Rehearse one relocation disruption before the move starts
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Rehearse one plausible interruption before the move starts. Use a discussion exercise with the people who would respond, rather than disrupting live work to see what happens.
The purpose is to find missing information and unclear decisions while there is still time to correct them. It is not a test of whether someone can improvise an unsafe workaround or remember every line of the project plan.
The Cabinet Office business continuity guidance identifies exercising and reviewing arrangements as part of continuity planning. The exercise below is an original example; it does not claim certification or compliance with a particular standard.
Set a small, specific scenario
Suppose packing has moved to the new site, but a required supporting function is unavailable. Two orders are due to pass into packing today. Ordinary production continues at the old site.
Give participants only the facts they would actually have. Use fictional order references and approved examples so the exercise does not expose confidential information or trigger a live instruction.
Ask the group to work through these stages:
- At the first report, identify who receives the information and who confirms its operational consequence.
- Ten fictional minutes later, identify the two affected orders and the current person responsible for each.
- At the next decision point, find the relevant fallback conditions and the people authorised to assess them.
- Before any revised promise, identify who decides what the customer team can say and which facts remain uncertain.
- After the decision, show how both sites receive the same current instruction.
The fictional timings create prompts, not required response targets. Adjust them to the work being discussed.
Notice where the conversation stops
Record the first missing fact. Perhaps the team cannot find who owns the second order, or the fallback assumes access to a function already removed. Those findings are useful precisely because the planned response cannot yet be relied on.
Check the fallback plan against the current phase. Avoid allowing participants to solve the exercise by assuming a provider, permission or technical capability is available without evidence.
If the enquiry reaches the wrong person, test the contact route separately through an agreed internal check. A discussion alone does not confirm that the practical route works.
Assign and check the corrections
For each gap, record the required correction, owner and completion check. Update the actual plan or record involved. A separate exercise report that nobody uses during the move will not repair the missing handoff.
Repeat the relevant part after the correction. There is no need to rerun every scenario if one contact route was the only change. Keep the scope and limitations of the exercise clear when choosing the first relocation phase.
Where the findings change equipment availability, update any enquiry with UK Auction Group using the revised operating facts. The exercise itself does not establish that equipment is safe, unnecessary or ready for sale.
Return to the phased-move hub.
Sources
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