When it comes to moving, office and commercial relocations are best left to the pros. These types of jobs require a high level of coordination, management, and strategy to execute without causing disruption to your business. Professional movers such as Wayfinder have the skills and experience to safely transport valuable equipment, with precise time management to minimize your non-productive downtime.
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The Details
Wayfinder was approached by a large aeronautics and avionics company (referred to here as Sky High Inc.) about our office moving services. Sky High Inc. repairs and services every imaginable component found in an airplane cockpit, from windshield wiper motors to black boxes. Our job was to help relocate the company from their current 68,000 sq. foot property to a new facility.
As you can imagine, most of the items Sky High Inc. needed to move were extremely fragile – sensitive not only to force damage, but also shaking or vibrations. Many of the repair tools were legacy equipment, meaning they could not be replaced if damaged. The company also had one-of-a-kind, custom testing equipment, as well as dozens of large machines for black box and software programing. Each machine ranged in value from $500,000–$1,000,000. To sum up, it was imperative that these high-value, sensitive, and rare pieces of equipment be moved to their new location in perfect working order.
Wayfinder had three main priorities for this move:
- Keep our team safe
- Keep the equipment safe / preserve its operational capability
- Avoid damaging the building property
The Process
The factor that made this move complicated for our team, was that half of Sky High Inc’s machines were set up on the second floor – with no elevator in the building. We needed to determine how to smoothly transport them to the first floor, our trucks, and the new facility without disrupting the internal mechanisms of the equipment. The solution would be to roll each unit downstairs on wheels or in a commercial bin.
First, we built a ramp in the facility’s widest stairwell. The ramp had to be solid and able to withstand extremely heavy loads; it also could not be attached to the building in any way, as that would have caused permanent damage. Our crew members would need to guide each load down the stairwell, so only one side of the steps could be covered by the ramp. This required us to build a curb on the ramp to keep units from falling over the side. We made sure to pad any walls and areas surrounding the ramp to protect them from incoming cargo.
Our next obstacle: how do we move each unit down the stairs without injuring a team member? The machines weighed well more than one team member could safely hold back and keep from flying down the stairs. We decided to install a system of ropes to slowly lower the units down the ramp. No ready-made products existed to accomplish this, so we custom-designed our own, using climbing rope to make a cargo net hooked to a series of tow ropes.
With all the preparations completed, we put our plan into action. Two crew members were posted at the top of the stairs to work the tow rope, along with an extra man as a safeguard. One team member guided the cargo down the ramp. Once each unit got close to the bottom of the stairs, two men gently slid it off the end of the ramp to the floor. We were able to slowly ease the cargo down the stairs without jarring or jostling any equipment. From there, we simply loaded the balance onto the truck and transported it to the new facility.
The Results
The Wayfinder team engineered this process so strategically that the time we estimated to complete the job was cut down by a considerable amount. The efficiency of our team ended up taking $20,000 off the cost quoted to Sky High Inc. for their move.
The entire project went off without a hitch, and without ANY damage to a single piece of equipment. It was a high-stakes commercial move with a lot of potential to go wrong, but it could not have gone smoother – because the Wayfinder team is talented from top to bottom.
Whether you need to relocate a small or large office, lab equipment, school classroom, university dorm, retail store, or even a warehouse, Wayfinder is ready to help. Give us a call at (716) 832-6683 and one of our move coordinators will be happy to start your custom quote.
