Start with the process you want the line to run
A demonstration factory is easiest to specify when the brief opens with a process description rather than an equipment list. Write the cycle as it happens today: which material or component enters the station, what the operator does, what the fixture or machine does, how long the handoff takes, and where work-in-progress waits. Then mark the stations where you expect automation to intervene. A supplier who can see your cycle can size a line; a supplier handed only a list of conveyor, robot and camera model numbers is being asked to invent your process for you.
Do the same for the information flow. Say which records the station must produce for every unit or batch — identity, recipe version, measured values, pass or fail, operator sign-off — and where those records have to land. In a demonstration line this requirement is often more demanding than on a normal production line, because the line exists partly to show that data can be traced through every stage. If your brief only says "traceability", the quotation will include something that satisfies the word and not your audit.
State the volume range, not just the target output
Give the annual or daily volume you need, the peak shift you must survive, and the number of variants you run through the same line. Automation sized to an average volume fails at the peak and idles in the slow month, and variant count is usually what drives changeover time, tooling quantity and recipe management. If volumes are still uncertain, say so plainly and ask for the assumptions behind the proposed configuration — a quoted cycle time is meaningless without the volume case it came from.
Where the line will be judged on takt time or throughput, record how you measured the current figure and with what sample of parts. Numbers carried into a brief from memory are the most common cause of an argument at acceptance.
Define the interfaces the line has to live between
Automation is bounded by what already exists. The brief should describe, station by station:
- Incoming and outgoing material: dimensions and tolerances, carrier or tray type, orientation, and how much variation the upstream process actually delivers.
- Utilities at the installation point: available electrical supply and distribution, compressed air, and any process gas or vacuum a station needs — stated as measured values from your plant, not as generic ratings.
- Floor space and access: the envelope in plan and elevation, door widths, aisle and maintenance clearances, and floor loading if equipment is heavy.
- Upstream and downstream equipment: model and control platform of anything the new line must exchange signals or parts with.
- IT constraints: network segregation, data export format, and any restriction on remote vendor access.
Interface ambiguity is where custom machinery projects stall. A line that fits the floor plan but cannot connect to your existing control network is not finished, and the party that pays for that gap depends on how clearly it was written down beforehand.
Ask for the parameters that the catalogue page will not give you
Our own Industry 4.0 Demonstration Factory listing carries a title and images but little specification, which is typical for solution-level pages in this category — including the Automated Production Line Solutions pages around it. Treat any such page as a starting point and put the missing questions into the brief so that all bidders answer the same ones:
- Stated cycle time per unit and the part, variant and shift pattern it was measured on.
- Availability assumption, plus what downtime, changeover and material starvation are included in it.
- Recipe and product changeover: who can change it, how long it takes, and how changes are version-controlled.
- Data records produced per unit, retention, and the export route to your MES, historian or reporting layer.
- Control hardware and software platform, and what happens to licences and source access if you later change integrator.
- Manual fallback: which stations can run by hand, and what the changeover costs you.
- Spares, service response, and who covers the line after the warranty period.
Write the acceptance test before you order
A brief that ends with an acceptance definition protects both sides. Define the run you will perform — real parts, realistic variant mix, stated duration — the figures that must be met, and how measurement is done. For a demonstration line, also specify what a visitor walkthrough or a data-traceability check will exercise, since that is the part most likely to be skipped when the schedule tightens.
Ask for the factory and site test records in the same format you will use internally. If the demonstration line is meant to lead into volume production, an acceptance test that produces clean, comparable data is worth more than a longer list of optional features.
Cover the commercial and responsibility line
Put into the brief what the supplier is and is not accountable for: design scope, panel build, software, commissioning window, training, and who prepares utilities and foundations. Name the single technical contact on your side, and state which of your documents govern — safety requirements, electrical standards, hygiene or ESD rules, access control. Where you need equipment built to your requirements rather than a standard model, customized production line solutions should be discussed at brief stage, not after a quotation, because the custom scope changes what the acceptance test can reasonably verify.
A short pre-send checklist
Before the brief goes out, confirm that it contains:
- The process description with cycle times and where intervention is expected.
- Volume range, peak shift and variant count.
- Measured utility, space and interface data from your plant.
- Required records per unit and their export route.
- The parameter questions listed above, posed identically to every bidder.
- The acceptance test, how it is measured, and what documentation is delivered with it.
- The split of responsibility for utilities, foundations, installation and software licences.
If you want an opening review of a brief like this, send the process description, your volume and variant range, and the measured utility and space data to sales@powerde.net. We will tell you which stations are genuinely worth automating, what the configuration assumes, and which of the parameters above our proposal cannot state until we see your parts.
