Eastman Chemicals

Overseas laboratory relocation for Eastman Chemicals

The Situation

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company producing a broad range of products found in items people use every day.

14,000 employees, in more than 100 countries, develop ground-breaking technologies, leading business models, and sustainable materials to help make the world a better place.

In 2017, managers at the UK’s Knowsley base identified a need to relocate a laboratory to Ghent in Belgium. This would require transporting complex, sensitive, and valuable laboratory and testing equipment including:

• A demag injection moulding machine (4500kg);
• Two dryers (total weight 800kg);
• Two hoppers for dryers (total weight 500kg);
• One CNC router (1000kg).

Johnsons Lab Logistics was appointed to manage the process.

The Solution

We audited the MSDS chemical list and quantities to ensure we complied with all European regulations for the overseas transfer of chemicals.

The entire project took 40 days of project management, involving:

• Fortnightly planning meetings from contract award;
• Validation period;
• Pre-pack;
• Moving period;
• Programme management;
• Pre-move visits to Belgium;
• Identifying excess furniture for disposal and sale;
• Identifying the transportation asset list;
• Packing/unpacking;
• Labelling;
• Designing 14 specialist Novak wooden crates and 74 IT crates to protect IT and other specialist equipment;
• Providing 325 plastic lidded crates;
• Relocating four 18-ton loads of equipment.

The Outcome

Due to the professionalism and expertise of our project management team we condensed the programme into fewer days than originally planned – without any impact on the quality of service delivery.

Client Quote

A spokesperson from Eastman Chemicals said:

“From the initial project meetings through to the last equipment being unpacked and installed into the new laboratory, Johnsons Lab Logistics undertook the entire process in an extremely efficient, knowledgeable and faultless way.”