Tendering intralogistics systems: the 7 most common mistakes
The tender is the most important document of your automation project. Mistakes made here can hardly be corrected later – or only through expensive change orders.
- Specify requirements, not solutions – or you lose comparability.
- Current data and measurable criteria are half the battle.
- Interfaces, trade boundaries and service belong in the tender from day one.
1. Specifying solutions instead of requirements
Prescribing a specific technology robs bidders of the chance to offer their best solution – and robs you of comparability.
Better: define performance requirements – throughputs, volumes, constraints – and leave the solution open.
2. Incomplete or outdated data
Order structures from three years ago, missing seasonal peaks, no growth scenarios: without solid data, every bidder sizes differently.
Better: provide current order data including peak days and 2–3 growth scenarios.
3. Undefined interfaces
Who delivers the transfer points between conveyors, WMS and ERP? Undefined interfaces are the most common cause of commissioning delays.
Better: document every interface with owner, data format and test procedure in an interface register.
4. Performance not measurable
"High availability" is not a requirement – it is a wish that will be argued about later.
Better: fix measurement methods, measurement periods and acceptance criteria in the tender itself.
5. Unclear trade boundaries to construction
Floor, fire protection, sprinklers, steelwork: unclear boundaries between building and system supplier lead to gaps, double calculations and disputes on site.
Better: create a trade boundary list that assigns every scope item to exactly one trade.
6. Forgetting spares, maintenance and service
If spare-part packages, response times and maintenance contracts are not tendered, you will later negotiate without any competitive pressure.
Better: tender life-cycle costs over 10–15 years as a separate evaluation criterion.
7. Bid evaluation without a system
Bids with hundreds of line items cannot be seriously compared by gut feeling – certainly not at two-digit million volumes.
Better: define an evaluation matrix with technical, commercial and contractual criteria before bids arrive.
Conclusion
Every euro invested in tender quality saves a multiple during realisation – in change orders, in schedule delays and in nerves.
Planning a tender?
I prepare and review tenders for intralogistics systems – independent and vendor-neutral.
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