Company move Lemmens s.a. from Tilff to Sprimont

Between May 2015 and January 2016, we have supported the organization of the relocation of the Cables&Tarpaulins Lemmens from buildings
located in Tilff along the Ourthe to their new facility in Damré's Zoning in Sprimont.

Background and opportunity

Cables&Tarpaulins Lemmens S.A. is a family business since 1919. Recently, the company has built a new building more in line with its activities and opportunities development (among others abroad).
The initial desire to keep internaly the organization of this relocation was finally aborted by the management team to focus fully to their "core business".

On recommendation, Mr Lemmens has finally used Optim Engineering to coordinate this extraordinary project in the life of a company.
In May 2015, a few weeks before the installation of the new building, our collaboration started.

The picking warehouse

For the storage of "small" Handling and safety parts, a 500sqm shop with mezzanine (170m of shelves on 9 levels = 1.5km linear tablets) was ordered.
After analysis and a few days before the assembly, Optim has proposed some adjustments to fit better to the real needs of the customer:

- Openings at the end of the driveways to facilitate movement.

- Analysis of the articles dimensions to define the appropriate plate heights for storage on shelves.

- Adding a fence to the back of the shelves and dividers for holding goods.

- Realization of wooden boxes with 4 wheels located under the shelves custom-made to store the too heavy hooks.

- Buying a special arrow-aisle stacker to circulate in the warehouse with 1.85m driveways.

Inventory and labeling

Overall, after a complete inventory that we achieved, near 70 semi-trailers were estimated for the whole move (workshops, coil racks, shelving and inventory, including more than 600 tons of cable coils).
The company Lemmens is well known for its wide variety of cables in stock, it was important to take advantage of this change to rethink the rational location of each coils. Most were labeled or marked to identify their precise destination. When refitting coils racks, each store location was also identified to facilitate and accelerate the storage.
Finally, the move has obviously helped to sort and upgrade of goods "forgotten" (cable waste, hooks and other items misplaced, non-recoverable sheets, ...).

Tarpaulins workshop furnishings

In tarpaulins workshop, some holes in the ground were planned to include welders tarpaulins. This facilitates the handling of webs.

We imagined an optimal layout of these holes with electrical power and compressed air from the ceiling to prevent the passage of cables around the holes.
A wooden floor, stairs and railings were also custom designed.
Road markings were painted to define the drop zones, transit, etc. This labeling was also performed in the other workshop and storages.

For storage sheeting rolls, stackable metal pallets have been proposed to simplify handling while reducing clutter.

Moving and restarting the production

A requirement from the management of Lemmens company was to be able to serve the customer even during the move and minimize the downtime of the two workshops. The choice of dates has been done to enjoy the week off between the holiday season. On 7 of December 2015, stocks began to be moved from Tilff and 4 January 2016, the business was relaunched in Sprimont.

The tarpaulins workshop finally disrupted its activity for ~ 5 days and cabling for ... 1 day and a half! The store meanwhile was emptied in 4 days (filling the new store was a little more laborious). The administrative part, meanwhile, was moved between Christmas and New Year.

" We thank the company Optim Engineering and Lionel Hacourt for the professionalism and organizational intelligence that he demonstrated
throughout our move from Tilff to Sprimont.

Moving is always complex, each company having its own expectations and constraints.

Surrounded himself with an experienced logistician seems fundamental. In addition to the ideas and challenged he brings, he's the coordinator between the company and all move stakeholders (electricians, handlers, ...); and it will give you the ability to stay focused and concentrate on your business and your bottom line! "
Frédéric Lemmens, Administrator of Lemmens S.A.

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