Frequently Asked Questions

How does it work?

• Companies recognised for their achievements and results are invited to host a series of workshops at their place of work (onsite).
• Managers and owners of organisations are invited to attend the workshops to share, discuss and debate specific best practice topics.
• Visitors and host companies discover new opportunities and ideas and implement them within their own organisation.

Why Visit?

• Meet with your peers to gain new ideas and solutions to common problems
• See these ideas in practice
• Avoid common pitfalls
• Develop skills
• Benchmark against other leading companies
• Change and shape behaviour

By seeing first hand how organisations have implemented change or improvements within their business you will identify opportunities for improvement, growth or change within your own organisation.

Benchmarking and the sharing of best practice between companies has proven highly successful in improving productivity and performance. An independent survey undertaken by the DTI on Inside UK Enterprise showed that each year the visit programme delivered over £135 million in improved productivity to participating businesses.

How much does it cost?

Company Visits: £195 plus VAT per person
Special Events, Masterclasses & Study Tours: POA

Who should I visit?

Our hosts come from a wide range of industry sectors. They are geographically spread across the UK, but they all have one thing in common - the ability to share with others what they have learnt in the pursuit of excellence.

We encourage you to consider companies from outside your sector. Visitors find that some of the most effective solutions and innovative changes have come from companies in other sectors.

Each host company covers a number of topics, so simply choose the topics that are of most interest to you and your organisation and book your visit.

How to select and plan your visit?

Simply identify the topics and host company that you would like to visit. Select a date from the schedule then email or call us to book your place.

We will send you confirmation of your booking, as well as your registration documents, providing you with location maps and other information such as local accommodation and transport links.

To make the most of your visit, we would recommend a little pre-work:

• Think about the issues that are going to be covered
• Set yourself some learning objectives relevant to your organisation
• Find out about the host company (this site provides links to their websites)
• Develop a list of questions that you would like to ask
• Plan your journey
  

After your visit you should share the information with others within your organisation and identify some clear action items from the ideas you have gained. Encourage others to attend visits in your organisation and you will see even quicker results as individuals buy into change as a result of seeing the results in practice.

What happens at the visit?

Each host defines their own agenda – you can see these on the visit schedule, found on the host pages. The most common format involves a series of presentations and open forum discussions with senior managers from the host organisation, a site tour and an opportunity to network over lunch. Times may vary dependent on the organisation and their production schedules.

A sample agenda is shown below:

10.00am	Welcome & Introduction
10.30am	People Issues
11.00am	Interactive Discussion on People Issues
11.30am	Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma
12.30pm	Discussion
1.00pm	Lunch
2.00pm	Site Tour
3.30pm	Questions and Feedback
4.00pm	Close