by Grayson Dance, Relocation Services Product Manager, Agilent Technologies, Inc.
Choosing a true lab relocation partner over individual providers is one of the biggest factors in determining a move’s success. An expert partner with scientific experience can be the difference between finishing the relocation ahead of time while still under budget or waiting weeks after the move for repairs and additional service to be completed and days filled with downtime. Due to the risk of downtime, lab relocations can frustrate even the most seasoned lab manager.
A common assumption about lab relocation projects is that only the instrumentation is being moved. In reality, entire scientific workflows, along with precise and calculated operations, are being relocated. By extension, moving such workflows includes the instrumentation and the samples, reagents, and other office equipment that make the research possible. The wrong relocation provider potentially invites days of downtime needed to re-establish a functional operation by moving only equipment rather than entire workflows. Time spent repositioning and recalibrating should occur during the move, by the relocation partner, not after the fact or by the lab staff.
A range of service organizations is necessary to complete a lab-wide operation but finding the right expert for every part of the move is challenging. Avoid contacting dozens of individual providers. Instead, entrust sourcing and supplier management to a scientific partner who will be your single point of contact. That partner’s experience and business connections will not only remove the burden of finding the right providers, but those connections typically bring better rates as well. Choose a partner with scientific experience for your next move. Ensure that your relocation partner truly understands the equipment, the needs of the move, and how to return to science as quickly as possible.
Scientific partners understand lab equipment and know the experts to handle them
Relocations usually involve several providers, given the range of equipment types and manufacturers in most labs. Rather than finding one provider to service an entire fleet, experienced relocation partners will enlist expertise from multiple sources to ensure that each asset is handled appropriately. While a general moving company handles office equipment without issue, some working knowledge is preferred for the engineers preparing to move analytical equipment or hazardous materials. So, how do you determine which provider should be your partner to organize, execute, and manage the move while reducing costs and promoting productivity?
Choose a partner that has familiarity with and understands analytical equipment. Scientific research companies invest heavily in their instrumentation and all the accompanying modules and accessories, the service, maintenance, and reports that go into making that equipment run optimally. When it’s time to move instrumentation, protecting that investment should be a top priority. Select a partner with significant scientific experience, especially in equipment manufacturing and service. Doing so guarantees that trained experts will properly handle your equipment every step of the move. The right partner will know how to uninstall equipment correctly, transport assets safely, and verify performance accurately—all complicated steps requiring specific knowledge. By making such a partner your relocation expert, you entrust the most critical details to capable professionals. Trusting complex equipment to untrained hands can lead to damage, resulting in high repair costs and days of downtime. Inexperienced moving groups may also fail to properly reinstall assets or verify operation, causing diminished performance and, again, increased costs.
Scientific partners understand scientific workflows and the space they need
Beyond instrumentation, scientific companies such as an instrument manufacturer also understand the intricacies of a new lab and its intended workflows. A good relocation plan should focus on the destination. The destination includes the location, the workflow, and the intended use of the new space.
A partner with scientific experience can provide expert guidance when brought in early. Your partner acts as both project manager and consultant in these moves by being part of the planning phase. Your partner will listen to the lab’s needs and goals, inspect the new space, and bring in the right hands to execute. The ideal relocation partner will identify gaps where additional outside expertise may be required. These gaps could include de-installation and reinstallation of equipment or site preparation relating to physical footprints, power connections, or other utilities. Such a partner has the connections to bring in other experts where needed. Hundreds of details come into play. Failing to account for these details can delay the return to science in a new space.
Scientific experience is often taken for granted among those who market relocation services, so browse the provider’s offerings. Do their other products and services directly support lab workflows and optimizations? If not, that provider may not deliver a successful relocation. Pre-move challenges arise first, as labs realize the time needed to take an accurate inventory and understand what the lab physically owns. When a provider fails to take an accurate inventory, every subsequent step in the move becomes more arduous. Next, the challenges typically associated with moving will follow: equipment to be uninstalled, boxes to pack, boxes to unpack, equipment to then be reinstalled, and the downtime caused by it all. An experienced relocation partner will know your industry, handle each of these phases with ease, and provide value at every step of the process.
Lab relocation is more than moving boxes; it’s also an opportunity for improvement
A successful relocation plan accounts for the complexities of scientific equipment. Even uninstalling such equipment requires specialized skills. Reinstalling is no different and often includes extra steps to verify that instrumentation performs correctly or adheres to regulatory guidelines. Accounting for the time necessary for those steps and any sourcing required to find the necessary experts is crucial. Other services may be necessary to truly enable the fastest return to science—compliance, asset management programs, or inventory management. Using a scientific company as a partner will ensure that these can be organized and will include these services within the relocation timeline. Scientific companies by nature understand laboratory needs and can recommend strategies for a faster, seamless move. Even sourcing and management of these services should be left to a scientific expert, as they have a deep understanding of the lab’s needs and know how to solve laboratory problems. Prevent frustration. Ask potential providers difficult questions. How will performance be verified and ensured at the destination? What transportation considerations are taken for analytical equipment? How will regulatory guidelines be adhered to at the destination?
Finally, a true partner understands that relocation doesn’t mark the final opportunity for improvement. Once set up in the new site, laboratories often discover new challenges. An experienced partner can further advance operations by identifying compliance, inventory, or asset management gaps in advance and potentially start laying the groundwork for solutions before the relocation is complete. For example, an experienced provider may simultaneously establish an effective asset management program with the relocation. In this case, no time is lost implementing such a program, which would typically take weeks, and the new lab is operating more efficiently with all services handled by the time the instruments are reinstalled. Make the most of your time and lab fleet with enterprise offerings, including relocations and extensive post-move services.
Conclusion
The need for a capable partner with extensive scientific knowledge and understanding of industry best practices cannot be overstated when relocating an analytical laboratory. Ensure that your relocation partner has the laboratory background to truly understand the intentions of the relocation, what will be needed to make those intentions reality, and the suppliers and connections required to make it all happen. A lack of experience will resurface—weeks of downtime following relocations are too common and avoidable. Explore available partners, ask important questions, and start collaborating early. Choose the right partner. Let your relocation enable real laboratory excellence in a space built for purpose while improving your operations as opportunities arise during and after the move.
About the Author: Grayson Dance has held multiple positions focused on exploring the challenges of modern research laboratories and advancing those laboratories' operations. He holds a degree in English from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee. Grayson joined Agilent in 2016, and took on the role of Global Marketing & Communications Specialist for the Laboratory Enterprise Division (LED) in 2017. In 2018, he began his current role as product manager for Agilent's Relocation Services, part of Agilent’s enterprise offerings, in which he focuses on providing customers globally with improved business and science continuity throughout their relocation experiences.