Lab operations baseline audit

A laboratory operations diagnostic with a deliverable at the end.

We review how your lab spends, procures, disposes and reports — and produce a costed, prioritised action plan you can hand to your finance team and start working through next month.

4–6 weeks · Low disruption · Independent of all suppliers

Baseline Audit · Output sample
Action plan — first 12 months
1. Consolidate reagent suppliers (3→1)£3.2k
2. Renegotiate waste contractor£1.8k
3. ULT freezer consolidation£1.2k
4. Stock control protocol (consumables)£2.4k
5. Scope 3 baseline + response template
Output 01 · Cost & waste profile
£8,600
Identified · year 1
7.2%
Of operational spend

Built for SME labs in diagnostics, biotech, contract testing, research and life sciences.

What it is

A scoped, paid diagnostic. Not a sales pitch in disguise.

The Baseline Audit is RTR HealthTech's lead engagement. It is a structured operational review, conducted over 4–6 weeks, producing five named outputs and a 12-month action plan. It is the entry point to all our work.

Before we can recommend the right engagement, we need to understand your lab properly — its operations, data, suppliers and reporting demands. The Discovery Call is where we work out together which option actually fits your situation: a full Baseline Audit, a focused review, or something else entirely.

If, after the Discovery Call, the audit isn't the right starting point for you, we'll say so. We do not run audits we don't think will pay back.

What we review

Eight operational areas.

Where avoidable cost, supplier risk, energy exposure and reporting gaps usually concentrate.

Consumables & stock

Over-ordering, expiry write-offs and parallel buying across teams.

Waste streams

Segregation, contractor pricing and disposal route inefficiencies.

Procurement structure

Supplier fragmentation, contract leakage and consolidation opportunities.

Supplier risk

Concentration, single-source exposure and price volatility mapping.

Energy & equipment

ULT freezers, autoclaves, fume hoods, fridge stacking and runtime patterns.

Lab plastics & materials

Disposal cost, single-use load and substitution feasibility.

Carbon & Scope 3 data

Emissions baselining and supplier-sourced data readiness.

Reporting readiness

Customer questionnaires, framework alignment and audit response time.

What you receive

Five named outputs. One action plan.

01

Cost & waste profile

A breakdown of where avoidable spend, disposal cost and material loss are concentrated, by line item.

  • Annualised consumable, waste, energy and disposal spend by category
  • Identified over-ordering, expiry write-off and parallel buying
  • Estimated avoidable-cost range, evidenced
02

Procurement & supplier risk map

Supplier concentration, contract overlap and substitution opportunities, ranked by saving size and ease.

  • Top suppliers by spend, with contract status and renewal dates
  • Risk-weighted concentration map
  • Consolidation and renegotiation roadmap with prioritisation
03

Carbon & Scope 3 baseline

A defensible starting position for emissions reporting, even if your supplier data is incomplete.

  • Scope 1, 2 and Scope 3 (purchased goods, waste, energy) baseline
  • Methodology note suitable for external scrutiny
  • Customer-questionnaire response template, populated with your numbers
04

Operational risk register

Single-points-of-failure across supply, equipment, waste contracts and reporting, prioritised.

  • Top 10 risks with likelihood / impact scoring
  • Mitigation actions with suggested owners
  • Reporting cadence recommendations
05

Prioritised 12-month action plan

Specific actions with owner, timeline, expected saving range and dependencies.

  • 90-day quick wins
  • 6-month structural actions
  • 12-month strategic actions
Request a Baseline Review →
What we need from you

Less than you expect.

Every audit is scoped to the lab — what you already have, what you can share, and how you prefer to work. We build the audit around your reality, not a pre-set checklist.

Data you already hold

We work from what already exists in your systems. No data extraction projects, no IT rebuilds, no months of preparation. The exact inputs we ask for depend on your lab and your setup.

A small amount of your team's time

A few short, focused conversations with the right people in your operation. We design these to fit around the lab, not the other way round — and we keep the total commitment small.

Light-touch access

Either a brief on-site walkthrough or a remote equivalent. We don't shadow staff, interrupt runs or pause equipment. The point is to see the operation as it actually runs.

The exact inputs, format and timing are scoped on the Discovery Call.

Every lab is different — equipment mix, data systems, supplier structure, reporting demands. We'd rather scope the audit properly against your actual operation than hand you a generic checklist that won't fit. Most labs are surprised how little we actually need once we've understood the setup.

Book a Discovery Call to find out what we'd need →
Timing

Typically 4–6 weeks, end to end.

Week 1
Scoping & data collection

Discovery, fixed-fee proposal, data-processing agreement, secure data handover.

Weeks 2–3
Analysis & modelling

Cost, procurement, energy and emissions analysis. Risk modelling.

Week 4
Walkthrough & validation

One visit (optional). Validation of findings with your lab team.

Weeks 5–6
Report, plan, presentation

Final report, prioritised action plan, board-ready summary.

Low disruption

Designed to fit around lab operations, not the other way round.

We don't touch your QMS.

The audit runs parallel to your quality system. We don't advise on, modify or recommend changes that conflict with your accreditation framework. Where actions touch QMS-relevant procedures, we flag them for your QM lead.

We don't disrupt the bench.

No equipment downtime. No staff shadowing. No interrupting active runs. We work from your data and a single walkthrough.

We don't re-sell anything.

We are not paid by suppliers. We do not earn commission on procurement changes we recommend. The recommendations exist to benefit you, not us.

Data security & confidentiality

Your operational data, treated like the asset it is.

Spend records, supplier contracts, equipment logs and emissions data are commercially sensitive. We handle every input with the same care we'd want for our own operation.

Encrypted in transit and at rest.

All client data is encrypted on upload, transmitted over TLS, and stored on UK-based infrastructure. Access is restricted to the named team working on your engagement.

UK GDPR compliant.

We operate under UK GDPR. No third-party data brokers, no enrichment from external sources, no aggregation of findings across clients. Your data stays your data.

Retained only as long as needed.

Engagement data is retained for the duration of the work and a defined post-engagement period. You can request deletion at any time — we confirm in writing when it's done.

A short Data Processing Agreement is provided as part of every engagement proposal. We're happy to align with stricter requirements where your sector or customers demand it.

Scope & pricing

Scoped per lab. Quoted after the Discovery Call.

Lab size, complexity, supplier concentration and reporting needs vary too widely for a single price tag to be honest. We scope the audit during a 20-minute Discovery Call. You'll receive a fixed-fee, fixed-scope proposal within 2 working days.

No bundling. No retainers. No surprises.

If a Baseline Audit isn't the right starting point for you, we'll say so on the call.

Common questions

Things lab directors usually want to know.

Will this disrupt our workflow?

No equipment downtime. No bench interruption. One short walkthrough, optionally remote. The audit runs from your data, not from your team's time.

Do we need perfect data?

No. We're built for incomplete data. Methodology notes accompany every figure so you and your auditors know exactly what's evidenced and what's modelled.

Is this just carbon accounting in disguise?

No. Cost recovery is the primary output. Carbon and Scope 3 are produced as built-in by-products of the same operational analysis — not as a separate workstream.

All FAQs →
Start

Ready to see the avoidable cost in your operation?

Two ways to start: a 20-minute Discovery Call, or share a few details and we'll come back with a scoped proposal within 2 working days.

  • · Fixed-fee, fixed-scope proposals
  • · No retainers, no bundles, no surprises
  • · If we're not the right fit, we'll say so
Baseline Lab Review

Get a scoped proposal in 2 working days.

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