Planning a Successful Factory Relocation

If you’re planning a factory relocation, it can be a daunting process and overwhelmingly huge task. But, don’t worry, Wessex Interiors can help. We specialise in helping businesses move to new premises. Whether you are relocating or establishing a new factory site in Southampton, Portsmouth or elsewhere in the UK, let us help take the hassle out of creating a brand new professional, functional factory space.

To help you begin your factory move journey, we have compiled a handy checklist. Here are our top tips for a successful relocation:

Early Planning

As with most things in life, early preparation is key. By allowing plenty of time, you can take as much time as you need to properly plan and execute the move, carry out necessary risk assessments, and ensure a successful factory relocation. Planning early also helps if you are maintaining business-as-usual operations or production during the move – helping you minimise substantial impact to your business.

Teamwork

No successful factory move is achieved by one singular person or team. Success lies in involving the entire business, all teams from Health & Safety, to HR to factory workers themselves. Not only is it hugely engaging for staff, but keeping regular communication across teams and the business ensures risks and objections are minimised. During the factory relocation itself, there are multiple tasks to be carried out, having a wide range of skill sets on the project team is hugely beneficial.

Seek Professional Help Where Needed

If you don’t have the capacity or someone in your business with in-house experience in a particular area (such as disconnecting, dismantling and re-installing equipment), then outsourcing or bringing in an external contractor with these skills will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Prepare Layout Drawings

As with any large scale project, it is important to draw up and have plans or drawings of your current and intended factory. These will become integral tools during the move for both your team and any contractors.

Audit Machinery

Before the move, make sure you have checked and documented the condition of your equipment. This can be helpful for several reasons. Firstly, you may realise that some aren’t in the condition you expected – allowing you to make informed decisions about which machinery needs to be relocated, refurbished or removed.

Supply Chain

Before undergoing a factory relocation, it is important to consider what impact it will have on your supply chain. How can you mitigate any issues, and handle potential delays that new suppliers may cause or shipments to customers?

Relocation Schedule

Careful scheduling is vital, particularly when you have a large and complex factory move with no downtime or stop on production. Therefore, you need to plan a schedule that meets your business goals, with the inclusion of the ability to maintain partial production at your existing site and start at your new one. The reality of factory moves rarely involves machinery leaving and arriving on the same day, more often they are staggered over a period of time to minimise business disruption.

Machine Instructions

It is also key to have instructions explaining how each piece of equipment needs to be disconnected, dismantled, cleaned, packaged, loaded, protected, transported, unloaded, reconnected and eventually, restarted. This is helpful in identifying your requirements (for example, needing customised machine packaging or wooden crate) and ensures you can review the correct tasks are carried out during installation.

Understandably, every factory move has its own unique set of challenges, but these activities above provide an excellent foundation for a successful factory relocation, no matter the distance, whether that’s across the road, to another town or even further afield. If you would like further information on factory relocations, we have more than 25 years experience, combined with an expert and friendly team always on hand to help answer any questions you have.

Relocating Your Factory? Contact Us

If your business or factory is looking at relocating to a new premise, you can contact our team on 02380 663 100 or fill out our online contact form. We’d be more than happy to provide you with information about any of our services and how we can help you.