Prepare to Relocate to a New Warehouse
Moving to a new warehouse can be a complicated task for your company, but it’s crucial for your business. While it demands dedication and hard work, moving can be made easier with planning, organizing and smart execution. Here’s a small moving checklist to refer to if you don’t know how to continue the moving process—it will ensure nothing is forgotten. Here’s how to prepare for a warehouse move:
Study your current setup
Take a good look at your current warehouse—your storage, packing, picking and shipping stations. Write down all storage options you use and pay special attention to certain requirements like cold rooms or special-humidity rooms. Ask your workers about struggle areas, work together on identifying the issues and think about how to avoid them in the new space.
Compare your old setup to the new footprint
Your new footprint has everything to do with creating a new setup, so make sure to consider it before you go planning the layout and moving stuff. And even if the size is exactly the same, your new space might have a completely different shape. Don’t waste your time making plans before you look into the new footprint and mark down locations of docking bays, doorways, communal spaces, office spaces, etc.
Designate dedicated people
If you’re planning to stay in operation during the moving process, it’s a big task to handle, but one that will allow you to minimize losses. Still, planning will take a lot of your precious time and energy. Trying to make an efficient move is hard without having to stay in operation and work like nothing is happening. To make things easier, choose one or two members of the company and task them with handling the move (if you can, dedicate an entire team). These workers will work exclusively on the relocation project or set aside some time to do the additional tasks.
Prepare the new space
If you’re planning to start using your new warehouse as soon as possible, it’s best to start preparing the space right after you rent or purchase it. The most crucial step is to prepare insulation that will keep your workers and your ware safe and comfortable. With Prodex total warehouse insulation, you can protect your warehouse from condensation, heat, cold and other weather extremes. This insulation also serves as a barrier against mold, mildew, rats, mice, bugs and birds. It’s much smarter to perform insulation preparation before you move in to avoid interruptions to your procedures.
Check the codes
Safety comes first in all situations, so in order to ensure it, try to study the codes and regulations in your new warehouse. Familiarize all people with the new rules before you move in. Keep in mind that new codes and regulations will affect your warehouse design. In most cases, if your new place is not up to code, you’re not allowed to move your stock there, so contact authorities and obtain all necessary permits and code information before you start moving.
Consider improvements
If you want to save money, you might choose to use your existing storage, but make sure to consider whether that’s your best option. First of all, your operation has probably changed since you bought your original storage. Second of all, your existing storage might not fit into your new place. Surely you don’t want to spend any more money on improvements, but certain storage options might be a good investment. For instance, you might have been storing barrels on pallets, but now, you might have space to install drum racks. Consider these improvements to your new warehouse.
Stick to as many old processes as you can
As stated above, your move can be a great time to make a few upgrades but try not to change your entire operation and setup. Adopting your new warehouse will be hard even without all the alterations to your processes. For instance, making changes to your storage or implementing a new delivery and receiving system is a great idea, but getting used to it will require time, especially in a new environment. It might be smart to wait with big changes until you’re settled in your new warehouse.
Leave space to grow
Is your company growing constantly? The first sign of that might be your move to a new warehouse. In that case, do your research and study your predicted growth rates. This way, you won’t have to move any time soon. Instead, you can plan for your future growth and leave enough space for expansion. When setting up shelving and storage, plan for horizontal and vertical expansion.
Moving from one storage to another is a stressful task for you, your crew and your business, but it’s a necessary step that shouldn’t be avoided at all costs. With the aforementioned tips, you’ll manage to enjoy a smooth relocation and continue to practice your processes with minimal interruptions.
You should have generated some new ideas after reading How to Prepare for Moving to a New Warehouse. More recommendations are available on this page: 3 Things to Look For When Selecting an Industrial Space
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