/PRZWT/SHANGHAI, April 28, 2024 - In recent years, there has been a growing debate about "Will my job be replaced by AI?"
On the one hand, the A side of this technology story: AI technology is showing its great potential. From the original chatbot, to the AI painting application that can generate images instantly, to the AI application that can make videos, AI is disrupting traditional industry rules at an alarming rate and shaping a new industry landscape. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once predicted that AI big model technology has the potential to become the next most influential technology platform after the mobile Internet.
On the other hand, there is the B side of this technology story: Hollywood has seen a wave of actors striking and marching to protest the industry's use of AI to write scripts and generate videos. According to a report by Goldman Sachs Research, "On average, 18% of global jobs may be automated by AI in the future, and about 300 million full-time jobs may be affected by AI." In other words, the existing labor market may be reshuffled due to the arrival of AI.
Unlike the radical strikes and protests, some industries and jobs choose to embrace cutting-edge technologies and firmly believe that even if AI is powerful, it still cannot replace the true sense of touch formed in the work for so many years. For example, in the care industry, those bag wounds that are slowly mended and repaired by stitches and stitches, and the touch of fabrics formed over the years cannot be replaced by any powerful AI.
Remove hairballs
We talked to Wang Zhichao, a technical manager with nine years of experience in cleaning, through his perspective to see how cutting-edge technologies take root in the most everyday industries, and how he views the relationship between "career and technology".
Compared with the fear of being replaced by AI, Wang Zhichao firmly believes: "AI is very powerful, but AI cannot replace us."
"AI is powerful, but it cannot replace us."
Washing is an industry that is poorly understood and relatively niche to the outside world. At the same time, it is an industry that is rooted in daily life.
In the eyes of the outside world, the washing and care industry is a hard and unprofitable industry. But in fact, washing and care is a growing market. Taking objective data as an example, in 2021, China's washing and care market will reach 53.636 billion yuan; in 2022, the market size of China's washing and care products industry will increase to 289.30 billion yuan.
Wang Zhichao has almost witnessed the growth of this market. This year is Wang Zhichao's ninth year of entering the laundry market. He has opened his own laundry shop and also worked in the after-sales department of the laundry chain and e-commerce platform. He has witnessed the growth of this market from small to large, and in his opinion, as the public's concept of health is gradually updated, the laundry market will become an increasingly large industry.
"Because household curtains, silk quilts, and wool quilts cannot be handled by household washing machines, and these clothes are precisely the ones with the most bacteria, so they must be handled by a professional organization. Besides, the shoes you bought for 10,000 yuan, can you rest assured to deal with them yourself?" Wang Zhichao said.
"For example, it is very difficult to wash luxury goods. Some luxury goods are made of leather and silk, and these materials need to be manually moistened and cleaned a little bit. Even though AI is so developed now, I still believe that AI cannot replace us. Washing or repairing requires a little bit to establish the touch of the fabric and touch its wiring a little bit to deal with it." Wang Zhichao said.
"Although I don't think AI can replace us, washing and care is also an industry that is constantly improving. Fabrics and production processes are upgraded every year, and some AI image recognition technology can help us sort more efficiently. We still need to embrace the changes brought about by new technologies."
Taking Fengchao's washing and care factory as an example, the human-machine cooperation model is taking place. Before washing clothes, sorting work needs to be carried out. Before AI was applied, it relied on manual sorting according to the fabric, color, and washing label of clothes. Now with the introduction of AI, it can quickly and accurately identify the classification, name, color and other key information of clothes, without the need to click and register one by one, effectively saving 65% of manual clicks and time.
Fengchao washing and care automation process
"C2F's washing mode is more in line with the development trend"
In fact, in addition to technology, changes in business models are also an important driver of changes in the industry. The boom in e-commerce has almost reshaped the sales landscape.
Wang Zhichao believes that stories like e-commerce will also happen in the laundry industry. Because he firmly believes that the C2F laundry model is more in line with future trends. Behind C2F represents a more accurate insight into user requests. The traditional laundry model is not only limited by its own geographical location, but also requires users to pack clothes one by one and take them to the laundry store, which is actually not convenient enough. More and more users need more flexible scheduling and more convenient pickup and delivery methods. The C2F model precisely responds to the demands of users. The factory can directly talk to users, adjust the service content in a timely manner, shorten the cycle from order receipt to service completion, reduce the pressure of inventory backlog, and achieve more efficient operations and form a closer relationship.
From the perspective of business results, it also confirms Wang Zhichao's idea. Almost all care apps adopt the C2F model.
It is based on this industry judgment that Wang Zhichao chose to join Fengchao Washing Care. On the one hand, he approves of the C2F model chosen by Fengchao Washing Care. On the other hand, he believes that "Fengchao's biggest advantage is that it has a large number of users. In the past nine years, it has built a strong logistics supply chain and brand effect, so users have a natural foundation of trust. This is an advantage that no new brand has. More importantly, the close relationship between Fengchao and SF Express makes me believe that my choice must be right."
"A washing factory with advanced productivity"
When he came to the Fengchao washing and care factory, the feeling of "I chose the right one" was even stronger on Wang Zhichao, because in the washing and care industry, there is an unwritten rule. Generally speaking, everyone uses 80% new second-hand machines when building a factory, such as a brand of multi-solvent dry cleaning machine, a brand new machine is hundreds of thousands, and the price of second-hand is only 2/3. The washing effect is similar, and the cost can be controlled better. But Fengchao is not. Fengchao uses brand new machines, which is very different.
Wang Zhichao gives a very intuitive example, some of the machines in the factory where I have worked before are still button-type machines, and every time I start it, I have to readjust the water volume, duration, etc. And all the machines in Fengchao can be automatically remembered. In Wang Zhichao's opinion, the difference between Nokia and iPhone is the leap in production efficiency.
Interior of Fengchao Washing Factory
In addition, the hardware facilities of Fengchao Zhongshan Washing and Care Factory are very complete, including three-dimensional portrait machines, blowing and pressing trouser machines, shirt all-in-one machines, and various large washing machines, dry cleaning machines, and dryers.
In addition to hardware, Fengchao also uses digital means to build an intelligent dispatching system and an intelligent sorting system, which can be based on the address where the user places an order, combined with the location of the self-operated and self-built factory, the location of the cooperative supplier factory, the cooperative factory wash and care category, the average daily capacity saturation rate, wash and care timeout rate, and historical complaints. At the same time, Fengchao uses real-time optimization and manual intervention according to the data application to achieve the shortest logistics distance, the lowest cost, the best wash and care quality, and the fastest service timeliness.
In addition to hardware and software, Fengchao's washing and care factory also shows an advanced business philosophy, including the construction of some 6S factories (sorting, rectification, cleaning, cleaning, literacy, safety), which is implemented in the details, such as how far a clothes basket should be set up, how many tools should be placed on the table, how to place tools and tools, how to route the circuit, how many people should look at a machine, etc. These details all show the state of an excellent washing and care factory.
The market is growing, business models are further maturing, and technologies represented by AI are driving the further development of the industry, while also injecting new energy and vitality into the traditional industry of cleaning.
