So your business has decided to move to a different warehouse. This is a big decision for any business, and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Perhaps you’ve tried to optimise your existing warehouse or even tried to increase floorspace through building a mezzanine level, but have found that you still need a new warehouse.

Even if it’s a small warehouse relocation, it’s still important to get organised. Staying organised and planning a move properly will remove a lot of headaches for the future. A good plan ensures that the warehouse move happens quickly and efficiently and that your business is operating at 100% capacity as fast as possible.

So let’s take a look at the best way to plan a warehouse relocation so that you can get your business into its new premises quickly.

Get Organised

The initial organisation is the key to any move. Whether you’re just moving house or moving a large warehouse, being organised to start with is going to pay off. After all, if you go into a move unorganised, you’re just going to come out of it just as unorganised, if not more unorganised.

So, well before you start moving warehouses, make sure all the stock, MHE, and other items are in their right place. Do a stock take if you need to a make sure nothing is stored in the wrong place.

From there, it’s also important to talk to warehouse managers and make sure there are no large orders coming up that need to be fulfilled. If there is an order that will need to be fulfilled mid-move, have a plan for that. Will you move it early and fulfil it from the new warehouse, or will you leave it behind and fulfil it from the old warehouse? Or will you speak to the client and see if you can fulfil the order early? The key here is to plan for all of this first.

Determine You Have The Right Personnel For The Job

Ultimately, your existing warehouse staff is going to need to help with a few things that are outside of their usual day to day. Because of this, talk to all employees to make sure they understand what is expected and what they need to do. It may also be worthwhile recognising certain employees that need to take on extra responsibilities for this large job and speaking to them as well.

From there, determine whether you have enough warehouse workers to actually get this job done. If there’s overlap between trying to operate from two properties at once, it may be worthwhile to hire temporary workers in order to keep the business operating at as close to normal levels as possible.

Organise Your Make Good

Whether it’s for an office or a warehouse, it’s also important to organise an end of lease make good as soon as possible. This will ensure that the warehouse is left in the same condition that it was when the lease was started and that extra fees are not incurred for the business.

Getting the make good organised early means that it can be planned in conjunction with the relocation, making sure there are no delays or overlaps in the service.

Organise Pallet Racking

Other than moving the actual items being stored in the warehouse, have you considered what’s happening with the pallet racking as well? If you’re getting new pallet racking installed, it’s obviously important that it’s done prior to good being moved into the new warehouse. With that, have you arranged to sell your old pallet racking?

The final option is to move the existing pallet racking that you already own. This needs to be planned for, as well as the planning for the storage of the pallets that are sitting on that racking.

Work With A Pro

Any warehouse relocation project is going to have a lot of moving parts that requires both the knowledge of the team that run the warehouse as well as a team of professionals who know what they’re doing, and that’s why it’s important to work with professionals, especially professionals who are able to work end to end for the project.

At A1 Precision Solutions, we can handle all aspects of a warehouse relocation from packing up the old warehouse, to setting up the new warehouse (including pallet racking), and even performing the make good at the old premises. So speak to us if your business has outgrown its old warehouse. We can help.