The Top 5 Reasons Factory Moves Go Off-Schedule – Or Fail
Moving a factory is one of the most difficult commercial moving projects there is. You have to deal with huge amounts of raw materials, specialized equipment that is nearly priceless and irreplaceable, and the logistics of transporting everything and reinstalling it – correctly – at your new facility. Even a local move in the Fort Lauderdale area can be a huge project.
It’s a multi-disciplinary, long-timeframe project that will involve everyone on your staff – and the services of a professional moving company that can handle the logistics involved with transporting important, delicate machinery. It takes careful planning, great care, and the right people to ensure success. So let’s look at the 5 reasons that factory moves can go off schedule – or fail completely – and learn what needs to be done to ensure a successful factory move.
1. Poor Planning
Poor planning of a factory move is the number one cause of failures. Proper planning of a factory move is a huge undertaking – and will likely involve almost all of the stakeholders of the factory or company.
A steering committee and implementation team will need to work with a project manager to define the scope of the move, the deliverables, responsibilities for each team member, key dates and timeframes to hit, and ways to mitigate risk and ensure the success of a move, with contingency plans in case of delays and failures.
Your plan shouldn’t just include the move, either. Acquire detailed plans of the destination facility and create a detailed layout for the equipment and facilities that will be installed there. These drawings will allow your engineering team to provide designs to accommodate necessary utilities and modifications.
2. Failure To Properly Assess And Categorize Equipment
Whenever a relocation is undertaken, a full equipment review, categorization, and assessment should be undertaken. This includes plant engineers thoroughly documenting the condition of existing machines, and recommending it for relocation, for a refurbishment process, or abandonment.
The most wasteful thing you can do is bring equipment with you that is nearly broken, or would cost more to repair than it would to replace.
In addition, ensure that all necessary resources for use of the machine – program data, manuals, structural information, utility information, operational procedures, and so on – are brought with it in the move, and easy to access at the new facility.
3. Over-Ambitious Scheduling
It’s tempting to try to create an aggressive, fast movement plan that will get you out of your old facility and into your new one in just a couple months. But remember, it’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver – if you create a six month plan that takes five months to implement, you’re a hero. If you create a one-month plan and it takes four, you’re fired.
Your schedule should include ramp-up time for your new facility, and ramp-down time for your old one – it’s quite possible that you may only be able to move sections of your facility at a time, and you should be aware and ready for that fact.
4. Poor Installation Coordination
You can move as fast as you want – but if your machines are installed improperly, you’re still going to be at a standstill. Ensuring good installation coordination – and proper setup – is crucial to a successful factory move.
Your plant engineer is your man on the ground when it comes to the installation of a new facility, especially if you’re using contractors. Ensure proper usage of Equipment Relocation Work Instructions (ERWIs) among contractors moving and installing equipment.
These detailed documents are tailored for each specific piece of equipment, and include information about disconnection, loading, transporting, unloading, reconnecting, and starting up specialized equipment, and having proper ERWIs is crucial for a successful and quick equipment reinstallation.
5. Failure To Optimize New Processes
A factory move gives you an unparalleled opportunity to streamline your processes and procedures, as well as your equipment layout. Moving closer to a supplier is great, but moving closer to a supplier and increasing efficiency of production by 25% is even better.
Failure to use the opportunity you’re given to optimize your processes is a gigantic opportunity cost loss. If you’re able to streamline and increase efficiency at your new facility, you might find that the ROI of moving eventually pays for the move itself.
So think carefully about your processes when moving your facility – and even consider hiring a dedicated process consultant to make sure that you’re making the right decisions about your factory layout.
Conclusion
Factory moving isn’t easy, but if you follow the above advice, you can avoid some of the dangerous pitfalls and missteps that can plague these complicated factory moves.
And if you’re planning on a local factory move in Fort Lauderdale, you can rely on Orange Movers. Our seasoned professionals can work with your staff and your equipment contractors to ensure an easy, smooth transition, no matter how large or complex your facility is.
Our local moving services are second-to-none, and our full-service offerings can help you move easily, safely, and efficiently to a new factory facility. See more about our services, and get in touch to talk about our rates and our expertise.