Whether you’re consolidating your operations, expanding, downsizing, or simply wanting to be closer to customers or suppliers, you’ll need an expert team of engineers to plan your manufacturing facility relocation.
That all starts with a site survey.
The purpose of a site survey is to gather the information you need to ensure your relocation runs smoothly and successfully.
This includes information on physical spaces, limitations that could lead to complications down the line and a range of risk assessments.
You’ll need to carry out a number of surveys for each of your sites. You’ll then produce a Risk Assessment and Method Statement (RAMS) once the work has been agreed.
In this article, we’ll run through all the key elements of an initial facility site survey, from outlining the scope of work to defining the job step details. So you can adequately prepare for all the intricate details your relocation contractors might require.
The scope of work is a brief description of what the job entails.
As part of this, you don’t need to provide any dimensions or technical information, just an overview of the job and your start/finish dates so your contractors know what they’re dealing with.
Everyone needs to know the parameters of their own work for things to run smoothly. That’s why outlining your responsibilities is a pivotal part of your site survey.
Customer responsibilities includes clearly establishing what you’re responsible for as the customer, and what your contractor or third party is responsible for.
For example, are you responsible for arranging work permits, cordoning off areas, supplying the equipment needed or supplying waste skips? Or will your contractor/third party be responsible for one or more of these elements?
Make sure this is agreed early on, so you can avoid any confusion.
For each site, you’ll need to provide key information such as access times, induction requirements, welfare and first aid facilities, work permit requirements and vehicle restrictions.
We suggest a table with a list of questions, departmental (or personal) responsibilities, and a space for comments.
The average manufacturing facility relocation will involve moving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of equipment.
Which is why it’s so vital to gather as much information as you can about not only the location the equipment is being moved from, but also the location it’s being moved to.
This includes recording the distance to the packing area and loading bay, ground conditions, floor-loading capacity, floor protection requirements and more.
This will help your contractor or third party to formulate a plan to move equipment safely and in the right order.
The plant requirements section is where you make a note of any equipment or tools your contractors will need to move your items safely and securely—for example, forklifts or cranes.
You’ll also need to make a note of the types and number of vehicles you need, available power supply and any potential chemical hazards (including the requisite material safety data sheets, where available).
You’ll need to provide as much detail as possible about which specific pieces of equipment need to be relocated, including dimensions, weight and whether they need to be decommissioned before removal.
It’s also a good idea to note packing requirements, such as the type of crate and wrapping required to protect equipment in transit.
Each site will likely have its own personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements for health and safety.
You’ll need to compile a list of mandatory PPE for each specific site. This might include safety boots, hard hats, safety glasses, ear plugs and more.
The final step is to outline each step of the job—from what your contractor or third party needs to do when they arrive on-site through to your project’s final stages.
This is one of the most important things to get right before your contractor starts work. So you can be certain each step will be carried out in accordance with your site and equipment’s requirements.
If you have six hours to chop a tree, you should spend the first five sharpening the axe.
The same principle applies to manufacturing facility relocations.
If you want your relocation to run as smoothly as possible, you need to dedicate as much time as you can to gathering the information you need and planning every step of your move.
We’ve been relocating complex, business-critical equipment for some of the most well-established businesses in the world since 1991. And we’re the only supplier globally that can handle your facility relocation from start to finish, entirely in-house.
Learn more about how we can help here.