Worked Example — Logistics
Rolling-Zone Cleaning at an M7 Corridor Distribution Centre
This is a worked example rather than a report on a named client. It covers a third-party logistics distribution centre of about 11,000 square metres in Horsley Park NSW 2175, a few minutes from the M7 motorway interchange — 14 dock doors, a 600 square metre admin block, two shifts running six days a week. What follows is how we scope cleaning on a building that never empties. No client outcome is claimed.
The problem: a roster built for a building that never empties
The contract we usually replace is a single nightly attendance of four hours, priced attractively and scoped on the assumption that the warehouse floor will be clear when the crew arrives. On a six-day, two-shift operation feeding retail replenishment, it never is. In practice the cleaner scrubs whatever aisle happens to be free, skips the rest, and returns to the same accessible strip night after night. Over a year or two that produces a building with a handful of genuinely clean aisles and the rest that have not seen a machine.
The visible symptoms are 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 dust-glazed concrete in the staging area, which is where slip risk shows up first.
How we scope it
- The floor plan split into nine zones, each with a scheduled slot, so the crew never needs the whole building free
- One zone barricaded and cleaned at a time under the site traffic management plan, with a spotter where mobile plant was active
- Attendance on the trailing edge of the late shift, behind the last pick wave rather than in the middle of it
- Racking uprights, beams and high-bay lighting on a quarterly EWP schedule with photo evidence
- A monthly pressure wash of the dock apron, levellers and bollards
- Amenities and crib room serviced every attendance, with consumables managed
- A monthly photo audit and defect list issued to the site facilities coordinator
Cost and commercial shape
Cleaning the whole floor costs more than cleaning the accessible strip, and we quote both so the difference in covered area is visible before you decide. Labour sits inside our standard Horsley Park warehouse band, machine scrubbing is priced per square metre, and periodic works are set out as fixed-quoted items in an annual plan rather than left to be quietly dropped. The full pricing logic is set out on our cost guide and rates page.
What the operator gets in writing
A nine-zone plan with agreed slots, so cleaning is scheduled against the pick wave rather than competing with it. A quarterly EWP photo record for racking and high-bay work — the evidence an auditor asks for when dust is raised. A monthly photo audit and defect list to the facilities coordinator, and an annual plan of fixed-quoted periodic works. Site-inducted, police-checked, directly employed cleaners, $20 million public liability with the certificate of currency on request, fixed itemised pricing and month-to-month terms with 30 days notice. We do not claim an audit outcome — that is the auditor decision. The approach is described in full on our distribution centre cleaning and warehouse cleaning pages, with coverage extending to Kemps Creek. A second local scope is documented in our Horsley Drive cold store worked example.
Questions about this scope
What kind of site does this cover?
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 usually goes wrong on these sites?
A single nightly attendance rostered on the assumption the floor will be clear. On a six-day two-shift operation it never is, so pick aisles get skipped, the scrubber runs only where it can get through, and dust builds on racking beams until a customer auditor raises it in writing.
What does the rebuilt program look like?
The single attendance is replaced 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.
Does the operation lose time to cleaning?
The program is designed so it should not: the zone that is closed is always one the pick wave has already passed through, and attendance sits on the trailing edge of the late shift rather than in the middle of it. Zone slots are agreed with the site facilities coordinator before the roster is set.
How is it priced?
Labour sits inside our standard Horsley Park warehouse band, machine scrubbing is priced per square metre, and periodic works are fixed-quoted as items in an annual plan rather than left to be quietly dropped. Cleaning the whole floor costs more than cleaning the accessible strip — we quote both so the difference in covered area is visible.
What does the operator actually receive?
A nine-zone plan with a scheduled slot against each zone, barricading and spotting under the site traffic management plan, a quarterly EWP schedule for racking and high-bay lighting with photo evidence, a monthly photo audit and defect list to the facilities coordinator, and an annual plan of fixed-quoted periodic works. Cleaners are site-inducted, police-checked and directly employed.
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