Learn Automation with MINATA #60: The Automation Project Roadmap — Settle the Requirement Before the Equipment
The Automation Project Roadmap: Settle the Requirement Before the Equipment
Whether an automation project succeeds is largely decided at the beginning, when the requirement is settled — not when the equipment is chosen. Committing to a rate or a solution after a single visit to look at the machine is the most common route to a system that "works, but not at the thing the customer needed".
Settle the requirement first
Assumptions about material, cycle, the interface with existing machines and safety have to be written down as verifiable requirements, not carried in somebody's head. A good requirement states: what product, what takt time, what tolerance, which equipment it must talk to, what supply and air conditions exist, and what the acceptance criteria are. PLC, drives and sensors are chosen afterwards, to serve that requirement.
Divide the project into gates
Use gates, each with a clear output that must be achieved before the next step begins:
| Gate | Main output |
|---|
| Requirement freeze | Requirement table, assumptions, acceptance criteria |
| Design freeze | Drawings, equipment selection, control and safety architecture |
| FAT | Acceptance at the builder's works |
| Installation and SAT | Acceptance on site |
| Training and as-built | An operable machine and a complete record |
Skipping a gate "to go faster" is usually paid for at the end, when a fix costs many times more.
Managing assumptions and changes
Every unconfirmed assumption is a risk: write it down and verify it early. When a requirement changes mid-project, handle it through a change procedure that assesses the effect on cost, schedule and safety — rather than letting it slip in quietly.
A worked engineering situation
A conveyor project starts from takt time, product types, the floor layout, the available supply and compressed air, the interface points with the existing machine and the acceptance criteria — before any PLC, drive or sensor is chosen. Because the requirement was settled clearly, the works acceptance and the site acceptance have something concrete to test against, and the as-built record reflects the system that was actually handed over.
The scope, the gates and the acceptance criteria all follow the contract, the risk assessment and the customer's requirements.
Common mistakes
- Committing to a rate or a solution after one visit.
- Choosing equipment before the requirement is settled.
- Skipping the works or site acceptance to save time.
- Leaving assumptions unwritten and unverified.
- Accepting mid-project changes without assessing their effect.
Project roadmap checklist
- [ ] Requirements and assumptions are written as a verifiable table.
- [ ] Equipment is chosen afterwards, to serve the settled requirement.
- [ ] Stage gates exist, each with a clear output.
- [ ] Works and site acceptance have specific criteria.
- [ ] Changes go through a procedure that assesses their effect.
Settling the requirement first is the cheapest way to land a project where it was meant to land. #61 opens the operations stretch with machine states: Stop, Run and Fault.
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