Lab Relocation: 6 Critical Considerations When Moving LCMS Equipment

Moving LCMS equipment is a complicated and delicate challenge. LCMS instruments are fine-tuned with a lot of sensitive parts. Here are the most important things to consider if you’re relocating your lab.

Relocating your lab and moving LCMS equipment can be a high-risk, high-stress project. There are many moving parts involved. Beyond the instruments themselves, you have to coordinate the project managers, movers, engineers, IT and contractors at the new facility.

That’s why we put together a few things to consider in advance of your lab relocation. Having these bases covered is the first step to making sure your LCMS equipment relocation project goes as smoothly as possible.

6 Things to Consider When Moving LCMS Equipment

#1) Your LCMS Equipment

Of course, you’ll want to consider and make a plan for LCMS equipment you’ll be moving. However, if it’s your first time relocating a lab, this can be a bigger job than you think. It’s more than taking inventory of the LCMS instruments, making a packing list, and wrapping them in packing material.

You need to make sure that you have a plan for properly decommissioning and packing each instrument. Every LCMS instrument is different – whether they’re made by different OEMs, have mismatched parts, or are tuned with slight differences. LCMS instruments are fine-tuned, and moving can change the way they normally function. In this area, bespoke crates can be critical to the safe transport of delicate equipment.

It’s important to have engineers who know how to decommission and pack your instruments, no matter their manufacturer. The engineers should also be able to calibrate and take some baseline performance measurements of each LCMS instrument. This helps ensure the LCMS instruments are performing normally when you arrive at the new site.

#2) Your New Facilities

The next thing you need to consider when moving LCMS equipment is your new site, more specifically where the equipment is going.

Make sure your new lab facility is fully set up to handle LCMS equipment. That means wide enough clearances, freight elevators, the right electrical outlets, proper ventilation, and gas supplies.

All these requirements should be lined up before you move to ensure you can get your lab up and running as soon as possible.

#3) The Vendors You’ll Be Managing

For large-scale moves, you’ll likely have many different people on site to help. Scheduling and managing all these vendor relationships is a huge undertaking.

Make sure you have a plan to coordinate everyone that needs to be at the move. One of the downsides of working just with your OEM service providers for a move is that you’ll have to coordinate and manage people from many different companies.

That makes your move even harder to coordinate and all but ensures something will get missed.

#4) The Engineers Moving Your Equipment

Another thing to consider are the engineers. Who will be decommissioning, packing and reinstalling your LCMS equipment?

In an ideal world, the engineer that decommissions and packs your equipment should be the one who installs it and runs necessary qualification processes at the new site. LCMS instruments are fine-tuned to the point where each is unique. Making sure you can get the same engineers to pack, move, and reinstall your LCMS equipment will ensure everything can run normally in the new lab.

#5) Your Research Timetables

Relocating your lab means downtime.

This is a fact you need to prepare for. Downtime can mean a lot of things to a lot of different labs, but no matter what your lab is working on, downtime impacts both revenue and drug development timetables.

When moving your lab, take your research timetables into account. Which instruments can you afford to be non-operational for a short time? How long can your science be put on pause without affecting results? Use these answers to inform the timetable of your lab relocation.

#6) Any Possible Maintenance Your Instruments Need

One last thing to consider: are any of your LCMS instruments due for maintenance or repairs? If they are, you can save time and resources by scheduling both on the same day the instruments are reinstalled at your new site.

With the engineer already there, you can save yourself the scheduling hassle. On top of that, your LCMS equipment will be in great shape once you ramp up your operations in your new lab space.

Why Your LCMS Relocation Services Provider Matters

Traditionally, labs usually work with the OEMs to move their equipment. This can lead to problems and headaches down the road. While it may seem like the only option, there are service providers out there who can handle the entirety of your LCMS equipment move from start to finish.

Lab relocations from a non-OEM, multivendor LCMS service provider are much more comprehensive. Instead of coordinating various OEM service reps and engineers, you can get a single team of dedicated experts who are familiar with all your LCMS equipment. Good multivendor teams will also be able to take care of reinstallation and calibration as well as any needed maintenance.

Conclusion – Work with the Right LCMS Relocation Vendor

Moving LCMS equipment is a huge challenge, but if you keep these things in mind as you form your plan, you will make it through. If you want to make it even easier, work with an LCMS service provider that knows your instruments and knows how to move, reinstall and recalibrate them efficiently. 

Relocating your LCMS equipment? Get in touch with ZefSci to learn how multivendor LCMS services can help.