Free field guide
Before the Robot
Eight questions to answer before investing in industrial automation.
The conditions that decide whether automation performs are in place before the equipment arrives. This guide helps operations, engineering, IT and finance leaders examine them while changing them is still inexpensive.
Readiness is established by evidence
A confident answer in a meeting isn't a floor survey, a data export or a tested interface.
The domains interact
A gap in one area can change the assumptions in another.
Unknowns are findings
Learning a question can't yet be answered tells you what to investigate before committing capital.
The eight questions
Each one is a decision you make, with or without a vendor in the room.
Every chapter covers why the question matters, what can go wrong, the evidence to examine, warning signs, and what to do next.
01 · Strategy
Are we solving the right problem with automation?
02 · Facility
Can our physical environment support the proposed automation?
03 · Connectivity
Can our network reliably support mobile and connected automation?
04 · Product data
Is our product and master data accurate enough to drive automation?
05 · Integration
Can our existing systems coordinate reliably with automation?
06 · Security
Can we connect, secure, and support the systems without creating unacceptable risk?
07 · Operations
Are our processes stable and repeatable enough to automate?
08 · People
Can our organization operate and maintain automation after go-live?
How gaps compound
Read separately, the eight questions understate the risk.
These are plausible dependency paths, not inevitable consequences. Each link is a question to validate.
| Starting gap | Domain it can reach | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wireless coverage unvalidated along travel paths | Operations | Robots pausing in transit reduce the throughput the business case assumed |
| Exception workflows undefined in the interface | People | Each unhandled exception becomes a manual task for someone on shift |
| Vendor remote access not designed | Integration, People | Support response depends on access IT hasn't agreed to |
| Success measures undocumented | All domains | No requirement can be tested without a stated target |
| System ownership unassigned | Security, Operations | Updates, backups and process changes have no one to sign them off |
Self-screen
Eight questions, answered from evidence.
Answer from documented evidence, not from expectation. If you'd have to ask someone or go and look, choose Unknown. Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is sent or stored.
The self-screen tells you where to look.
It can't tell you what the evidence shows, how the gaps interact, or which to address first. That's what the Automation Readiness Assessment is for.
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