How to Write an Automation Brief Integrators Can Quote
By DBR77 Team · Published · Updated
An automation brief integrators can quote describes one process in numbers: what must improve, where the system starts and ends, the products with sizes, weights and variants, current and target cycle times, shifts, existing machines and controls, site and safety constraints, and how you will judge the result. It comes with the data an engineer needs to design: a layout drawing, product drawings, photos and videos, volume data and a list of signals. Words like "fast," "flexible" or "safe" cannot be priced, so each of them has to become a number. A brief built this way makes every supplier answer the same question, so the offers can be compared.
Why weak briefs produce offers you cannot compare
An integrator who receives a vague request has three options: guess, ask a long list of questions, or decline. Guessing is the most common, and every supplier guesses differently.
Illustrative example: a plant sends "we want to automate packing of our products on line 3" to three integrators. One assumes the five main products and quotes a pick-and-place cell. One counts all 30 variants and quotes a cell with vision and a tool changer. One adds a case erector, a sealer and a palletizer because it seemed logical. The three prices differ by a factor of three, and every offer is correct for its own assumptions. The plant has learned nothing about what its project costs.
Vague briefs also cost you good suppliers. Busy integrators answer first the requests they can quote without weeks of discovery.
The eight blocks of a quotable brief
Work through the blocks in order. If one is hard to fill in, you have found work to do before you send the brief. The examples in the table are illustrative.
| Block | Weak version | Quotable version |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Goal | "Improve efficiency at packing" | "Remove two manual operators per shift from case packing and hold line speed on three shifts" |
| 2. Process today | "Manual packing" | Step-by-step description, current cycle time per step, number of operators, photos and video |
| 3. Products | "Various plastic parts" | List of variants with dimensions, weights, materials, packaging, share of volume, changeovers per shift |
| 4. Rate | "High throughput" | Average and peak units per hour, current and target cycle time, shifts, planned downtime |
| 5. Boundaries and interfaces | "Integrate with the line" | Start and end point on the layout, signals from and to the line PLC, any MES or ERP link, who changes existing programs |
| 6. Site and safety | "Must be safe" | Floor space and height, utilities, shared zones with people, site safety rules, standards you expect |
| 7. Acceptance | "Must work reliably" | Test with real products and variants, target rate over a defined run, quality check method |
| 8. Commercial frame | (missing) | Budget range, target start of production, decision date, preferred suppliers if any |
The goal comes first because it lets suppliers propose something you did not think of. Products and rate decide the size of the solution: case weight decides the robot size, and peak rate decides whether one robot is enough. Clear boundaries prevent the most common scope gaps; How to Scope an Automation Project Without Overcomplicating It walks through where they appear. For acceptance, a full test protocol can wait. State what suppliers must prove and build the protocol later with How to Set Acceptance Criteria, FAT and SAT for Automation.
A budget range often feels risky to share. Without it, suppliers cannot tell whether you expect a simple cell or a full line, and the offers spread across both.
Attach the data engineers need
A good attachment set saves a site visit or makes the visit much more useful:
- Layout drawing of the area with dimensions, columns, doors, aisles and the planned system boundary (DWG or PDF).
- Product drawings or samples for every variant, or at least the extremes: smallest, largest, heaviest, most fragile.
- Photos and short videos of the current process at real speed, from more than one angle, including a changeover.
- Volume data: units per shift and per variant over a typical month, plus peak weeks.
- Machine list: existing machines the system connects to, with controller type and age.
- Signal list or a description of what the line sends and expects today.
- Site rules: safety rules, IT security, remote access and data storage policy.
- Expected standards: for example ISO 10218-2 for robot applications and cells, or ISO 3691-4 for driverless industrial trucks such as AGVs and AMRs.
Mark what is confidential. Sensitive drawings can be shared under NDA instead of left out, because a missing drawing is the same as a missing requirement.
Use a brief structure integrators already know
DBR77 Marketplace takes you through the brief in a guided form of eight steps, from project maturity to budget, files and operational assumptions. Free for manufacturers.
Two real briefs and what they made possible
Ficomirrors Polska: hard limits instead of wishes. The Tier-1 automotive supplier in the Ficosa group needed stable internal transport between production lines and warehouse zones. Its Technology Challenge stated requirements and a defined budget rather than asking for "an AGV": integration with the existing IT infrastructure, pallets up to 250 kg, and the highest safety standards in zones shared by people and machines. Because the limits were clear, proposals arrived in a standardized format and could be compared on functionality, cost and system compatibility. The plant chose Inovatica AGV: two autonomous forklifts integrated with tablets at the production lines and with the master system, moving up to 13 pallets per hour in continuous mode. The brief's "integration with existing IT" became the "system compatibility" criterion in that comparison. (Ficomirrors case study)
HSV Polska: a first inquiry with everything the integrator needed. HSV Polska, which makes EPP plastic products, wanted an automated quality control and packaging line. Its first inquiry on the platform (then called Robot Platform) contained all the technical requirements the integrator needed. With that, the integrator Redhawk could propose a full concept: a 3D simulation in Studio 3D, an operational analysis and a financial analysis. In the proposed line, products leave a dryer, a first robot station with a Keyence CV-X470F vision system locates the parts, a station checks dimensions, compliant parts go on a scale, and a second robot packs them into a container in a set pattern. The robots are Fanuc M-10iD/8L (2032 mm reach, 8 kg payload), with Secomea remote access. The 3D simulation confirmed a line cycle time of less than 120 seconds for all product codes in the project, before anything was built. (HSV case study)
The stranger test and the gaps that cost money
Before you send the brief, give it to a competent engineer from another department for ten minutes. They should be able to say what the problem is, what the system must do, where it starts and ends, and how success will be measured. If they cannot, a supplier cannot either.
Then check for the gaps that most often come back as change orders:
- Rare variants left out because they are "only 3 percent of volume."
- Peak volume missing, so the cell is sized for an average week.
- Upstream variation: parts arrive in different orientations or containers.
- Utilities and civil work nobody assigned.
- Changes to existing PLC programs assumed by both sides to be the other side's job.
- Remote access for the supplier, which IT may not allow.
Write unknowns down as unknowns, for example "Future variant, dimensions not yet known, expected in Q3."
How DBR77 Marketplace helps
On DBR77 Marketplace the brief is the Technology Challenge, written in a guided form of eight steps: maturity, type and classification, description, requirements, budget, files, operational assumptions and a final preview. The maturity you choose first (problem or idea, rough concept, specification, or ready to procure) decides which fields are required.
DBR77 experts review the challenge before it goes live, and drawings you would not publish openly can be shared under NDA. When the brief has to become a full purchasing document, use What to Include in an Automation RFQ or RFP.
FAQ
How long should an automation brief be?
Long enough to fill the eight blocks with numbers. A two-page brief with a layout drawing, a product list and a video beats a 30-page document of general requirements.
Should we propose a solution in the brief?
Describe the task and the constraints and leave the solution to suppliers. If you have a plant standard (a PLC or robot brand) or a strong reason for a technology, state it as a constraint. Otherwise keep the brief open to their proposals.
What if suppliers still send offers we cannot compare?
Check whether the brief left the difference open. If it did, answer the gap for all bidders and ask for updated offers. How to Compare Automation Offers Side by Side shows how to line them up.
Conclusion
Start with the table: fill each of the eight blocks with numbers, and treat any block you cannot fill as work to finish before the brief goes out. Then attach the layout, product data, video and signal list, give the brief to an engineer from another department for ten minutes, and close the change-order gaps on the list above before you publish.
Write it once, get comparable offers
Post your brief as a Technology Challenge on DBR77 Marketplace, or ask our team to look at it before you publish.
Post your Technology Challenge · Contact the Marketplace team
Sources
- DBR77, How DBR77 Marketplace stabilized logistics for a Tier-1 automotive supplier (Ficomirrors), 2026
- DBR77, HSV case study: A success story on the Robot Platform, 2023
- ISO, ISO 10218-2:2025 Robotics: Safety requirements, Part 2: Industrial robot applications and robot cells, 2025
- ISO, ISO 3691-4:2023 Industrial trucks: Safety requirements and verification, Part 4: Driverless industrial trucks and their systems, 2023