Case Study — Logistics
Case Study: Rebuilding Cleaning at an M7 Corridor Distribution Centre
A third-party logistics operator running an 11,000 square metre distribution centre in Horsley Park NSW 2175, a few minutes from the M7 motorway interchange, called us in autumn 2026 with a problem that had just become external. A customer auditor had written up dust accumulation on racking beams, and the incumbent cleaner had no plausible answer. The site is anonymised at the operator request. The scope, timeline and results below are as delivered while we were servicing Horsley Park 2175 and surrounds.
The problem: a roster built for a building that never empties
The previous contract was a single nightly attendance of four hours, priced attractively and scoped on the assumption that the warehouse floor would be clear when the crew arrived. On a six-day, two-shift operation feeding retail replenishment, it never was. In practice the cleaner scrubbed whatever aisle happened to be free, skipped the rest, and returned to the same accessible strip night after night. Over eighteen months that produced a building with three genuinely clean aisles and six that had not seen a machine.
The visible symptoms were predictable. Fine grey dust on racking uprights and beams. Shrink wrap and strapping accumulating along the staging lanes. A dock apron black with tyre rubber. And two slip incidents in the staging area within one quarter, both on dust-glazed concrete.
What we changed
- Split the floor plan into nine zones and gave each a scheduled slot, so the crew never needs the whole building free
- Barricaded and cleaned one zone at a time under the site traffic management plan, with a spotter where mobile plant was active
- Moved the attendance to the trailing edge of the late shift, behind the last pick wave rather than in the middle of it
- Put racking uprights, beams and high-bay lighting onto a quarterly EWP schedule with photo evidence
- Added a monthly pressure wash of the dock apron, levellers and bollards
- Reinstated amenities and crib room servicing every attendance, with consumables managed
- Issued a monthly photo audit and a defect list to the site facilities coordinator
Cost and commercial shape
Monthly spend increased by roughly 14 percent against the old contract, and the area actually being cleaned each week roughly doubled. Labour sat inside our standard Horsley Park warehouse band, machine scrubbing was priced per square metre, and the periodic works the previous provider had quietly stopped performing were reinstated as fixed-quoted items in an annual plan. The full pricing logic is set out on our cost guide and rates page.
Results after two quarters
Zero minutes of cleaning-related operational downtime across the first twelve weeks. The customer audit finding on racking dust was closed out at the following review with our quarterly photo record as the evidence. Slip incidents in the staging area fell to zero across two consecutive quarters. Seven months in, the operator added a second building in a neighbouring suburb to the same agreement on portfolio pricing. The approach is described in full on our distribution centre cleaning and warehouse cleaning pages, with coverage extending to Kemps Creek. A second local project is documented in our Horsley Drive cold store case study.
Case study FAQs
What kind of site was this?
An 11,000 square metre third-party logistics distribution centre in Horsley Park 2175, close to the M7 motorway interchange, with 14 dock doors, a 600 square metre admin block and a two-shift operation running six days a week.
What was going wrong?
The incumbent cleaner was rostered as a single nightly attendance that assumed the floor would be clear. It never was, so pick aisles were skipped, the scrubber ran only where it could get through, and dust on racking beams had reached the point where a customer auditor raised it in writing.
What changed?
We replaced the single attendance with a rolling-zone program. The floor plan was split into nine zones, each barricaded and cleaned in turn under the site traffic management plan, so no zone waited for the whole building to be empty. Racking dusting moved to a quarterly EWP schedule and the dock apron went onto a monthly pressure wash.
Did the operation lose any time?
None. Over the first 12 weeks the site recorded zero minutes of cleaning-related downtime, because a closed zone was always one the wave had already passed through.
What did it cost compared to the old contract?
Monthly spend rose about 14 percent, and cleaned floor area roughly doubled. The periodic works that had been quietly dropped by the previous provider were reinstated as fixed-quoted items in an annual plan.
What were the measurable results?
The customer audit finding was closed out at the next review. Slip incidents logged in the staging area fell to zero across two quarters, and the client added a second building in a neighbouring suburb to the same agreement seven months later.
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