Case Study · Hostels & Boarding Schools

600 students. 7,200 labels. Zero mix-ups.

A Pune engineering college hostel was losing about 30 minutes per day per laundry shift to mix-up disputes — students arguing over identical shirts, missing socks, swapped towels. The chief warden ordered woven name + number labels for every garment in every kit. We turned it around in 9 days for the new academic intake.

Hostel name + number label rollout — Labelwala case study
600
Students
7,200
Labels
12
Per student kit
9 days
Lead time
The Challenge

The challenge

Four blocks, 600 boys (Class 11–B.Tech 4th year), one common laundry running 24 wash cycles a day. Identical college-issued uniform kits — shirts, trousers, sports kit, towels and bedsheets. The hostel's existing system was marker pen names that faded by mid-semester and parent-stitched cloth tags that never matched across students. The chief warden wanted a single labelled rollout for the new academic intake — 4 weeks before students arrived.

The Solution

What we did

Took a CSV roster from the warden's office (name + room number, 600 rows) and generated 600 personalised label designs in one batch. Two label sizes — 50×15mm woven satin for clothing and bed linen, 30×10mm soft cotton tape for socks and undergarments. 12 labels per student, packed in pre-sealed envelopes with the student's name printed on the front. Per-name preview sheet sent on day 2 for typo verification before bulk runs. Production in 6 days, dispatch on day 7, hostel received envelopes on day 9.

CSV roster intake

600 student records ingested in one batch — no manual entry on the warden's side.

200+ wash-cycle damask

Built for industrial hostel laundry — hot wash, harsh detergent, daily turnover.

Per-student envelopes

600 sealed envelopes with the student's name on the front — distributed at intake in one afternoon.

The Result

The result

The hostel's engaged tailor stitched all labels in 4 days during the first week of intake. By the end of week one, every garment in the hostel had a permanent name + room number. Laundry sort time dropped from 30 minutes per shift to under 10. Lost-and-found bin emptied for the first time in years. Zero parent complaints about lost clothing in semester one — vs 22 the previous year. The warden has placed standing re-orders for new joinees every two months.

"We've been a hostel for 30 years and this is the first year I haven't had a single 'where are my socks' complaint. The per-student envelope idea was the best part — distributed in two hours during intake, no chaos."

— Chief warden, Pune engineering college hostel

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