This is a very subjective process with many dimensions. It is usually helpful to begin be dividing the process into two parts. Within these two areas you will need to develop your own assessment of the AGV supplier’s credibility and performance. However, you must take into account that a successful project process depends not only on the supplier but on the user as well. Both parties must ‘hold up their respective ends’.
System Design, Installation and Startup
What was the user’s experience during this period. How responsive was the vendor to the user’s needs? Where there many added charges for changes and were they justified? Was the supplier helpful in identifying items that were not included in his scope of work so that the user was prepared for items they were responsible to provide? Was the schedule met?
These issues greatly impact the effort it takes to get the system up and running. Your assessment should focus on the integrity and quality of the supplier’s effort. If there were problems (as there inevitably are) what was the supplier’s response in general. This is a good gauge for assessing them with respect to someone you want as your supplier.
Daily System Use
If the system has been running for over a year, it should be possible to distinguish between startup issues and operational issues. The people who use the system daily are the best judge whether the initial concept and its execution did a good job at meeting their needs and concerns.
What you really hope to achieve by addressing questions having to do with daily use is a sense of ‘what it is like to live with the system’. The answers you get from the system operators are not the black and white answers you would get to a technical or scope question. Users are usually not bashful about telling you what they like and dislike about working with the system every day. It is in this context that you should interpret what you see and hear relating to the daily use of the system.
Remember that this is always an defined end to the system design, installation and startup phase but the daily use phase is what you must live with from then on. Your evaluation of a particular AGV company should put great emphasis on this area. Will they be there when you need them? Will they be able to support the system 10 years or more from now? These are questions you can only answer based on your overall assessment of your site visits and what you saw and heard.
