How to Decommission Your Warehouse and Manage Stakeholder Expectations

The decision to decommission a warehouse is never easy. It involves careful planning, coordination with multiple stakeholder groups, and managing expectations. Whether you are relocating to a new facility, consolidating operations, retooling your existing facility, or shutting down completely, you need a strategic approach to ensure a smooth transition.

Warehouse Strip Out and Decommissioning Strategy

Several key steps can help reduce frustrations and keep things moving forward more efficiently. The first is to develop a cross-functional team.

Assemble Your Decommissioning Team

Your team should include representatives from different functional areas that will be impacted, including operations, logistics, facility management, finance, and human resources. Managing expectations requires communication with everyone involved in the process.

A cross-functional team will avoid overlooking certain stakeholders and identifying potential challenges in the warehouse strip-out process.

Create Your Decommissioning Plan

With the team in place, you will need to develop your plan to outline the decommissioning process. Plans will vary greatly depending on whether you are shutting down or moving and whether you are liquidating your assets quickly or looking to maximize the return on your investment.

Your plan needs to include:

• Goals
• Timelines
• Milestones
• Tasks
• Contingencies

Planning is key and it can get complex. This is a good time to engage with professional warehouse decommissioning experts to make sure you get it right. For example, Conesco Storage Systems is a nationwide leader in warehouse liquidations and has decades of experience with decommissioning warehouses. Working with experts can dramatically reduce project time and save you money by working efficiently.

Communicate With Stakeholders

There may be a lot of people affected by your decision to decommission your warehouse. Employees, customers, suppliers, local authorities, landlords, owners, investors — it can be a long list. You need to identify who you need to communicate with, what they need to know, and how to keep them informed throughout the process.

For example, employees will want to know about their jobs and what’s expected of them during the close-out. Owners and investors will want to know the costs of decommissioning and what they might recoup from the sale of used material handling equipment. Customers and suppliers will want to know how it impacts them.

You will want to provide regular updates on timelines and milestones and communicate any changes that occur when executing your plan.

Manage Employee Transitions

These projects typically have a significant impact on your workers involved in warehouse operations, so you will want to address their concerns as early as possible. Provide ample notice and ensure compliance with all labor laws and regulations.

For example, large-scale warehouse closures may require advance notice. Federal requirements under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) require most employers with 100 or more workers to notify at least 60 days in advance of closings or mass layoffs.

Asset and Inventory Management

One of the most crucial parts of warehouse decommissioning is managing your assets and inventory.

Working with experienced team is key: hire a company that provides custom quotes to buy your warehouse equipment at fair market prices. They’ll be able to buy and sell a huge amount of new and used equipment while helping you understand pricing and options. Ideally, the end result should be an inventory list of material handling equipment, prepping it for sale, and disposing of assets that are no longer of value.

Conduct a Warehouse Strip Out

When it is time, you will need to strip out all of the equipment in the warehouse, including racking systems, shelving, conveyors, mezzanines, automation, and any other equipment. You need to do this carefully to avoid damage.

You would be surprised how much damage can be done to good equipment if the teardown process or packing equipment for transportation is not managed properly. This is something that an experienced team of professionals will take great care to prevent with labor that ensures safe and efficient teardown to maximize value.

Prepare for Closure or Hand-over

After the warehouse has been cleared, you will need to prepare the facility for closure or turn it over to landlords, owners, or new tenants. Depending on your agreement, you may need to clean, repair, or modify the workspace. For example, removing pallet racking may require cutting off floor bolts and adding epoxy to level out floors.

You may be able to present the facility in broom-swept condition or you may need to return it to its original condition. Either way, you will want to make sure you know what is expected and communicate the transition process, including any required documentation.

Call the Warehouse Decommissioning Experts

A lot can go wrong in the process of warehouse decommissioning, especially if you have not done it before. Mistakes are common and delays cost time and money. It is best to get the professionals involved early to avoid problems and delays.

At Conesco Storage Systems, we are experts in warehouse decommissioning and teardowns. We work with a nationwide network of warehouse equipment buyers and sellers and know how to maximize your value. We care about maximizing your results and ensuring a smooth transition.

Avoid costly mistakes. Contact Conesco Storage Systems at (303) 690-9591 to discuss your warehouse decommissioning project.