Tag Archive for: Industrial Relocation

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An Industrial Relocation Company’s Warehouse Transition Plan

Whether you have outgrown your previous space, need a downgrade, or are moving for geographic reasons, developing a warehouse transition plan is crucial for success. Going into a complex move without a strategy can feel like moving skids without a pallet jack. To make the process easier, think about every component of your move early and often. This will help prepare you and your team for the massive undertaking that lies ahead.

Every facility requires a unique strategy, so finding a ready-made guide for your specific situation is impossible. This warehouse transition plan serves as a starting point for planning the relocation, but contacting an experienced industrial relocation company is the best way to ensure everything is handled.

Components of a Warehouse Transition Plan

There is an overwhelming amount of preparation involved with planning a warehouse move. Reserve a heavy equipment transportation freighter 6-12 months in advance to ensure availability for your anticipated move. Establishing your move date and giving yourself a tangible deadline enables you to begin setting progress goals that ensure your move goes smoothly.The components of your warehouse transition plan include:

1) Finding a Space
2) Administrative Work
3) Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory
4) Decommissioning Old Space
5) Transportation
6) Settling into Your New Space

1) Finding a Space

First, you will need to identify prospective spaces and make sure that they are suitable for your needs. There are many things to consider during this phase, and it is arguably one of the most important steps. Obtain floor plans and use CAD software to ensure the new warehouse meets your space requirements. Pay special attention to ceiling heights and account for sprinkler systems. This will help determine if your current racking will fit in the new warehouse.

Moving to a new location also allows you to establish a more efficient operation, so identify potential improvements and challenges during your search:

• Are there any areas of the warehouse that are prone to congestion?
• Is popular inventory easily accessible?
• Are aisles wide enough for forklifts to easily maneuver?
• Is there ample parking and public transportation for employees?

2) Administrative Work

Once your new location has been decided, the administrative work will begin. From finalizing the lease to vendor and employee relations, the administrative work consumes a lot of bandwidth. Ideally, your warehouse transition plan will have a dedicated project manager handling all aspects of the move without having to split their focus on operational tasks. If you aren’t able to have one dedicated person handle all tasks, assign individual members of your team a specific role. The individual project managers should maintain an open line of communication and provide regular updates to each other.

Warehouse Transition Employee Roles

• Lease Coordination: Depending on the size of your move, there will be at least two leases in play. Finalizing the lease and securing a move-in date for the new location will be priority one. Once you have accomplished this, focus on exiting your current lease.
• Freight Acquisition: Moving heavy equipment and pallets of inventory relies on specialty freight trucks. These vehicles tend to have a long wait time for booking, so early planning is key to securing the necessary freight.
• Inventory and Productivity Management: Moving an entire warehouse typically means disrupting your supply chain. By dedicating an employee to manage inventory and productivity, you stand the best chance of maintaining fulfillment during the move.
• Personnel Planning: Responsible for maintaining communication with employees and determining staffing requirements at the new location. Whether it’s packing inventory, cleaning, or breaking down equipment, most employees will have an additional job to help prepare for the move. The personnel planner needs to make sure that the employees know how they will help during the move. Keep the employees up to speed on the progress of the move and make them aware of specific deadlines for their assigned tasks.
• Vendor Relations: Suppliers, utility companies, government agencies, customers, and partners. All of these groups will be affected by your move, and they must be made aware of your plan to relocate. The person in charge of vendor relations will need to communicate the change of address and date of completion to all parties.

3) Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory

If you designated individual project managers to handle each task in step 2, the inventory and productivity management appointee will need to determine when purchase order deliveries should be received at the new location. Diverting shipments to the new location will cut back on the amount of inventory that needs to be moved. It can also help minimize costs and expedite the transition.

A second important component of inventory logistics is creating a designated area for continued operations in your existing space. If your layout permits you to do so, keeping an area that operates independently of the rest of the warehouse will help to decrease the potential chaos of a transition and keep operations running smoothly.

One final consideration related to shipping, receiving, and inventory relates to determining how inventory will move through the location. Consult the floor plans and outline an inventory flow to show how inventory will be received, stored, and shipped. This is your chance to optimize the process and correct any inefficiencies in your current flow.

4) Decommissioning Old Space

The most laborious step of your warehouse transition plan involves physically preparing for the move. Decommissioning a warehouse involves many of the same tasks involved with decommissioning an office space. However, the larger scale of the furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) requires additional effort and planning.

Each employee will most likely have a task to prepare for the move. The task could involve taking a physical inventory at the SKU level. It could also involve more traditional decommissioning tasks like packing, tearing down equipment, and cleaning. If you find that your workforce is stretched too thin, and can’t finish the warehouse decommission in time, you must outsource the work.

When decommissioning the old space, pay attention to dead and aged inventory that will not be moving to the new location. This inventory can be donated for tax benefits or disposed of, usually for a fee. Eliminating the unnecessary inventory before the move will help decrease overall stress and make the project less overwhelming.

TIP: Determine the storage locations at the new warehouse early on and assign each bay an identifying code. When you are loading and shrink-wrapping pallets at your old location, mark each pallet with the appropriate code to make re-stocking the new warehouse easier.

5) Transportation

Moving the equipment to your new location is a massive undertaking, and you should make arrangements well in advance. We recommend securing the freight trucks at least 6 months before your planned move date to ensure their availability. If your warehouse requires specialty vehicles, such as reefers or other climate-controlled transportation, you may need to start planning even sooner.

You will also need to ensure that you have the appropriate rigging to move the heavy equipment and machinery that populates your warehouse. Failing to obtain qualified operators can result in irreparable damages and costly delays. We recommend looking for a CCO-certified operator who has a verifiable history of success.

Moving the inventory is the final piece of the transportation phase, and it requires the most thought. Strategically staging the inventory for transportation will help your warehouse continue to operate during the otherwise tumultuous period of relocation. Pay special care to maintain accurate documentation of inventory during the transition period.

6) Settling into Your New Space

Since you took care to organize your inventory and performed detailed space planning for the new location, settling into the new warehouse will be relatively straightforward. If you haven’t already informed the appropriate parties of your move, now is the time to make everyone aware of your new address. Below is a list of parties who should know that your address has changed. Please note that this list is not comprehensive, and you may need to notify additional parties of your move.

• Utility companies (Electric, water, internet, gas)
• Customers
• Banks and financial institutions
• Insurance companies
• Food and beverage services
• Business partners
• Government agencies (IRS, Secretary of State, Postal Service, local tax collector)

Other than physically settling in and communicating your new location to relevant stakeholders, you will need to bring your employees up to speed on the procedures for the new location. We suggest holding an orientation in which you implement a walkthrough of the new space with your team. They should be briefed on safety protocols, provided with appropriate security and entrance codes, informed of parking procedures, given internet access information, and made aware of any new changes.

Help from an Industrial Relocation Company

One person cannot handle all of the moving parts involved with an industrial relocation. Having a warehouse transition plan helps organize the undertaking, but your best chance for an efficient and stress-free move is to seek the services of an industrial relocation company. By delegating the task to an experienced professional, your team can focus on doing what they do best while the relocation project manager handles the tedious details.

At Relocation Strategies, we have been providing relocation services for industrial companies for over 25 years. During that time we have developed a reliable network of vendors who are trustworthy and efficient. If you are planning an industrial move, whether it’s a factory, warehouse, lab, or other industry that requires specialized transportation equipment and advanced logistics, you don’t have to go at it alone. Chat with one of our industrial relocation project managers today to see how we can remove stress from your relocation.

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3 Things to Consider Before Relocating a Manufacturing Plant

Relocating a manufacturing plant can be an extremely complex and costly endeavor, but one that can ultimately be beneficial for a business. Taking the time to carefully plan and consider your relocation strategy is essential for making sure the relocation process will be successful. Before embarking on this potentially daunting task, there are three primary considerations that should not be overlooked in the relocation of a manufacturing plant.

Setting Your Manufacturing Plant Relocation Up For Success

The first consideration is to hire an experienced relocation project manager. Having someone who has gone through the relocation process dozens times and understands the complex details involved can be invaluable in making sure each step of the process goes smoothly. A relocation project manager should have extensive experience in manufacturing plant relocation, as well as knowledge of local regulations and laws.

Create Your Relocation Plan

The second consideration is to create a relocation plan that takes into account not just the relocation of equipment, but also relocation of personnel, shipping and storage needs, communication systems, and other important details associated with the relocation. It’s also important to build in contingencies for unanticipated difficulties during the relocation process. A relocation plan should also take into account any potential disruptions to business operations during relocation, and make sure that there is a plan for minimizing these disruptions.

Manage Your Relocation Budget

The third consideration is managing your relocation budget. Having an accurate and detailed relocation budget will ensure that you are able to stay within your financial means when relocating a manufacturing plant. It’s important to factor in relocation costs such as relocation services, equipment and personnel relocation, shipping and storage expenses, communication systems set up fees, and any other potential relocation expenses. By carefully managing your relocation budget you can help ensure that the relocation process is successful and cost-effective.

Relocating a Manufacturing Plant

By taking into account these three primary considerations when relocating a manufacturing plant, you can help ensure that the relocation process goes as smoothly and cost-effectively as possible. Hiring an experienced relocation project manager, creating a relocation plan and managing your relocation budget are all essential steps in making sure that the relocation of a manufacturing plant is successful and beneficial for business.

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3 Mistakes to Avoid When Relocating a Manufacturing Plant

Relocating a manufacturing plant and the installation of new industrial equipment is complicated to say the least. As a project manager for business relocation, there are many significant components to consider that are essential for the success of the job. A solid business relocation plan must be put into place before anything can be executed. Your large business or manufacturing relocation checklist must take things like employee downtime, lack of inventory, moving logistics, re-installation, updated floor plans, feasibility, current or new facility requirements, process and plant design, equipment installation, and new process start-up into consideration.

Here are three of the most common mistakes we see as a project manager for business relocation in amateur plant relocations.

Moving to a New Industrial Space Checklist

Overlooking the relocation schedule, budget, and contingency can be detrimental to any relocation of a large office. At the beginning of the relocation process, it’s important to create a manufacturing moving checklist to ensure your team assesses the full scope of the project. If even behind one day, your company can forfeit a large amount of production and revenue. No company can afford this, and you shouldn’t have to.

A project manager for business location takes all these small details into account in your business relocation plan. Teams like Relocation Strategies have experience with all kinds of large-scale relocation programs and have the connections and tenure to ensure everything goes off without a hitch.

New vs. Old Equipment

Failing to assess the potential impact old machines and equipment might have in a move can be a big problem when it comes to functioning in a new space. Before relocating a manufacturing plant, a company must analyze the equipment and processes ahead of time. This can mitigate a lot of risk in this area. By hiring people with knowledge of equipment history, the company can benefit from breakdown prevention.

Plan for Financial Risk

Not planning for financial implications prior relocating a manufacturing plant is something we see often. Project costs, delivery and payment schedules, and invoicing can all be planned in advance. Every member of the team—even financial planners—should be taken into consideration.

Project Manager for Business Relocation

By hiring a team to support your relocation, you’ll ensure movers, contractors, and other suppliers are all managed. The new site will be in good working order before assets arrive and your project will stay on time and on budget.

Here at Relocation Strategies, we want you to have a plan for success. Our team helps corporations, offices, manufacturing plants, and hospitals with their relocation efforts to ensure your organization strategically execute a large move, with little downtime. If you’re interested in our services, reach out to our team! We’re here to help!

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