Relocation Relocation Relocation

When moving an entire laboratory, you’ll need more than the tenacity of TV’s Kirstie and Phil. Here, Joe Tehrani tells us that from across the road to across the globe, relocation services can minimise equipment downtime

The exciting pace of growth within R&D is driving a need for relocation services that significantly reduce the impact of relocating laboratory equipment. Selection of a relocation team must be based on flexibility to customer needs, proven experience and a range of technical and practical expertise.

At the heart of every move is the realisation that each laboratory is unique with individual requirements for the range of equipment, operational standards and timelines for delivery. Relocation services must therefore be personalised and performed by a highly experienced team that can manage all aspects of relocation from planning, documenting and decommissioning to packing, moving and recommissioning.

Moving high-end analytical instrumentation, precious samples, and hazardous materials efficiently is a specialist job. Selection of a service provider must therefore be based on proven experience with a track record of delivering on time, within safety guidelines and in full compliance with customers’ laboratory process requirements.

In heavily regulated environments, such as pharmaceutical manufacture and testing, there is also a requisite need for compliance with GLP/GMP guidelines. Appropriate qualification of equipment both before and after relocation requires a provider with extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance and experience of applying this knowledge to ensure that the documentation satisfies both regulatory requirements and aligns with customer policies, procedures and project specific validation master plans. Access to an extensive reference library of protocols and procedures must be supported by highly trained staff and an inherent flexibility to match the customer requirements that may change during the lifetime of the relocation project. For example, equipment requires full IQ/OQ/PQ qualification at the new location, while pre-move qualification secures all work performed on the equipment prior to the move and prevents the need to perform impact assessments if equipment fails qualification at the new location. However, pre-move qualification is the area of greatest variation between organisations.

The very essence of laboratory relocation, from planning to successful project execution, is the safe and efficient move of all laboratory assets. This typically entails working in a hazardous material environment. Working in conjunction with environment, health and safety, and radiation protection services, a deliberate step-wise approach must be applied for personnel and site safety. Procedures for the disposal of all hazardous materials prior to the move should be developed and communicated - chemical, bio-hazardous, and carcinogenic inventories need to be characterised and reduced before relocation, while packing, labelling, and storage of these materials must comply with safety procedures. 

Sourcing a qualified lab relocation provider involves undertaking a thorough audit of the provider’s experience, processes, capabilities, and resources. Most equipment manufacturers support relocation of a small number of items of their own equipment, typically including execution of their standard qualification protocols. However, as even small relocation projects involve equipment from different suppliers, this approach becomes less attract

Table 1: What to look for in a laboratory relocation service provider

• A flexible and personalised service that will streamline the relocation process • Expert project managers and highly trained field service engineers • Effective procedures for handling hazardous materials • Specifically designed management systems to audit, document and verify equipment • Ability to integrate qualification programmes • Proven track record of delivering laboratory services on-time, in-full and above expectations

ive because of the need to co-ordinate each company and the difficulty of variation between each manufacturers qualification documents. Therefore, lab relocation is best executed by a company with multi-vendor capability with a common approach to qualification documentation.

From the provider’s perspective, an experienced laboratory relocation resource first seeks to understand the background to the relocation, the culture of the work environment, and important issues that will affect the overall project. Developing good relationships with customers and ensuring that their concerns are highlighted within the project plan means that most time is spent, not in the actual act of moving, but in the exhaustive measures required for preparation.

Planning for relocation must cover every operational aspect of the move in detail, complete with timetables, allocated responsibilities and logistics. An equipment inventory audit will verify what equipment needs to be moved and addresses any shipment issues. Each instrument’s location, configuration, operational condition, and usage must be documented and any sensitive instrument that requires specialised transportation, such as air-ride trucks, identified. All assets will then be tagged systematically.

Identification and resolution of logistical obstacles must also be addressed as part of the project plan. Hoisting a large robotic workstation in or out of a third floor window using a crane, for instance, requires preparation and experienced personnel.

An effective project plan will include detailed reviews of all locations. New locations (because there may be more than one site) need to be evaluated for appropriateness and readiness for receiving the equipment. All locations need to be “walked through” following the flow of the equipment to ensure access and identify any potential problems. Knowledge and communication of all activity and plans for the laboratory areas ensures that potential “bottle necks” such as engineering work or lift access does not compromise the well thought out plan. In addition, there should be enough flexibility built into the plan to account for any potential increase to the equipment inventory list.

Clear direction is essential to ensure the smooth running of the project. This will come from the project leader who will take ownership of the entire relocation and will be responsible for the creation and delivery of the project plan, in partnership with the client company. The project leader can mean the success or failure of the move - for any relocation to be successful there must be a climate of trust and partnership. Lab relocation providers are entrusted with managing a company’s ability to perform in the future and the project leader plays a key role in ensuring overall coordination and communication.

A lab relocation provider should employ an accomplished team made up of specialists who have experience working with varied instrumentation and software platforms. Typical backgrounds ranging from analytical chemistry to nuclear physics are appropriate given the environment and the sensitive nature of the analytical instrumentation involved. Regardless of manufacturer or the level of customisation, the lab relocation team must ensure that instrument breakdown, shipment, re-commissioning, calibration, and qualification are carried out efficiently. Having a lab relocation team staffed with life and analytical science instrumentation specialists takes the dependency away from the individual original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This saves a lot of time and money and ensures consistency in the quality of service delivery.

In GLP/GMP environments, the planning stage must incorporate a programme for equipment qualification. The use of pre and post move benchmarking, in conjunction with qualification for the equipment demonstrates performance of the equipment before the move, through the move and after the move. This becomes most critical when qualification is required across a number of different instruments from a range of OEMs. Some laboratory service providers also include multi-vendor qualification programmes to consolidate different OEM protocols into a single document. Multi-vendor qualification and benchmarking simplifies the validation master plan documentation, speeds the whole qualification process, streamlines the length of protocol execution and enables qualification of complete systems instead of individual components. This approach significantly reduces the time required for qualification processes both before and immediately after installation.

The logistical problems of any laboratory relocation can be overcome as long as the provider has the ability to tailor services that are also scalable. Today, the global economy fuels the need for intercontinental moves - country-specific regulation and licensing knowledge then become a critical factor and must be built into the plan. As such, using a global provider reduces the overall complexity of relocation and minimises the probability that any aspect is overlooked.

The up-front planning that a company or laboratory relocation entails also represents a great opportunity to evaluate the status of laboratory assets. All pieces of laboratory equipment, from the simplest centrifuge to NMR systems, represent equity. The identification of surplus laboratory equipment for potential redeployment within an organisation, or recovery based on equipment resale values, can positively offset forecasted capital expenditure. This asset management step, integrated into the actual laboratory relocation planning process, ensures that only “active” equipment is moved and is deployed effectively. However, the redeployment of idle assets is only a part of the overall benefit of asset management for customers. Efficient management of laboratory assets through analysis of equipment lifecycles and service records enables reduction of maintenance costs and can enable scheduling of preventative maintenance and repair to reduce equipment downtime. 

The future productivity of a lab, and ultimately of the company, is directly affected by the ability to execute relocation efficiently. Lab relocation, and a range of other supporting services, is a specialised activity that requires careful detailed planning and execution by experienced technical personnel. Choose your lab relocation provider carefully. Challenge their track records, check their references, and audit their resources. A good service provider will be flexible to your needs bringing huge benefits to a relocation project, allowing you to get on with the science.


By Joe Tehrani. Joe is Multivendor Validation Business Leader at PerkinElmer/Biomatic