What the title covers before anything else is scheduled
The phrase "Industry 4.0 demonstration factory" is used loosely in equipment marketing, and on the PowerDe site it appears as a single solution card under Automated Production Line Solutions, listed at Industry 4.0 Demonstration Factory with no descriptive text beyond the title. That thin public record is itself the first item to confirm: before anyone books a date, a line shutdown or a budget line, you need a written statement of what this solution actually is in your plant, what it is expected to do, and who signs it off. The checklist below covers the confirmations that matter in procurement, on the floor, and at acceptance.
1. Scope and the business reason for the line
- The product or process family the line will run, in writing, with the part numbers or process steps named.
- The measurable reason for building it: takt time, yield, changeover time, headcount, traceability or quality escapes — with the current baseline recorded.
- What the demonstration line must do that the existing line cannot; each gap listed as a requirement, not a wish.
- What is explicitly out of scope, so later change requests do not silently redefine the project.
PowerDe also sells engineering support around equipment work — Product R&D Accelerator, Hardware Testing and Manufacturing Automation services. Decide at this stage whether any of that is inside your contract, because it changes who is responsible for validation and who owns the test data.
2. Data, interfaces and IT/OT ownership
A demonstration line usually earns its name by producing data, so confirm the data side before the mechanical side. Which controller and fieldbus protocols the equipment will use; which of your systems (MES, ERP, SCADA, quality database) must exchange data with it, in which direction and at what frequency; which identifiers are used for traceability; and where the historian sits. Name the IT and OT owners on both sides of every interface, agree who provisions accounts and network segments, and confirm whether the data leaves your network at all. Ask for the interface list, tag list and data dictionary as contract deliverables — without them, integration is estimated blind.
3. Utilities, floor and services
Get the utilities and layout confirmed by your own engineers, from the vendor's actual equipment list rather than a schematic: installed and peak electrical load per cabinet, compressed-air demand and quality, cooling or chilled-water needs, exhaust or ventilation, floor loading and anchoring, door and lift clearances for delivery, and network drops. Add the practical items that delay commissioning most often: spare parts storage, an operator station, lighting for the inspection position, and a clean, dry route for cabling. PowerDe publishes dimensions and utility requirements for individual machines in its Automated Production Line Solutions pages where available, but the demonstration-factory card carries no specification, so request the full utility schedule in writing and have your facilities team sign it.
4. Safety and standards
Confirm the applicable machinery and electrical standards for your country and plant, and which party produces the safety documentation: risk assessment, guarding concept, safety functions and their performance level, lockout/tagout points, emergency stops, and the declaration of conformity or equivalent certificate. Ask whether the line uses collaborative or automated handling, and what validation your own regulator or insurer requires before people work alongside it. Agree who is accountable for safety during installation versus after handover — ambiguity here is the usual reason a line sits finished but unused.
5. Acceptance: how the line is judged before payment
- Factory acceptance test at the vendor site: the cycle, yield and uptime you will measure, with the method and duration defined in advance.
- Site acceptance test under your own conditions, with your materials, your operators and your shift pattern.
- A run-in period with agreed availability and quality targets, and the remedy if they are missed.
- Documentation set: drawings, electrical schematics, PLC and HMI program escrow or ownership terms, spare-parts list, consumables list, maintenance schedule, training records.
- A named acceptance committee from production, maintenance, quality, IT and EHS, with signature authority and a fixed review date.
6. Commercial and after-sales confirmations
Close the commercial gaps the same way: delivery and installation responsibilities, on-site hours and who provides local labour, warranty start date and exclusions, remote-support and response-time commitments, spare-parts lead times, and software licensing or upgrade terms for the life of the line. Because the demonstration line is also a showcase for your own customers, agree in advance what the vendor may publish about the project and what images or data must stay confidential.
Putting the confirmations in order
Sequence the checklist so each answer unblocks the next one: scope and baseline first, because they set the acceptance targets; then data and interfaces, because they determine control design; then utilities and layout, because they drive civil and electrical work that has the longest lead time; then safety documentation; then the acceptance protocol as a signed document before the purchase order is issued, not after delivery. Any item you cannot answer in writing is a gap to resolve with PowerDe before commitment — and the demonstration line earns that discipline, since it is the reference the rest of your factory will be measured against.
