Tips on Moving to a New Facility

Need Tips on Moving to a New Facility?

Changing facility locations can be a long, expensive, and frustrating process.
When moving your production facility from one location to another,
you will undoubtedly incur unnecessary complications
that could pile on more expenses or create delays.

Here’s some lessons learned in getting your new lean manufacturing facility up and operational.

Avoiding complications by using a clear, consistent process that is well-documented.

Below are some lessons learned to help minimize lost production time and expenses related to the move.

Step 1: Review Your Decision to Relocate
After you’ve made the choice to move your production facility to a new location, take some time to review your decision in detail.

Step 2: Communicate the Intent to Move
Your company’s relocation to a new facility should not come as a surprise to workers, clients, investors, and authorities.

Step 3: Create a Layout for the New Facility
Having a plan in mind for the placement of your company’s equipment and workstations at the new facility well before you ever arrive there is key to a smooth transition.

Step 4: Prepare Your Company’s Documents and Records for Transfer
Make sure to take all of your company’s quality management system documents from your distribution list and prepare to reissue them at your new facility location.

Step 5: Consider Your Assets
Any customer property that you have in your possession should be thoroughly inventoried and tracked during the moving process so that the risk of customer materials, parts, tooling, etc. that could be lost is minimized. This includes a condition check of the customer property before and after the move to verify that no damage was done during the move. Your own company’s property should be inspected and tracked in a similar fashion.

Step 6: Preserve Products during Transit
When moving facility locations, your company should do everything it can to preserve the current condition of any products being moved.

Step 7: Handle Calibrated Equipment with Special Care
If you have equipment that needs to be calibrated, that equipment needs to be packed and transported in a way that keeps that equipment within its operational tolerance.

Step 8: Test Your Equipment after the Move
Every production machine that you move from the old facility to the new one should have a test piece made on it.

Step 9: Perform an Internal Audit
Now that your new facility is up and running, you should run an internal audit to make sure that your production process is running smoothly.

Step 10: More Communication
Upon completing your move and making sure your new facility is fully operational, it’s time to send out another communication to your customers and the regulatory bodies your company has to report to.

Step 11: Final Review
Conduct one last review of your company’s move to discuss the moving process and the results of your internal audit.

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