What a Supplier Needs to Quote Your Automation Project

Start with how the line runs today

Before describing the new equipment, describe the job as it runs now. How many parts an hour or a shift, how many people, how long a changeover takes, how often it stops, and what gets scrapped. Those numbers set the target, and a supplier who can see today's rate can tell you whether you're asking for a small step or a big one.

State the goal in the same units. "400 an hour with two operators today, 600 an hour with one after" can be quoted. "Faster, with less labor" has to be asked about first.

Send the part, including the bad lot

• Prints or a STEP model, if you have them. If you don't, a photo next to a ruler and a sample part are enough to start a budgetary number.
• The range the part varies over, beyond the nominal on the print. Parts from different cavities, batches, or suppliers vary, and that variation decides whether a feeder feeds or a screwdriver seats. On molded parts, the stack-up where the screw goes in gets reviewed at feasibility.
• Samples of the difficult lot along with the good one. A feed study runs your parts on the proposed hardware, and a study run only on the good parts proves less than it seems to.
• How parts arrive at the station. Bulk in a bin, in trays, on a conveyor from the last step, or placed by hand. If they come in bulk, the project needs a feeder, a tray system, or vision to find them before anything else can happen.

The rate the line has to hold

Give the rate the line needs across a whole shift. That rate is usually lower than the fastest a machine will run and higher than an average that counts the breaks. Say how many shifts and days it runs, and whether a stop at this station stops everything after it.

For parts feeding, give the rate in parts per minute. For a robot cell or an assembly station, give a cycle time per part.

How often it changes over

List the part numbers the equipment has to handle, how often you switch between them, and how long a switch is allowed to take. A station that runs one part for months and a station that runs six parts in a shift are different projects, and the second one is where quick-change tooling, stored recipes, and flexible feeding start to pay for themselves. If new part numbers are coming in the next year or two, put them in too. How to Automate High-Mix, Low-Volume Production Without Betting the Shop goes further on sizing for a changing mix.

The site it goes into

• Power and air at the spot: voltage and phase, and whether compressed air is there and at what pressure.
• Space. The footprint available, any height limit, and the working height it has to meet on each side.
• Getting it in. Door sizes, the route to the floor, and who unloads it when it arrives.
• The environment. Washdown, heat, dust, oil mist, or a hazardous location. For a cleanroom, name the certified ISO class. A class the equipment can't reach ends the project, so put hard requirements like that at the top of the package.
• What it connects to. The PLC platform your maintenance people already know, the plant network, and the machines before and after it that it has to talk to.

The record, and how you'll accept it

If the station has to log force, torque, a vision result, or a serial number, say what gets logged and where the data goes. That requirement can change the controller and the price more than the mechanics do.

Then say how you'll decide the equipment is done. Acceptance might be a run-off at the supplier on your parts, a rate held for a set number of hours on your floor, or both. Lines like these are where quotes for the same job drift apart. See 5 Reasons Automation Quotes for the Same Job Differ for the rest.

Who approves it, and by when

Name who signs off on the spend and when that budget decision gets made. Engineers usually start these projects and someone else approves them, and a project waiting on that approval often stops without anyone saying why. Knowing the date and the approver lets a supplier give that person what they need in time.

A budgetary number is a normal way to start, because it gives the approver a figure to plan around before anyone commits to a full quote. Smaller projects move fastest when the request says the target budget and the install window up front.

What you'd do without it

Say what happens if the project doesn't go ahead: more people, overtime, or buying the parts in finished. That fallback is what the equipment has to beat, and a supplier who knows it can tell you whether a smaller first step beats it.

Extra items by equipment type

• Screwdriving. The screw print, the part print, how the screw is oriented and reached, and the cycle time. See When Does Automated Screwdriving Pay Off? The 20,000-Screw Rule.
• Conveyor. Length and width, the drive type and where the drive sits, voltage, top-of-belt height, and what's being moved and how heavy it gets. See How to Choose a Conveyor: Load, Layout, and Throughput.
• Parts feeding. Sample parts including the difficult lot, the rate in parts per minute, and how the part has to be presented to the next step. See How to Choose a Flexible Feeder: 5 Questions to Ask First.
• Pressing. The joint, the materials and tolerances of both parts, and what the press has to record each cycle. See How to Spec Press Force (and Get a Ballpark You Can Take to Management).
• Vacuum gripping. Part weight, the surface, and how fast the robot moves it. See How to Size a Vacuum Gripper: Weight, Surface, Cups, and Acceleration.

Send what you have

None of this has to be complete before you ask. A photo, a sample, and a rate get a budgetary number moving, and the rest fills in as the project firms up. If you already have an RFQ package that went to other suppliers or to your integrator, send it as it is and we'll quote from it and list anything we had to assume.