The Transfer Plan: Gate Three in the Nine Gate Transfer Process

Today I would like to present the third entry in the series discussing the Nine Gate Transfer Process for moving production from site to site: the Gate 3 Transfer Plan. In case you missed them, you can learn more about Gate 1 and Gate 2 previously discussed.

Plan the work and work the plan. Sounds like a simple concept, but a real project plan requires significant documentation to ensure the transfer meets predefined requirements identified in Gate 1 and agreed to in Gate 2. The plan includes nine sections:

1. Integration Management
2. Scope Management
3. Time Management
4. Cost Management
5. Quality Management
6. Communication Management
7. Human Resources (HR) plan
8. Risk Management
9. Procurement Management

The nine sections of the transfer plan are dependent upon each other to ensure a clear plan.

1. The Integration Management plan is often overlooked and is often the downfall of transfers, but the Integration Management plan manages crossovers with other projects. An example is analytical method transfer may have an integration touch points with LIMS implementation.

2. A Scope Management plan details how project changes will be implemented and integrated.

3. Time Management requires an understanding of the sequence of steps to accomplish the transfer (Work Breakdown Structure).

4. Cost Management divides up the time and expense into cost to ensure the project meets predefined budget and issues can be corrected and anticipated.

5. The Quality Management plan details how quality standards are set and maintained in the project.

6. Communication is key and agreement on what information/decisions need to be provided to stakeholders and the associated timing for that communication is documented.

7. The Human Resource plan outlines how personnel resources will be brought onto the team, how their development is monitored and what will happen to personnel at the end of the transfer, where necessary.

8. Everything we do requires risk. The Risk Management plan defines how and where risk will be identified, acceptable levels of risk, and the risk mitigation process.

9. The Procurement Management plan defines how transfer resources, equipment and materials will be obtained.

The project plan is a living document that needs to be revised as new transfer requirements become known. In my next post, the Transfer Process Map is covered in Gate 4.