P&O Trans European takes care of the details
The requirements of modern removal management have profoundly changed. Especially in the commercial sector, the goods to be moved very often include extensive IT systems and computer networks which have to he taken from the old to the new location safely and reliably. The logistics provider P&O Trans European. which is active all across Europe. has established a special high-tech division for such tasks. Its project department is in charge of removal management and of <> of new products.
Besides special projects, the range of services offered by the P&O Team extends across warehouse management and <> distribution. Comprehensive extra services add up to a <>. The company replaces and installs automatic cash tellers, handles pre-assemblv tasks and quality checks for printing press makers, and offers a worldwide service for the sensitive systems used in medical technology.
Being prepared
The following example shows how far-reaching and complex an IT removal project can be: Zurich Agrippina Versicherung AG. one of the largest insurance conglomerates in Germany, decided to move its service centre and senior management to new accommodation in Frankfurt City West (Germany). Between the two divisions, a total of 1200 workplaces had to be relocated.
Even though IT removals and PC installations are the bread and butter of the high-tech division of P&O Trans European, this project presented a real challenge on account of its complexity and the short
time window available in which to accomplish it. A few figures about the project:
• 1200 workstations
• 36,000 removal cartons
• 1200 IT systems
• 800 printers and fax machines
• 330 truck loads of office material.
Two weekends were available for this herculean task. The plan was to move around 270 PC workstations during the first weekend, and then to shift another 900 to the new offices during the second weekend so that ZUrich Agrippina’s staff could start their work without any disruptions at their new accommodation on Monday morning.
In order to guarantee a smooth information flow, a <> was formed, consisting of executives of Zurich Agrippina, a consulting firm, the furniture removal company and the project management of P&O Trans European. The status quo of the different partial projects were harmonised with the tasks and activities still to be performed in regular meetings. This also necessitated thorough planning.
The backbone of the whole IT removal was a removal database, into which the P&O team entered numerous items of information. During a two week inventory assessment period, all the workstations with their respective IT systems were listed, including type, serial number, network name, etc. Moreover, the old and new locations of all the workstations were logged on office plans.
With this database and the architects’ plans provided by Zurich Agrippina, on which all the workstations and available powerpoints were marked, the P&O team drew up a detailed removal plan and patch plans for wiring up the telephone system and the IT components. This required a total of approximately 2800 connections.
Disassembly, re-assembly and testing
The starting shot was fired on Friday at 10:00 hrs. It only took the technicians of P&O Trans European six hours to unplug all the PCs, printers and telephones at the old offices and pack them in their boxes. The office furniture was removed by the furniture removal company simultaneously. The first of three P&O teams of electricians were already at work on the new site by 17:00 hrs and began installing the first systems which had arrived from the old offices. The P&O hightech division has installed thousands of workstations in recent years. which made this part of the contract more or less routine. Once the systems had been installed, P&O’s test team moved in to check if things were functioning.
Zurich Agrippina and P&O Trans European had previously agreed on a checklist for t
