Plant Relocation Services
Turnkey Plant and Production Line Relocation
AK Industrial Contractors relocates individual machines, complete production lines, plant departments, and entire manufacturing facilities. Our teams manage the work from early planning and shutdown coordination through disassembly, equipment protection, transport coordination, receiving, rigging, reinstallation, precision alignment, anchoring, and startup support.
AK Industrial Contractors relocates individual machines, complete production lines, plant departments, and entire manufacturing facilities for plant owners, general contractors, EPC firms, and OEMs. We work directly for owners as the prime contractor or as the specialty rigging, millwright, and relocation contractor under a GC or EPC, and we support domestic and cross-border relocations while maintaining continuity from the origin facility to the destination. Headquartered in Searcy, Arkansas, with an operation in Monterrey, Mexico, AK has completed more than 500 industrial projects since 1981, from single-machine moves to multi-phase capital relocations of $250,000 to $20 million.
Moving a Plant Is a Production Problem Before It's a Rigging Problem
A plant manager relocating a line is not really buying cranes. They are buying the fewest possible days between the last part off the old floor and the first good part off the new one, without a safety incident and without a surprise in week three.
That is how AK Industrial plans a relocation: from the production calendar backwards. Which lines can keep running while others move. How much inventory the outage needs. Which machines move intact and which come apart. Where the receiving crew has to be on the day the trailer lands. Then our own crews execute that plan at both ends, so the people who took the line down are the people who bring it back up.
We have done this since 1981. We are still the contractor a plant manager calls when the move cannot go wrong.
What Our Plant Relocation Services Include
Project planning
Project planning, site surveys, equipment inventories, and move sequencing, tied to your production calendar and approved by you before anything is isolated.
Shutdown coordination and disassembly
Shutdown coordination, equipment identification, match-marking, documentation, and disassembly by the millwright crew that will reinstall the equipment.
Protection, rigging, and transport
Protective packaging, rigging, loading, transportation, and cross-border coordination under AK load plans.
Receiving and reinstallation
Receiving, staged delivery, reassembly, precision setting, leveling, alignment, and anchoring at the destination.
Mechanical completion and startup support
Pre-start checks against the teardown baseline, punch list, turnover records, and startup support until production is stable.
Phased Migration or Shutdown and Move? We'll Tell You Which.
Two ways to relocate a production line. The right answer depends on your inventory position, the equipment, and how much parallel floor space you have at the destination.
| Phased equipment migration | Complete shutdown and reinstallation | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Move the line one cell or one machine at a time. Production continues on what remains until its turn. | Stop the line, move everything in one campaign, restart at the destination. |
| Best when | Inventory cannot cover a full outage, the destination has space to run partial lines, and the equipment is modular. | The line is tightly integrated, controls and handling are shared, and a short, hard outage is cheaper than a long, soft one. |
| Downtime profile | Longer overall program, shorter production interruptions. | Shorter program, one concentrated outage. |
| Risk to manage | Two half-lines running, more crew mobilizations, version control on the plan. | Everything critical happens in one window. It needs a rehearsed sequence and contingency crews. |
| AK's role | Sequence the cells, keep both sites staffed, protect the running line. | Compress the campaign with parallel crews and pre-staged rigging. Build the float in before the outage starts. |
We run both. What we will not do is sell you the approach that suits our crew calendar instead of your production calendar.
Typical Sequencing on AK Relocations
Every plan is built from your production calendar, but these are the shapes we see most often:
Single machine or cell
down, moved and running again in days.
A production line
sequenced over several weeks, phased or as one campaign.
A full facility or multi-line plant
a phased program over months, with lines migrating in an order that keeps revenue running as long as possible.
Compressed schedules
when a lease ends or a customer program starts on a fixed date, we staff parallel crews, pre-stage rigging at both ends, and run the outage as a rehearsed sequence.
Types of Plant Relocation We Handle
In-plant line moves and reconfigurations
relocating cells and lines within the same facility to open floor space, add capacity or re-sequence production, usually around running operations.
Plant-to-plant relocation within the United States
moving a line or a whole facility between sites, with AK crews sending and receiving.
Multi-site consolidation
bringing equipment from several plants into one, sequenced so the receiving plant's floor and utilities are ready as each line arrives.
Cross-border relocation between the United States and Mexico
nearshoring and reshoring moves with the same crews on both sides of the border. See cross-border industrial relocation.
Line replacement
decommissioning the old equipment and installing the new on one schedule, so the changeover is a single project.
Expansion moves
relocating existing machinery to make room for new installations, and installing the new equipment alongside it. See industrial equipment installation.
How We Protect Production During the Move
Shutdown and startup support.
We plan around your outage windows, work planned shutdowns and turnarounds, and stay through startup readiness so the line comes back on the date in the plan, not the date after.
Working inside operating plants.
Most relocations happen next to production that is still running. Exclusion zones, pre-task planning, lockout/tagout and lift sequencing keep your people and your output protected while we work.
Rigging pre-staged at both ends.
Cranes, gantries and crews are in place before the outage starts, not ordered when it does.
Same crew, both ends.
The disassembly register written at the sending plant is the reassembly checklist at the receiving plant, in the hands of the crew that wrote it.
Parallel crews for compressed windows.
When the date is fixed, we add crews and run the outage as a rehearsed sequence with contingency already built in.
Straight reporting.
A daily look-ahead, and if something is developing you hear it from us first, with the fix attached.
Capacity and Equipment
AK has the experience, equipment, and skilled personnel to handle industrial machinery and assemblies ranging from 10,000 pounds to 1.5 million pounds. The heaviest move on hydraulic gantries and heavy cranes under engineered critical-lift plans. Our crews bring cranes, hydraulic gantries, Versa-Lifts, forklifts, telehandlers, aerial lifts, hydraulic jacking systems, below-the-hook devices and certified rigging hardware, owned and maintained by AK.
We relocate all types of industrial machinery, including CNC machining centers and machine tools, stamping, hydraulic and forging presses, extrusion presses, injection molding machines, furnaces and ovens, rolling and pipe mills, conveyors and material-handling systems, packaging and bottling lines, process skids, pumps, tanks and vessels, transformers, generators, switchgear and battery energy storage equipment.
Scale Built Around the Project
From individual equipment moves and complete production-line installations to multi-phase plant relocations and mission-critical equipment deployments, AK scales crews, supervision, lifting and material-handling resources, logistics coordination, and specialty support to the work. This gives owners, general contractors, EPC firms, and OEMs a clear point of accountability from planning through project closeout.
AK self-performs its core rigging, millwright, and equipment-installation scopes and coordinates qualified specialty trade partners when required.
Why One Contractor Beats a Vendor Stack
One safety program.
Every crew on the relocation works under AK's JSA, pre-task planning, LOTO and lift-plan discipline, including the specialty trade partners we coordinate. Not five contractors' versions of it.
One schedule owner.
Sequencing, crews, equipment and carriers are planned together, so the receiving crane is there when the trailer is.
One set of records.
The disassembly register becomes the reassembly checklist becomes the turnover package.
One phone number.
For your project engineer, for your GC, for the OEM.
Two countries.
Searcy, Arkansas and Monterrey, Mexico under the same leadership. Domestic or cross-border, it is the same project model. See cross-border industrial relocation.
Who We Work For
Contracting role. AK Industrial Contractors supports plant owners and plant managers, general contractors, EPC firms, OEMs, and engineering teams. We work directly for owners as the prime contractor or serve as the specialty rigging, millwright, and relocation contractor under a GC or EPC.
Manufacturing and industrial experience. Our relocation and installation experience includes Michelin, GE, Whirlpool, John Deere, Eaton, Winchester, Goodyear, Electrolux, Tyson, Welspun Tubular, Trex, Hino, and many more. Recent installation scopes include Welspun Tubular's Little Rock LSAW pipe mill and coating expansion (approximately $8 million) and the APEL Extrusions aluminum extrusion line for its Phoenix greenfield expansion (approximately $4 million).
Industries served. AK Industrial Contractors supports equipment installation, relocation, rigging, and millwright projects across a wide range of manufacturing, industrial, energy, and mission-critical markets, including:
Pipe and tube manufacturing. Project experience includes Maverick Tube, Boomerang Tube, Welspun Tubular, Tenaris, Liberty Steel, Sumitomo, Bull Moose Tube, IPSCO Tubular, and Indiana Tube.
Aluminum extrusion and OEM experience. Aluminum extrusion experience includes APEL Extrusions, Kawneer, Hydro Aluminum, and Hydro Precision Tubing. AK has also installed many presses and ancillary equipment from UBE, Presezzi, SMS group, GRANCO CLARK, Belco, and Cometal, including work performed directly for these OEMs.
Safety Is the First Line of Every Lift Plan
Safety is the first line of every AK lift plan. OSHA-trained crews, documented job safety analysis and pre-task planning on every scope, lockout/tagout and fall protection as standard, qualified riggers and signal persons on every pick, equipment certifications kept current, engineered critical-lift plans where the load or the environment demands it. EMR 0.91. TRIR 0.00 since 2019. ISNetworld Member Contractor, and we meet client-specific safety requirements as a matter of course.
Plant Relocation FAQs
A plant relocation contractor plans the move, coordinates the shutdown, disassembles and protects the equipment, rigs and loads it, coordinates transport, receives and reinstalls it at the new site, aligns and anchors it, and supports mechanical completion and startup. AK Industrial self-performs the core rigging, millwright and relocation scopes with our own crews and coordinates qualified specialty trade partners when required.
Project planning, site surveys, equipment inventories and move sequencing; shutdown coordination, equipment identification, match-marking, documentation and disassembly; protective packaging, rigging, loading, transportation and cross-border coordination; receiving, staged delivery, reassembly, precision setting, leveling, alignment and anchoring; and mechanical completion and startup support, delivered under one contract with one accountable project manager.
AK Industrial Contractors. We are headquartered in Searcy, Arkansas, with an established operation in Monterrey, Mexico, and we relocate plants and production lines domestically and across the border between the United States and Mexico under one contract, one project manager and one safety program.
Yes. We plan from your production calendar backwards, choose between a phased migration and a complete shutdown and reinstallation based on your inventory and floor space, pre-stage rigging at both ends, staff compressed windows with parallel crews, and reinstall with the crew that documented the teardown so startup is fast.
Yes. Compressed schedules are planned differently: parallel crews, rigging pre-staged at both sites, carriers held to the receiving crew's window, and the outage run as a rehearsed sequence with contingency built in before it starts. Tell us the date and we will tell you what it takes.
The whole move. AK writes the relocation plan, sequences the work, coordinates carriers and the other trades, and self-performs the disassembly, rigging, reinstallation and startup support. If you already have a relocation manager, we also work as the executing contractor under your plan.
Across the United States and throughout Mexico's manufacturing regions. Our crews are based in Searcy, Arkansas and Monterrey, Mexico and travel to the project.
The equipment list with weights and dimensions, the layouts or drawings you have for both sites, the site addresses and access details, and the date production needs to be running at the destination. We walk both sites before we bid.
Yes. We isolate, decommission and dismantle equipment that is moving, being replaced or being retired, and when a line is being replaced we decommission the old and install the new on the same schedule.
Yes. AK Industrial operates from Searcy, Arkansas and Monterrey, Mexico under the same project leadership and safety program, so a domestic relocation and a cross-border relocation run on the same model, with the same crews at both ends of the move.