If moving house is said to be one of the most stressful experiences an adult can experience, moving warehouse has got to be one of the most stressful realities facing a business.
Of course, a warehouse relocation can too mean that a business has outgrown its current premises. In which case, it is certainly an undergoing that is likely to be an exciting as well as stressful one.
To help keep that stress to a minimum though, here is a quick guide to orchestrating and undertaking a successful warehouse move.
Configuring Your New Warehouse
Ahead of moving into a new premise it is imperative to turn those ideas and the potential of said new space into a reality. This ensures that everything is ready and rearing to go and will minimise the chaos during the move. After all, if everything is properly set up and organised at your new warehouse this means that your stock, staff and equipment can move straight in.
To reiterate and to ensure that things run smoothly then, do ensure everything really is set up and ready at your new premises. Further, actualising a layout plan (as any warehouse business owner who has ever moved premises will know all too well) involves facing unforeseen hitches along the way. A calculation can be off, details can go overlooked, things can be miscommunicated.
Resolving all of these potential issues can take time and have a knock on effect on an entire warehouse plan. Then, give yourself and your team time to fully and properly evaluate your new space, both before getting to work on it and once your initial plans have been realised.
Suffice to say, solving any issues is a far easier task when a warehouse is empty than when it is bustling with staff and stock arriving from your previous warehouse space. And having to rush to iron out any design kinks or ‘make do’ with what turns out to not be the best configuration is likely to impact negatively of course on productivity and so lose you money in the long term.
Minimise to Maximise
Because a warehouse move is such a huge undertaking and even the seemingly smallest of oversights or mistakes can all too often result in losing a lot of time and money for a business, it really is worth taking the advice provided by the experts via the Acorn Warehouse Solutions website.
In their website article: Why Using a ‘One-Stop’ Single-Source Warehouse Solution Provider Makes Good Business Sense, the professional warehouse solutions team at Acorn extol the benefits to be had by turning to a single warehouse solutions company which is able to oversee your entire move, from planning layouts with or even for you to managing the move and providing professional support along the way.
The temptation to cut corners or try to find a cheaper deal by shopping around and referring to numerous different sources and companies is likely to only cost you valuable time and increase the risk of miscommunication and confusion throughout the process.
Take Stock of Your Inventory
Speaking of minimising to maximise, this of course goes for your inventory too.
Even the most organised warehouses have stores of stock, equipment and the likes that is sat about collecting dust. Much of this can often be resold and so garner a business much needed funds, especially when undertaking a move into a larger and potentially more expensive premises. Further, all of this clutter is going to cost you if you decide to simply drag it along with you, and at worst it could derail or compromise the efficiency and even safety of a new space. At the very least it is going to take up valuable space in a new premises.
Hence, a warehouse relocation presents the perfect time to take stock of your inventory and dispose of anything and everything that is not required, cannot be used. This is as true of equipment as it is of stock. It can even be extended to include your staff; in a nut shell, now is the time to cut any deadweight.
Managing and Moving Staff
It is likely that your existing staff are going to be need to be roped in to help with the big move. As reiterated via the My Moving Reviews website article: Moving a Warehouse – Organize a Project Plan & Checklist, involving your staff in the move and delegating jobs such as packing to your team is advisable as this will stand to save you a lot of time and money otherwise spent paying external teams and companies to this for you.
Then, it is important to ensure your staff have seen and been introduced to their new working space and know once they arrive exactly what needs doing. As well as showing your staff a level of respect, this cuts down on potential miscommunication and helps to prevent confusion during the moving process.
Theft
Nobody wants to face the reality that a warehouse move does not just present a business with opportunities, but also potentially provides those with less wholesome agendas opportunities too. To spell it out though, and as also warned by Cisco-Eagle Warehouse Solutions via their article: To-Do List for Moving a Warehouse: Pilferage is never easier than during a move or reconfiguration scenario. When pallets are packed for the movers, or when they are unpacked at the new facility, it’s the easiest opportunity for pilferers to snag tools or inventory items.
Therefore, a warehouse move requires a business to be forever on the lookout; in all the chaos and hustle that goes with moving a businesses’ entire inventory along with equipment and the likes to a new warehouse, a lot can go ‘missing’ if things are not properly managed.
