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9 Steps to a Successful Plant Relocation

Kenneth Stem

Written by Kenneth Stem

Relocating your plant, whether it is across town or to another continent, is a complex and exhausting process. With multiple interconnected moving parts, your organization needs to have the ability to manage the hiring and training of new staff, comply with the new building codes, and update or renew equipment simultaneously among other important tasks. Delays, setbacks, and unforeseeable problems are commonplace with such large scale multicomponent operations.

Despite these challenges, plant relocation can present numerous advantages — lower labor costs, tax benefits, access to government incentive programs, ability to improve processes with minimal disruption, access to new markets, among others. These advantages can make the whole endeavor worth all the time, expense, and effort. 

To help you make this process as smooth and easy as possible, we have put together a comprehensive 9-part blog series, so you and your organization can understand its needs. With this, you can plan an appropriate production layout, and implement changes, and get started with production. Our guide is applicable to all organizations, whether you have a simple 10-person shop or a multi-million dollar facility employing hundreds of people — the same principles apply, only the scale and complexity changes. 

The nine steps we will discuss in this series are: 

  1. Preliminary Information
  2. Initial Plan
  3. Initial Project Plan
  4. Setting Targets
  5. Contingency Plans
  6. Confirm Plan
  7. Execute, Monitor & Adjust
  8. Result Analysis
  9. Maintain & Improve Processes
Steps involved in plant relocation

About The Authors

With over 10 years of experience, CMC’s leaders have an in-depth understanding of what it takes to relocate a factory. Get insight into what it takes to move your facility in this series. 

David Collins Jr., CMC’s founding partner, has had extensive experience setting up new factories of over 1 billion USD and consulting for numerous production facilities, including the assembly line for the F-35 jet. David also has a comprehensive understanding of the automotive industry, having built four factories that included robot instillation, chemical processes, assembly, welding, electronics, setting up the maintenance systems and process controls, and most importantly the hiring and training of staff.

Kenneth Stem, CMC’s President, has a thorough understanding of bringing facilities out of near bankruptcy to profitability by helping them turn around. His insight has been instrumental in re-thinking and improving manufacturing processes for better flexibility and lower costs.

Over the next 2 months, we will discuss the questions you should ask, and the steps you need to take to ensure that factory relocation is smooth, timely, and cost-effective. For updates when we release each part, subscribe to our Manufacturing Transformation News & Insights.


Looking to relocate your plant? Our consultants are available to help.  Schedule your free call today!

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