Spaghetti diagram

Night-shift round for two nurses on a 24-metre acute ward: 211 m walked over 24 legs with 13 route crossings, and moving the clean store and the drugs cupboard beside the nurse base takes 44.8 m — 21% of the walking — out of the round.

Three operators on a 60-metre chilled pick face walk 553 m over 18 legs with 36 route crossings; re-slotting the fast movers and sequencing the pick list by aisle removes 202 m, 37% of the walking, and two-thirds of the crossings.

One order cycle on a 9-metre kitchen line, tracking a chef de partie, a commis and a kitchen porter through 23 legs and 70.2 m of walking, with the grill-to-pass leg worked five times and the porter crossing the commis four times.

Two operators in a straight-line pump assembly cell walk 117 m over 17 legs with 10 route crossings; folding the same machines into a U with the material store presented in the middle cuts that to 40.5 m, a 65% saving, and removes every crossing.

Two customers, the same basket, the same 44-metre store: the shopper working a meal-by-meal list covers 189 m and crosses their own trail eight times, while the one working store order walks 90.6 m — both trips measured in one figure.

A morning of interruptions on an open-plan floor: three staff make 22 short trips to the printer, the kitchen, the post point and a meeting room, adding up to 299 m of walking, with the analyst's desk-to-kitchen leg alone walked four times.