrics account for a majority of energy costs.

Benchmarks:
DOE’s Better Plants program encourages participants to improve energy intensity by 25% over 10 years. Track pounds per kWh or therm, and aim for continuous quarterly improvement.

Goal: Show consistent year-over-year energy intensity reduction through metering and load optimization.

Dryer Efficiency & Over-Dry Minutes

Definition: Measures drying time per load and time spent drying beyond the required moisture level.

Why it matters: Over-drying wastes gas/electricity and slows down finishing lines. If a piece is too dry, then you might not get a nice finish on the product and it could result in "pilling" of the item, which effectively damages the product and translates to added costs for substituted inventory. 

For items to be ironed, when they have too much moisture they might not dry effectively when run through the ironer. You can then slow ironer speeds, but that means less production. 

Benchmarks:
When considering your drying protocols, look to moisture content on the front and back ends, unless you are working with something that has to be fully dried and doesn't go into an ironer, like hotel towels. Modern laundry equipment come equipped with moisture sensors to detect moisture levels with consistent accuracy. Not only does that help save time by fostering a smoother workflow, it also limits excess energy usage as a result of over-drying. In other words, it leads to a more sustainable process.

For napkins and tablecloths, for example, you should be looking at somewhere in the range of 15-20% moisture when going into the ironer (any less and you might not get a good finish on the product). On the way out, there should still be around 1-3% moisture content. 

Goal: Minimize over-dry minutes and trend gas use per pound down over time. Preventing overdrying will also mitigate "pilling" or damaging textiles, which contributes to reject rates (see earlier section on rewash/reject rates). 

Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)

Definition: OSHA’s standard safety metric—recordable incidents per 100 full-time employees.

Why it matters: Fewer injuries mean safer people, fewer disruptions, and lower insurance costs. According to a TRSA report, TRSA members reduced their TRIR by 40.7% from 2019-2023. 

Benchmarks (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023): 

• NAICS 8123 (Laundry & Drycleaning): 2.6

• Industrial Launderers (812332): 3.4

Goal: Stay below your sub-industry average and target continuous annual improvement. Make sure you have consistent safety trainings with your employees and make sure all workstations have sufficient safety-related material, both in terms written SOPs and visual markers. (According to one study, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text.)

Preventive Maintenance (PM) Completion Rate

Definition: % of scheduled PM tasks completed on time.

Why it matters: PM compliance directly impacts uptime, energy efficiency, and safety.

Benchmarks:
Top-performing laundries maintain ≥95–100% on-time PM completion.
(Source: ISSA case data)

Goal: Achieve >95% PM compliance to prevent unplanned downtime, which is significantly more costly than regularly scheduled downtime

On-Time Turnaround / Lead Time

Definition: Time between customer drop-off (or order receipt) and delivery.

Why it matters: A key customer satisfaction and throughput metric—long lead times signal bottlenecks.

Benchmarks:
Lean laundry studies show measurable improvement when tracking WIP ÷ throughput (Little’s Law).
Many high-performing plants hit >98% on-time after WIP right-sizing.

Goal: ≥98% on-time delivery with WIP and queue times optimized per route.

You have all this KPI data, whether you're collecting it manually or using a management platform like Spindle. 

Now what?

Here are a few simple tips for creating a KPI dashboard to elevate your monitoring efforts: 

Building Out a Commercial Laundry KPI Dashboard

• Start with Baselines: Collect 8–12 weeks of data for the nine KPIs above.

• Set Tiered Targets: “Good” = industry average; “Great” = top quartile.

• Automate Collection: Use meters, sensors, or other tracking tools (e.g., Spindle) for real-time data.

• Visualize Weekly: Publish a KPI scorecard by line or shift. If you have regular staff meetings, you can use this scorecard to call out certain areas or plant functions that might need work. Or, you can call out high-performing areas toward the goal of positive reinforcement and better employee engagement. 

  • Some software providers that automate data collection will already have a visualization feature available. Among other features, Spindle's Facility Health Score page allows you to get a performance snapshot and drill down into the data with ease. 

• Investigate Variance: Use root-cause analysis for deviations (e.g., PM delays → energy spikes).

Bottom line, whatever you do, it all boils down to these key elements: identify targets, collect data, analyze data to see if targets are met, diagnose issues/propose fixes, implement fixes ... and repeat. 

Of course, the above list is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all the KPIs you might want to track. Every plant is a little different, so you need to tailor any monitoring plan to fit your needs. 

Whatever the case, if you haven't been tracking your KPIs, it's never too late to start. Without those insights, you're missing out on valuable information about your plant's performance, the absence of which could be costing your plant in a number of ways, from energy costs to productivity dips to safety (and everything in between). 

Since 2007, Spindle has helped commercial laundries automate their data collection. Now, with our Spindle EDGE partnerships, we are offering even more robust and deeper data integration. 

That means better insights and even stronger KPI tracking. 

Are you looking to supercharge your KPI monitoring efforts and be better able to communicate your plant's wins and more quickly identify negative trends?

As laundry's connected platform, Spindle brings it all together for you, making KPI tracking and insights as easy as possible. 

Try it out for yourself: schedule a demo to see how Spindle can help you make sure you're tracking the right KPIs and using that information to get things done better and better, shift by shift.