Digitalisation First? Industry Voices Assess the Potential
12 May 2025
Digitalisation is reshaping textile care processes and enabling highly individualised solutions across the board. But how much AI is already at work behind the scenes? How much of it is truly needed – and under what conditions can it deliver on its promise?
The transparent textile care facility, where every item of laundry reveals the secrets of its processing, could soon become reality. However, the price of full transparency is high, and between aspiration and fulfilment stands the reality of current operations. Various specialists share their insights here on the challenges of implementing intelligent production.
How much artificial intelligence is already built into today’s modern sorting systems—and what kind?
Nicolas Gostony, Head of Marketing, Jensen Group (Burgdorf, Switzerland): The safest, most hygienic and most sustainable way to sort soiled laundry is already being carried out with the help of robots and artificial intelligence. Our systems are in operation at over 150 laundries worldwide. On the soiled side, they rely on X-ray scanners and cameras to automatically sort customer-returned textiles. The X-ray scanners detect hazardous foreign objects such as pens, nails or needles and remove the affected items. The cameras, in turn, sort textiles based on visual characteristics such as colour, pattern, texture and even size. To make these complex processes work and accurately identify unwanted items, highly advanced AI software is essential. But first, that AI must be trained. We have collected millions of colour photographs, segmented them into patterns, and used them to train a neural network. The strength of neural networks lies in their ability to recognise known objects with high precision. However, they require continuous training during operation, which is why we keep refining the parameters even after a sorting line has been commissioned. Thanks to the AI’s ongoing learning process, sorting quality improves with every hour of operation—always tailored to the needs of the specific laundry. In other words: the more experience the system gains, the better the results.
“Every laundry item becomes a data point—and the AI turns it into a perfect sorting decision.”
At what stage of digitalisation is textile cleaning—and which processes are already being improved or simplified?
Dirk Freitag, Managing Director, Multimatic (Melle, Germany): Textile cleaning remains largely a manual and craft-based industry. The megatrends of artificial intelligence and automation have yet to reach the wider market. However, significant change is on the horizon—particularly through the development of a globally standardised textile identification system. In future, each textile item is expected to carry a unique and unmistakable identifier. Processing machines could then automatically read this identifier, retrieve the correct treatment procedures via AI, and execute the corresponding cleaning process—for example, using the right solvent, at the correct temperature and for the appropriate duration. AI can thus support better decision-making when selecting the optimal cleaning process and help prevent damage to textiles. Nevertheless, textile cleaning will remain a highly manual trade. Machines still need to be loaded and unloaded, garments pressed, hung on conveyors and handed over at the end.
In short: digitalisation will simplify many workflows in the industry, but it will not eliminate the need for skilled human labour.
“AI can optimise cleaning processes—but the human touch remains essential.”
Can robotics solve the staffing challenges in large-scale laundries?
Martin Greif, Managing Director, Greif Mietwäsche (Augsburg, Germany): There’s no doubt that Industry 4.0 represents the future—and it’s already providing practical solutions for our sector. In our operations, we’re already using artificial intelligence for quality control and robotics for the fully automated separation and folding of terry towels after drying. This helps us to compensate for labour shortages. At the same time, smarter technology makes processes more complex, increasing the need for highly specialised expertise. To be prepared for ongoing digitalisation, we need to build and retain our own team of skilled technicians. However, such qualified personnel are increasingly difficult to find and significantly more expensive than general production workers. In that sense, digitalisation is becoming more costly—and still needs to prove that it can truly deliver on its promises.
“Technology alone is not enough—we need people who understand and operate it.”
