Moving complex machinery requires a lot of work, planning and precision. Even the simplest things going wrong can make the machinery moving process a nightmare. That’s why it’s very important to hire machinery movers that have a lot of knowledge and expertise in this field. In doing so, you will have great results and not have to worry about any issues/challenges that could arise.
In order to streamline the machinery moving process, we made a quick list with the different steps you need to focus on. As expected, moving any type of heavy machinery needs a ton of planning and careful consideration. But, if it’s done right, it can streamline and improve your workflow.
Pre-moving planning
Naturally, the first thing you want to do is to conduct a site assessment. You want to evaluate both the existing spot, but also the future location. You want to check the floor load capacity, narrow down the entry and exit points, and also determine any space constraints. Accessibility evaluation for trucks, forklifts and cranes also matters here.
After that, you must define the scope of the project. This entails things like what machinery you want to move, what support systems you have, if you have to disassemble and re-assemble machinery and so on. Budget and timeline play a major factor when it comes to this as well.
Making sure that you assemble a cross-functional team of engineers, maintenance, safety, IT and operations is crucial. The project manager will have to coordinate the process and ensure everyone has their guidelines and information. And aside from that, you also need to do a risk assessment to identify risks, such as compliance, physical and even electrical risks.
Find the best machinery movers
Once you perform the assessment, your focus is on finding the best machinery mover that you can. Ideally, when selecting any machinery moving crew, you want to search for:
- A company that has lots of experience when it comes to moving machinery
- Make sure that they have specialized, high quality and very durable equipment
- Technical capabilities for assembling and disassembling the machinery are crucial for this type of process
- Check for any past references, that’s important, and it will help the process more than expected.
- On top of that, you want to check and see if they have any bonding and insurance. That helps immensely, because if anything goes wrong, their insurance company will cover anything.
- After that, you need to formalize the contract. A moving contract needs to include things like scope of work, insurance coverage, responsibilities, safety protocols and timeline/penalties.
Equipment audit and documentation
You first want to document the equipment and its state before moving. Take high resolution photos and focus on connections, internal/external components, control panels and so on. It also helps if you back up the data and software, record any machine learning data and create a packing inventory. The reason is that you want to ensure the safety of all equipment, and also catalog to ensure nothing gets lost. During the moving process, things can be difficult to handle, but making sure you have an inventory system in place will help quite a bit.
Disassembling and preparing the unit
You want to power down and isolate the machinery first. That means disconnecting electrical, but also pneumatic power and any communication cables. You also want to drain any fluids from the machine and clean surfaces to remove any residue or dust. And, of course, make sure that you always use protective materials for wrapping. That’s important, because bubble wrap, foam padding, weatherproof shrink wrap, all of that will help more than expected.
Loading and transporting the machinery
Upon loading any heavy machinery, the most important thing is to use proper equipment. Gantry cranes, forklifts that have soft grips, even hydraulic jacks can prove to be effective and super reliable. Once you have the machinery onto the moving truck, you have to secure the load. Chains, ratchet straps, chocks, load binders, custom pallets, all of these will help immensely and you have to use them to your advantage.
Aside from that, make sure that you monitor the environmental conditions. These can affect the machinery. And that’s why a lot of machinery movers always have proper equipment to monitor any of the current conditions. Check humidity and temperature levels, and avoid exposure to snow or rain. In some cases, using a climate-controlled container will be necessary for the moving process.
In this part of the process we also have to think about transport logistics. The thing here is, you want to have an adequate route plan that will minimize dangers. Bridges tend to have load restrictions, so a longer route that avoids bridges might be preferred. You also want to account for any overhead clearances, and driving during low-traffic hours could make things better. Having an escort for the truck to ensure everything works smoothly is what you want to consider. And, of course, insurance matters, since you want to cover delays, equipment value, and any third party liabilities.
Receiving and installing the machinery
Now that the machine arrived at its destination, you want to inspect and see if there are any signs of damage. Document and report everything. Unload the machinery with care and compare with the pre-move photos. Re-assembling is crucial here, and you want to be careful, use the original guidelines for all the info. Make sure that you stick to the torque specifications for the fasteners and bolts, and reinstall all the safety features.
Calibrating and testing the machinery is just as important. Perform the functional tests first, and then do the controls testing and see if the software all works the way it should. Now, after that is done, you will need to validate the performance. That means you want to compare the current output to the baseline metrics. If everything is fine, that means you reinstalled the machine correctly and there shouldn’t be any concerns here.
Review and optimization
Once you finish everything, it’s important to conduct a debrief and see what went well, what could be improved and if there were any challenges that you encountered. Updating the maintenance records and logging the relocation in the asset management system is crucial, and it will help with the entire process.
Additionally, you want to do some safety re-training as well. Sometimes, after machinery moving, the machinery layout might change. In that case, adequate re-training is important, and you have to keep that in mind. Use it as an advantage, and it will help make the experience a whole lot better.
Other tips to consider:
- Ideally, you want to plan these shutdowns/moves to be during a downtime like holiday breaks. That way, it’s easier to manage everything and not cause disruptions.
- Work with the best machinery movers that you can find, to streamline the process.
- Check the flooring levels and ensure that you have some spare parts ready. Realistically, spare parts are needed especially when it comes to fuses, gaskets or seals.
Conclusion
Making sure that you streamline your next machinery move is very important. You always want to focus on enhancing the process and having spare parts, but it also helps if you have a plan. That way, you minimize concerns and avoid risks, while making the process easier to handle and manage!
