Preparing Your Factory Floor for a Safe & Efficient Machinery Move

Preparing Your Factory Floor for a Safe & Efficient Machinery Move

Making sure that the machinery moving process is effective and seamless will help a lot, and you always want to implement the machinery move in a way that’s professional and dependable. That’s why it makes sense to prepare the factory floor properly. And everything from adequate preparations to knowing the scissor lift rental price, all of that will come in handy. After all, keeping the machinery move effective is going to help quite a lot, and that’s totally something to keep in mind here.

Performing a pre-move assessment

The idea here is that you want to check the equipment heights and other measurements. You also want to see if there are clearances along the structural openings, aisles and so on. Checking the floor load capacities and overhead obstructions will help, too. And of course, you also want to assess and see if the environmental requirements for any sensitive equipment are tackled properly. The faster you do that, the better it will be here.

Organizing and clearing the work area

Before you even go and ask for the scissor lift rental price, it also makes sense to organize and clear stuff from the work area. If the factory floor is cluttered, then that will make moving things a whole lot harder to do, and you need to figure out ways of managing that situation. What you must do in these cases is:

  • You need to remove the pallets, debris and any unused raw materials
  • Additionally, you want to relocate and tag any of the portable carts or tools
  • Make sure that you block off the work zone in order to keep the employees from walking through the active rigging areas
  • And, of course, you do want to mark the paths for rigging equipment and transport vehicles, too. The faster you are addressing that, the better it will be of reducing chances of collisions, slips or even unplanned delays.

Preparing the utility connections before the machinery move

In order to move machines, you have to disconnect them from the pneumatic lines, but also hydraulics, the electrical service, water supply, coolant systems and vacuum or gas lines. Knowing how to address that and how to approach it in a way that’s consistent, it’s simple stuff like that which will help more than expected. At the end of the day, the best approach is to coordinate the connection and disconnection process. Plus, when you want to work on these systems, disconnecting is crucial, as it is the best approach you can have and it will help make the experience a lot more consistent and overall better in the end.

Assess the floor load capacity

If the floors can’t sustain the load of the heavy machines, that will become a problem. That’s the reason why you want to study the slab load capacity and also make sure that the transitions and ramps are supporting the equipment weight, along with any transport vehicles. Checking areas where some reinforcements might be necessary at least temporarily, that’s extremely important because it might be the case and you have to address the situation quickly, so use that to your advantage.

Ensure that the lifting equipment has access

That’s the thing, you do want to know the scissor lift rental price, but also make sure that the lifting equipment has proper access, and something you need to take into consideration here. With that being said, you want to start factoring in things like scissor, boom and personnel lifts. Make sure that you know exactly which ones of these are needed for the machinery move, but how you can also approach them in a consistent manner. That alone will help much more than expected, and it’s going to streamline the process better.

Create a safe traffic flow path

These flow paths can be super useful because they allow you to streamline the machinery move, while also keeping the process safe for everyone involved. With that in mind, you want to have cones, barricades and signage in place. And on top of that, it makes sense to communicate the route closures accordingly. The more you streamline this process, the better it will be.

Communicating the plan and talking with the workforce

Naturally, you want your team to know exactly what the situation is right now and how you can approach it in a way that’s very professional and comprehensive. Knowing how to address that and finding methods to solve that issue, that will be the deciding factor, and something you have to address in a professional manner. At the end of the day, what really matters here is talking with the team, creating the right restrictions, but also offering instructions for production adjustments or even for temporary work relocation. Handling that properly will help, and it will make the streamlining process much better in the end.

What you have to keep in mind is that communicating the plan will help ensure that you keep the moving process safe, and it’s always going to improve the way you are addressing the entire situation. Of course, it does have its challenges when it comes to the way of approaching this process itself, and you totally have to keep it in mind. Yes, it certainly has its downsides, and once you approach that properly, it will only make things better. That’s why you need to know exactly where the problem originates, the best way of dealing with it, and the implementations you need to make to avoid that in the future.

Verify the post-move readiness

That’s the thing, you do want to ensure that all the equipment is in place, so you can get the best possible results and outcome. And on top of that, you want to be certain that the machine is anchored and leveled, which is going to take quite a bit of time on its own as well. You then need to reconnect the utilities based on the manufacturer info, and inspect to see if there is any transport-related damage.

Adding to that, you want to conduct any startup testing as well as calibration, something that will matter a whole lot more than expected. And in addition, it makes sense to review the interlocks, barriers, safety guards and everything similar to that.

Coordinating with third party vendors

What we need to note is that coordinating with contractors and other vendors will help quite a lot, as you want to confirm their schedule, share the project timeline, while ensuring that the OEM technicians are present. And of course, you also want to obtain all the required permits, as it will help provide better consistency and quality, all in a very affordable and professional manner.

Enhancing the safety protocols

When we talk about machinery move, it does make sense to focus more and more on having the right safety protocols. And that’s the thing, moving such large machines is always a challenge, and you really want to address those things in a way that’s consistent and very professional. Using spotters in areas that have corners, conducting a pre-lifting safety meeting, ensuring that riggers and operators have the right certifications, all of that matters. And naturally, you do want to have a very clear communication system in place, as it will make the process better and more consistent.

Prepare the supporting infrastructure as well. There are things like electrical panels, compressed air drops, ventilation or HVAC systems, automation wiring and lighting adjustments, all of those will matter a whole lot more than expected. Making sure that you plan and implement all these upgrades, that will help you more than you might think. And in the end, it’s only going to help enhance the machinery move more than you think.

Documenting the machinery move

Documentation matters because it will allow you to figure out what went wrong, what you can improve and how you can make things better. That’s the main problem in most cases, you are dealing with a whole lot of concerns, and you really have to know how to manage those properly, otherwise you will not have good results.

At the same time, you do need to continue handling the machinery move in a proper manner, and you want to adapt and adjust in a more cohesive manner. It’s never going to be a simple process, but if you know how to adapt and improve upon it, that alone is only going to make the process better.

Conclusion

Making sure that you are preparing the factory floor for the machinery move is very important. It makes sense to know the scissor lift rental price, because such a unit might be needed during the process. And at the same time, it also makes sense to factor in all the critical details, be it infrastructure or equipment access, budgeting considerations and anything in between. The truth is that having a well-prepared factory floor is safer, not to mention it will be easier to work in there, if you already studied everything and ensured that it’s all ok and there are no potential dangers to worry about.

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