December 15, 2022
Having to move a factory from one location to another can feel like a big deal. There are so many aspects involved that it’s difficult to know where to start, especially given that you’ll likely be facing significant time pressures.
We’ve broken down the process into its constituent parts to make it more approachable and less daunting. From evaluation to execution, here’s how you need to approach your factory relocation process.
The first step in this process is to take a step back and evaluate your factory relocation needs. You’ll want to consider as many parts of the process as possible, including details like when you want to have it all completed by, how much disruption to your normal operations is acceptable, and how much help you’ll need. Once you understand the scope of the project, you can start to look for a relocation partner.
No matter how much expertise people in your organisation have surrounding day-to-day factory operations, you’ll still want to work with a service that specialises in factory relocation.
Ideally, you’ll want to choose a turnkey partner that can help with each aspect of the process, instead of separate services that then have to communicate with one another.
Companies like AIS Vanguard specialise in just this. They’ll be able to do everything from packing up pieces of machinery to installing them again, simplifying the relocation process immensely.
Once you’ve identified an appropriate partner to help you with the relocation, you can get started with planning. You’ll need to involve all relevant stakeholders in the process, for a couple of reasons.
First, you need to make sure that the people who are impacted by the process won’t be blindsided by such a huge change. Second, a lot of stakeholders, including factory workers, will be able to provide substantial input that can make the relocation process a lot easier.
The planning process needs to be incredibly thorough, including risk assessments for multiple components of the move.
Lastly, all that’s left is to execute the plan. This will involve specialists from your partner service coming into your existing factory and dismantling all of the machinery that needs to be moved to the new location.
Next, it will need to be loaded up and secured in appropriate transportation vehicles, and moved to the new location. Ideally, all necessary infrastructure will already be installed, from electricity to water supplies.
Lastly, all that’s left is for the relocation team to install and calibrate any machinery. This can take a little while, and your workers may need to provide input to make sure that it’s set up appropriately for their operations.
By understanding these basic principles of factory relocation, and adapting each of them to match your specific situation, you can ensure that your move runs as smoothly as possible. There will inevitably be a certain amount of disruption, but by getting assistance from the right partner, you can help to ensure that this runs at an absolute minimum.
