Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for industrial automation companies.
A checklist built from how industrial automation companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Offer and BOM builder
- Project material control
- FAT and commissioning checklist
- Milestone billing and retention
- Service desk and program archive
- Drawing and revision register
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For shift supervisors
- For maintenance in-charge
- For plant heads
- For owners and facility managers
- For operators at the panel
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Run hours and downtime per machine, by shift
- Stoppage reasons, counted for the month
- Every excursion outside range, with its duration and who acknowledged it
- Condition history against a batch, a consignment or a date
- Energy, water and fuel per machine, line or block
- Devices that stopped reporting, and the gap they left
- Raw readings exported for any period you name
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Modbus and OPC UA devices
- PLCs, drives and chiller controllers
- Energy and water meters
- SMS and email
- ERP and maintenance software
- Panel hooters and indication lamps
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it keep working when the plant internet drops?
- Do you supply the sensors and gateways?
- Can it read our existing PLCs, drives and energy meters?
- How accurate will the readings be?
- Can we export the data for our own analysis?
- Can supervisors see it on a phone?
- Can we bring in the readings we already have?
- Does it connect to our accounting package or ERP?
- Who owns the devices, SIMs and data?
- What does it cost?
- How long before the first screen shows live readings?
- What does the plant need to prepare ahead of a site visit?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Parts move between projects
- Retention is not followed up
- Program backups live on laptops
- Service calls go unbilled
Prefer to talk it through? See the industrial automation companies page.