Cost-saving and efficiency methods explained in plain English, each with a worked example, sources and a free calculator.
Each guide explains one method and works through an example. Forty of them include a free calculator: email yourself the results as a PDF with an action plan.
Lean and process · Cost and finance · People and time · Running costs
Methods for removing waste, delay and rework from how work gets done.
Warning signs that efficiency is slipping.
Read Guide →How to walk the floor, the van or the office properly, with a record sheet.
Read Guide →A one-page procedure for the task that goes wrong most.
Read Guide →A fifteen-minute weekly habit, and a tool to rank your improvement ideas.
Read Guide →Little's Law shows why fewer jobs in progress means faster delivery.
Read Guide →What lean means outside a factory, and a free score to find your starting point.
Read Guide →Availability, performance and quality, multiplied into one honest number.
Read Guide →Rank causes by how often they happen and fix the vital few first.
Read Guide →Make the common mistake impossible, and see how fast the fix pays back.
Read Guide →Suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers, as a one-page worksheet.
Read Guide →Separate internal from external steps, and see what changeovers cost a year.
Read Guide →Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control, and a DPMO and sigma level calculator.
Read Guide →Available time divided by demand, and how many people that pace needs.
Read Guide →Ask why until you reach a cause you can change, with a worksheet that becomes a PDF record.
Read Guide →Organise a van, a workshop or a shared drive so nothing is ever searched for.
Read Guide →Transport to skills: where the eight wastes hide in a small business, and what they cost.
Read Guide →The slowest step sets the pace for everything. Find it and see what an hour there is worth.
Read Guide →Find out how long a job should take, with a worked example.
Read Guide →Separate working time from waiting time in a process.
Read Guide →Pricing, cash, stock and investment decisions, worked through with your own figures.
Fixed costs divided by contribution per sale, and how far above it you are.
Read Guide →Your average time to pay, against terms, and what paying late can cost.
Read Guide →How long customers take to pay, and the cash it ties up.
Read Guide →The costs that never appear on the job sheet.
Read Guide →Response speed, follow-up and what each point is worth.
Read Guide →Compare jobs on true profit and profit per hour, not on price.
Read Guide →Compare the yearly cost of each, and find the volume where making wins.
Read Guide →A 50% markup is a 33% margin. Convert between them and price to a target margin.
Read Guide →Three ways to judge an investment, and when each one misleads.
Read Guide →A 5% rise can survive losing one sale in eight. A 5% cut needs one in six more.
Read Guide →How often your stock turns, and the order size that minimises ordering plus holding costs.
Read Guide →Debtor days plus stock days minus creditor days, and the cash each day ties up.
Read Guide →Prevention, appraisal and failure costs, added up and set against turnover.
Read Guide →Justify every cost line as if starting today, and see which lines give the savings.
Read Guide →What staff time really costs, and how much of it turns into paid work.
Your wage bill against ONS figures for 27 sectors.
Read Guide →S × S × D, why short spells score high, and the legal care it needs.
Read Guide →What regular overtime really costs, and how many people it adds up to.
Read Guide →Five costs that add up when someone leaves.
Read Guide →Salary plus employer NI, pension and the hours they are actually working.
Read Guide →Billed hours as a share of available hours, and what each point is worth.
Read Guide →Vehicles and energy: the costs that renew every year without a decision.
Your own unit rate, the expected cut and the cost, turned into a payback period.
Read Guide →Fuel plus the fixed costs, per mile, against the HMRC approved rate.
Read Guide →Free Excel templates for time studies, debtor days and staff costs. Enter your email once and download them all.
Get the Free Templates →Want an independent view of your own numbers? See the Diagnostic Assessment.