ASB Bank had not undertaken a major relocation for over 20 years and there was no one on its staff who had managed a relocation larger than a branch fit-out. It was also a very high-profile event because ASB was the first corporate to locate to the Wynyard Quarter redevelopment and ASB’s old headquarters had already been leased to Auckland Council who were taking possession ten days after the final move.
Crown had to dismantle and remove all excess furniture from the old building through one goods lift so that the building could be made available to the new tenants. All items were sorted into three streams: reuse, recycle or waste. The relocation to North Wharf was completed without issue and under budget.
The hand over component of the project came in under budget when the variations were accounted for, and just under $20,000 was returned to ASB Bank as the residual value of recycled material.
The relocation totaled 6,000-man hours with Crown driving nearly 12,000kms to and from ASB Bank sites.
Consequently, the planning of the relocation project and managing it to a successful conclusion became the responsibility of Crown. It became apparent very early that in order to give the client peace of mind that the scope was being developed properly and everything was on schedule communication was paramount.
Crown’s Project Manager, Andrew Tolua had regular (increasing to daily) meetings with the ASB team as he developed a plan for both the physical staff relocation and the exit from Albert Street. Crown developed a health and safety plan for each phase of the project in conjunction with ASB’s Project Manager. Included within the plan was a communication strategy to ensure knowledge of and compliance with the detail of the proposed plan. This plan was cascaded through Crown and ASB with full debriefs after every phase and meetings to reinforce it before every shift.
One health and safety challenge specific to this project was ensuring that we managed staff fatigue and burn-out given the challenging timeframes required. This was managed by bringing staff in from outside Auckland and ensuring hours worked were tightly controlled and scheduled time off was enforced.
The physical relocation was relatively straightforward, but the concurrent exit plan was very ambitious. 26 floors had to be completely vacated in 14 days. Moreover, the recycling aspect of the project was of a scale never previously attempted in New Zealand.
The FF&E exit presented a few challenges:
Andrew researched alternatives, calculated their impact on productivity, priced them and presented a recommendation to ASB. He also liaised with subcontractors and waste management suppliers over methodologies and produced a plan to ensure logistical continuity of service. A decision was made to begin stripping down furniture at night, where this could be achieved without disrupting ASB’s staff during the day.
Crown brought in staff from our Christchurch and Wellington branches to support the Auckland team. Crown sourced a contractor who could use surplus wood items as a power cogeneration fuel for a cement kiln. Crown modelled this solution to weigh the cost benefit. It did require additional labour to remove metal and plastic/rubber components from furniture, but it significantly reduced both the financial and environmental costs of the project. Andrew also scoped the specification for a short-term warehouse that ASB rented to accommodate surplus furniture that they wished to re-use around their branch network.
ASB required that the new North Wharf facility was immaculate when staff started working there. Not only was it an architectural award winner that they were very proud of, they recognised that there was the potential for staff discontent as they were moving to a total open plan, shared workspace environment.
Crown identified the most effective access routes on to each floor and laid protective walkways, through the building. No staff member ever walked off these walkways. All cartons of personal effects were stacked with military precision – 20 centimetres off a wall and mapped to the relevant staff member’s locker locations. The relocation to North Wharf was completed without issue and under budget.
The handover of Albert Street was delayed primarily because Crown lost access to the sole goods lift for 24 hours over the final weekend due to it being unavailable (unknown to Crown). There were also significant additional items added to the scope during the Project (including a full gymnasium).
Crown responded by allocating up to 80 staff working 24 hours per day to ensure a successful completion. Despite what was described by ASB as “a minor hiccup”, the handover component of the project came in under budget when the variations were accounted for, and just under $20,000 was returned to ASB Bank as the residual value of recycled material.
A major focus was reducing the environmental impact of such a big move which typically would produce hundreds of tonnes of waste for landfill. All the surplus furniture was tagged for recycling and reuse. A warehouse was leased where 125 tonnes of unwanted furniture and IT equipment was stored and offered to ASB staff, charities and iwi groups. Over 75 tonnes of metal were stripped down and sent for recycling, surplus stationery was gifted to schools and over 50 tonnes of wood were chipped for reuse. Ultimately only 60 tonnes of material were sent to landfill.
If you are thinking of relocating your workplace we invite you to talk to our friendly Crown Workspace team today, we can even help you source second hand furniture, set up your IT equipment and do you next office fit out. For more information call us on: 0508 227 696 or email: [email protected]
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