Case studies for automation companies: what to include without naming the client

The plant head liked the robotic welding cell, but the plant's legal team said no to the write-up. The purchase order carries a confidentiality clause, and the plant does not want its own customers to know whose frames it welds. You can still publish. A case study that names the industry, the process, the problem, the before and after the plant measured, and what you changed is a reference an engineer will read. Leave out the name, the logos, the parts and anything that places the site. Then get written permission for exactly what remains.

Why an unnamed case study still sells

An engineer reading your write-up is not collecting names. The question is whether you have solved a problem like theirs, on a similar process, under similar limits. A serious reader will ask for a reference call later, and that can be arranged privately.

Vagueness loses the reader. "A leading manufacturer" says nothing. "A two-wheeler component maker in Tamil Nadu with three welding lines on two shifts" gives the scale and the process without naming anyone. Be precise about the work and vague only about identity. Our note on what a case study must contain covers the parts of any case study; here is how they change when the plant stays anonymous.

A template for the unnamed write-up

Fill in each line. If a line cannot be written without naming the plant, rewrite it one level more general.

Plant: the industry, the region (a state, or "western India"), and the scale in lines or shifts.

Process: the step you automated and the part family in general words, such as "steel tube frames", never the model.

Before: the problem as the plant described it, with any figure the plant itself recorded and how it was measured.

Constraint: what made it hard, such as a short shutdown, an existing conveyor, little floor space or a mixed product range.

What was done: the equipment by type, the make if its supplier agrees, the layout change, the programme and the training.

What went wrong on the way: one problem in commissioning and how it was solved.

After: the Before measure again, from the plant's records, over a stated period.

Reference: a call with the maintenance head, on request.

The "what went wrong" line is the one that makes it read as a project report and not a brochure.

What gives a plant away

Plants are identified by small things. Check each photograph and paragraph against this list before anyone outside sees it.

• Logos on cartons, pallets, crates or a forklift in the background
• Part numbers stamped on parts, or a drawing visible on a screen
• Signage, pillar numbers, the plant's colour scheme or its uniforms
• A town name, when the plant is the only one of its kind there
• Output totals that reveal capacity to competitors; give the change instead
• Any hint of the plant's own customer

Photograph the cell before parts are loaded, from angles that keep the walls out. Close shots of the gripper, the torch or the camera tell an engineer more than a wide shot of the shop anyway.

Figures need the same care. Use figures from the plant's own records, such as a rejection register or a production log. Say how they were measured and over what period. Do not estimate a figure afterwards, and do not round it in your favour.

Some figures a plant will not want published even without its name. Manpower is the common one. A line that once needed four operators and now needs one is a sensitive fact in a plant with a union or a local hiring promise. Describe what happened to the people instead: they moved to loading and inspection. If the plant allows no numbers at all, describe the change in plant terms. The second shift no longer waits for rework, for instance.

Getting permission that holds

The engineer who loved the project cannot give permission. The plant head or whoever signed the purchase order can, and legal may want to read it too. Send the finished draft with numbered photographs, then ask for a reply that approves each part separately:

We would like to publish the attached write-up of the welding cell project without naming your company. It describes the plant only as "a two-wheeler component maker in Tamil Nadu". Please reply to confirm which you approve: the text, photographs 1 to 6, the Before and After figures, and a reference call on request.

Keep the reply email with the file.

Imagine a welding integrator in Hosur

Imagine an integrator in Hosur that built a robotic welding cell for a two-wheeler frame supplier. The details are illustrative. Its first draft had a wide photograph with the supplier's name on a pillar and a part number stamped on a frame. The text said the cell "cut manpower from four operators to one". The plant's legal team refused the whole write-up.

So the integrator went back with a smaller ask. It re-shot the cell with blank tubes, close up, and described the plant as a component maker in Tamil Nadu. The manpower line became "three operators moved to loading and final inspection". The only figure kept was the weld rework rate, taken from the plant's rejection register. The plant head approved the new draft by email and allowed reference calls on request. The write-up now goes out with every welding enquiry the integrator answers. Getting the second approval took six weeks, and two enquiries went to rivals in that time.

When not to publish

If the plant is the only one of its kind in a region, any honest description identifies it. Keep that write-up for one-to-one use with serious buyers, shared after a meeting, and tell the plant you are doing so. Wait if the plant has not yet measured the result. And drop any figure that came from your own estimate rather than its records.

Draft one unnamed write-up from your own files

Pick the finished project you would most like to repeat and fill in the template from your own files tonight. Mark every line that needs the plant's permission, and send the draft to whoever signed the order. Writing it up is the work of customer case studies, and where that proof sits in a plant's buying is on the industrial automation and robotics page. If you want help writing it up and getting it approved, tell us what you need.