Before you book
What businesses ask first
The questions a site manager, an operations lead or a business owner asks before letting a stranger walk their floor, answered from what the company actually does.
They run in the order a booking does: before the morning, on it, and after it. Anything not here, write and ask; the answer comes within two working days.
Thirteen questions
Asked before a first walk
Before the morning
Is booking a floor walk the start of a contract?
No. A request holds a morning and tells us about the floor, and either side can step back from it. Anything beyond the morning is set out first in a short statement of work, agreed in writing: the objective, the measures, the weeks, who is involved and what it costs. Nothing starts without one; the terms of engagement explain how that is agreed.
How far do you travel?
From Bicester across the M40 and A41 belt (OX26, OX25, OX27, OX5, OX16 and NN13) and along the roads out to Oxford, OX1 to OX4, and Aylesbury with its villages, HP17 to HP22. The booking form checks the floor's postcode against those districts. Further away, write to us and we say plainly whether we can come.
Can we book a walk during peak?
Any free weekday morning in the next three weeks can be booked. Many distribution floors freeze change from October to December, and a walk changes nothing on the day, so it sits inside a peak without harm; trials and roll-outs are better planned between January and September.
Do you need a floor plan from us?
A copy helps, at any scale and even an old one: the route is drawn over it. If there is no plan, we sketch the floor on the morning and the sketch goes into the walk notes.
On the morning
Do we need to stop or tidy the floor for you?
No, and please do not. A walk is only useful on a floor running the way it usually runs, queues included. We walk where your people walk, stand where your site rules put visitors, and keep clear of anything moving.
Who needs to be there on the morning?
A host who knows the floor and can stay with us for the morning, and the people who do the work, doing it. We may ask someone what they are waiting for or where a thing goes next; a few words at their station is all. Nobody is taken off the floor to be interviewed.
Are you timing our people?
We time the work, not the person: how long a step takes for one unit, and how long something waits. Names do not go on the timings. Times and notes taken on a floor are still personal data, so they are kept only as long as the work needs them, shown to your team first and used for nothing else; the privacy notice covers the rest.
How much can one morning cover?
Up to four hours on the floor from the start of your shift. An area takes about 35 minutes to walk, a line followed end to end about 20, and timing the stations of an area adds 20 more. Once the walk is booked you choose the areas, lines and questions on its own page, and the running order of the morning is worked out as you tick; if it will not fit, the page says so before anything is kept.
After it, and the company
What do we keep afterwards?
What you choose when you set the scope: walk notes, with the route as walked and every place work waited; a takt sheet, with the beat of a shift and the people each station needs; and a setting-out plan if a move or a new layout is coming. They arrive within five working days of the morning and are yours to use in your business.
What if we need to move or cancel?
Open the walk with its reference and the email address you used. Until the day before, it can be moved to any free morning or cancelled, and cancelling deletes the request at once. On the day itself, write to the team.
Is it only warehouses?
No: workshops and production lines, shop and hospitality back-of-house, and offices, where orders, approvals and onboarding knot in the same way. Moves into new units and new shifts are planned with the same method.
Do you hold Lean or Six Sigma certificates, or belong to a trade body?
No. The company holds no belts or certificates and belongs to no consultancy trade body. What it does is set out step by step on this site, and the arithmetic behind every number sits next to it, so it can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Do you give financial, legal or engineering advice?
No. When a question needs an accountant, a lawyer or an engineer, we say so and step aside.
The next step
A morning, then a decision
Pick a free morning, tell us about the floor, and you have a reference at once. Then, on the walk's own page, choose what the morning covers and what you want to keep; the running order and a printable engagement summary come from your choices.