Laboratory Relocation Checklist
A laboratory move is an equipment project, a compliance project and a logistics project at once. The instruments are usually the easiest part.
Plan (3-12 months out)
- Full asset inventory with weights, dimensions, utilities and vendor move requirements
- Decide what moves, what is replaced, and what is disposed of
- Confirm new site readiness dates for utilities, ventilation and casework
- Identify methods that cannot be offline, and arrange continuity or subcontracting
- Book specialist movers, riggers and vendor decommissioning early
- Plan sample, reference material and archive transport, including cold chain
- Notify clients, accreditation bodies and regulators as required
Prepare (4-8 weeks out)
- Run down chemical stock; hazardous material transport is regulated and costly
- Arrange waste disposal and cylinder returns
- Decontaminate equipment and issue certificates for each item
- Back up instrument computers, LIMS and data, and verify the backups
- Label everything against the inventory and the new floor plan
- Confirm insurance covers the move and transit value
Move
- Vendor decommissioning for sensitive instruments where required
- Environmental and shock monitoring for delicate equipment in transit
- Maintain cold chain and custody records for samples throughout
- Sequence delivery so critical instruments install first
- Have someone on site at both ends against the inventory
Restart
- Reinstall, requalify and performance-verify each instrument before use
- Verify utilities, ventilation and hood performance at the new site
- Reverify methods where the environment materially changed
- Update documentation, addresses, layouts and accreditation records
- Run parallel or control samples before releasing client results
- Retain the old site until restart is genuinely proven, where possible