How to stop losing garments: tagging and tracking that works

Lost garments are rarely theft and rarely one careless person. They come from counting and labelling gaps that repeat every day:

• Bundles counted as one. A customer drops a bag of shirts, the slip says six, and nobody confirms it was six and not seven. From then on the count is a guess.
• Mixed loads. Pieces from many orders share a machine or a pressing pile. If a tag falls off, the garment belongs to nobody.
• Look-alike garments. White shirts, navy trousers and school uniforms look the same, so two customers end up with each other's clothes.
• Partial pickups. A customer takes four ready shirts and leaves the suit. If the slip is not updated, nobody is sure about the suit a week later.
• Uncollected orders. Orders that sit for weeks get moved, re-bagged and mixed with others.
• Wrong person at handover. Similar names, a family member collecting, and no order number checked.

Because these are process gaps, a process fixes them.

A tag per order, usually one slip stapled to the bag, is common in small shops. It fails exactly where garments leave the bag: in the machine, at the press and on the hanger. A tag on each garment travels with that piece through every step.

A good tag shows the order number, the piece number within the order, a customer reference and the promise date. It must survive cleaning and pressing, so use heat-resistant taffeta tags or tags pinned or stitched where they will not mark the fabric, such as the care label or waistband.

The other common garment problem is not a lost piece but a disputed one: a stain that “was not there”, a missing button or faded colour. Inspecting at the counter, in front of the customer, settles most of these before they begin. Check and note:

• Stains, with location and type if known, such as oil, ink or haldi.
• Buttons, hooks and zips that are missing, broken or loose.
• Tears, holes, snags and frayed cuffs or hems.
• Colour fading or bleeding risk, especially on dark cottons and printed silks.
• Fabric, such as silk, wool, velvet or embellished work, because it decides the process.
• Belts, brooches or detachable linings handed over with the garment, and anything left in pockets.
• Photos of high-value pieces and anything already damaged.

Read the notes back and make sure they appear on the customer's receipt. A condition note the customer saw at drop-off carries far more weight than one written afterwards.

Each time garments move between people or areas, someone counts them against the order:

1. Counter to floor: count pieces against the order before the bag leaves the counter.
2. Sorting: confirm every piece still has its tag as loads are split by fabric and colour.
3. Cleaning to pressing: match pieces coming out of the machine to their tags.
4. Pressing to rack: an order goes on the rack only when all its pieces are there, or is clearly marked incomplete.
5. Rack to customer: count again in front of the customer.

When a count is short, stop at that step. A piece missing between the machine and the press is usually found in minutes; one noticed missing at handover a week later may never be.

Numbered racks turn “somewhere at the back” into an address. Write the rack number on the order when it is shelved, and keep the system simple:

• Label racks and shelves clearly, and reserve a few for urgent and wedding orders.
• Keep one order per hanger set or bag. Do not merge two orders because they belong to the same family.
• After a fixed period, move uncollected orders to a long-stay rack and update the rack number.

Partial handover is where garments are often lost on paper rather than physically. When a customer takes some pieces, record which ones, garment by garment, not just “four taken”. The remaining pieces stay open against the order, with any balance, until they leave too.

1. Confirm it was received: check the intake record, piece count and photos.
2. Check the order history to see the last step the garment completed and who moved it.
3. Search the likely places: the pressing area, the hold pile, the long-stay rack and bags of similar colour from the same day.
4. Ask customers who collected similar garments around the same time to check their bags.
5. Tell the customer early and give a date for the next update. Silence makes a lost garment worse.
6. If it cannot be found, settle under a written policy decided in advance, not a figure made up at the counter.

Afterwards, find which handoff failed and fix that step, not just that order.

KIWIKIT is built around the garment, not just the order. For dry cleaners this means:

• Every garment line gets its own QR tag, printed on a 38 mm taffeta tag, plus a barcode for the order.
• Staff scan a garment's QR with any phone camera to move it from Pending to In progress to Done, so no separate scanner is needed.
• Each garment records colour, fabric, inspection tags and a condition note. Sixteen inspection tags come ready, including stain, missing buttons, colour fade and watermark, and you can attach up to four photos per order.
• An order is billed and moved to Ready for Pickup only when every garment is marked done. A rack number can be saved on the order and searched from the order list.
• Partial handover records which finished garments left the shop and what is still with you, along with any balance.
• The order timeline keeps every step, so you can see where a garment was last moved.

See how tags, scanning and handover fit together on the operations features page, and how they fit into the day in how to manage a dry cleaning business.