As one of the top consumer goods companies in the world, this company yields over $85 billion per year in revenue while operating on all seven continents. The company is well known for its focus on providing quality products and ideal services to improve the lives of present and future generations.

This industry leader is an EquipNet corporate client, and we have worked with them on numerous projects globally to help them manage their surplus assets and procurement needs.

The client asked EquipNet to handle the complete closure of a skin care product manufacturing facility in Cayey, Puerto Rico. The facility closure needed to be completed in nine months.

The facility, which had approximately 2,500 assets, was still an active manufacturing site at the time EquipNet was commissioned for the closure, a fact that would create challenges in the timeline for auction planning and prep, rigging, and shipping.

Typically during plant closure projects, EquipNet is able to spread out the shipments of internal redeployments and external sales, but due to the tight deadline with this project, all items had to be shipped at once. This constraint presented logistical challenges for both EquipNet and the client.

Complications arose because the equipment shut down in Cayey hinged upon the onboarding of Cayey’s products to another facility in the U.S. This situation created an uncertain timeline for the closure. It also left outside buyers and redeployment sites without an expected equipment arrival date, as Cayey could not determine the date the equipment would be decommissioned for release to buyers/other locations.

Phase 1 – Complete Inventory of High Value Assets, Pricing, and Redeployment Locations Identified

In this initial phase of the project, EquipNet provided inventory and pricing services, and scheduled several global redeployments within the company assets under scope. EquipNet identified six sites for internal redeployment, including international locations and coordinated all logistics for shipment.

Phase 2 – MarketPlace Sales and Equipment Shipments

In addition to redeployments, EquipNet immediately sold many high value assets through EquipNet’s online MarketPlace.

A manufacturing shutdown date was finally set a mere two weeks before the live auction was scheduled to occur. EquipNet began redeployments and MarketPlace shipments the very day the facility was officially closed in order to clear as many sold items as possible prior to the auction shipments. To ensure the shipments occurred as efficiently as possible, EquipNet provided an onsite project manager for four months to facilitate smooth transfers of sold assets and proper cataloging of items for the auction event.

Phase 3 – Production Halted and Auctions Completed

With only two weeks between the facility closure and the live auction, EquipNet planned, promoted and executed a live auction to sell as much of the remaining site inventory as possible. In addition to tagging and cataloging all bulk items for the live auction, EquipNet provided three employee auctions for the site, each requiring a separate catalogue and altered listings to promote individual sales. These types of challenges can be complex, but are easily handled by EquipNet’s project management team, logistics department and category management personnel.

Phase 4 – Full Facility Clearance and Closure

EquipNet could not hold the auction until after the facility ceased manufacturing efforts. Post-auction, EquipNet had just over a month to clear all assets from the facility, including those that were marked for redeployment and pre-auction sales. EquipNet’s onsite project management team orchestrated the hiring of a rigger in our network that successfully completed the decommissioning and shipping of over 1,200 pieces of equipment.

EquipNet succeeded in a full clearance of the facility by the requested deadline. The client had set a goal of $1.5 million in redeployment savings and equipment sales; EquipNet brought in $2.87 million, coming in $1.37 million above the client goal. With over 1,200 pieces of equipment sold and over 60 redeployed, the client reported, “The Cayey Project would not have been a success if it wasn’t for EquipNet’s services and the above and beyond customer support provided by EquipNet’s project management team.”