Walter Reed Institute of Research and Naval Medical Research Center

As a natural extension to equipment planning and logistics services, transition management is an exercise in coordination and communication that Heery has successfully mastered. Heery provided full turnkey relocation services to consolidate the various facilities of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Naval Medical Research Center into a new 474,000 SF state-of-the-art, bio-tech facility. This complex migration involved the relocation of nearly 1,000 staffers from work sites in Washington, D.C.; Bethesda, Maryland; and other sites throughout Montgomery County, Maryland to a new structure more than 10 years in the making.

The team divided the nine-month transition process into 25 major moves.  Each move was scheduled, tracked and invoiced separately, allowing for exacting financial records and comparisons of the costs of various types of move activities.  Sixteen weeks of furniture installation involved 64 separate, color-coded floor plans to indicate the rooms where system furniture was being installed, rooms where free-standing furniture was being installed, rooms ready for occupancy, rooms being occupied and rooms already occupied.  Everyone from the general contractor to the janitor relied on these floor plans.

Perhaps more difficult than moving almost 1,000 employees, all of their office supplies, and personal belongings was coordinating the de-installation, re-installation and re-calibration of the facilities inventory of sophisticated laboratory equipment.  Heery’s extensive experience in logistical management provided the basis for the careful planning required to accomplish this massive relocation effort.