Notes for owners · Sales management
Writing a scope of work for an automation project that avoids disputes at handover
Automation disputes start in what the scope left out. What a scope of work should cover, who supplies what, and how to write acceptance as a run the plant witnesses, with your lawyer finalising the wording.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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The cell met its cycle time at your shop. At the plant, it stops every few cycles on castings with flash, and the buyer is holding the final payment. Nothing in the scope said what parts the cell must handle, so both sides feel cheated. A scope of work prevents this when it states what you deliver, what you do not, who supplies everything else, and how acceptance is tested. Write it before the price is agreed, in plain technical language. Then let your lawyer finalise the wording.
Disputes start in the gaps, not in the price
The purchase team reads the price. The plant engineer reads the equipment list. Nobody reads what was left out until the day of handover, and that is where the arguments sit.
They come from a short list of places. Incoming parts that vary more than the trial parts did. Air pressure or power that was never checked at the point of connection. A foundation nobody was asked to pour. Guarding that one side thought the other was providing. Trial parts or a shutdown window the plant gave late. A programme handed over without passwords. And a warranty with no clear start date.
Programme handover and spares also belong on the engineer's page described in presenting to a plant head and an engineer. In the scope, they stop being talking points and become terms.
The scope, section by section
Keep the numbering, so both sides can point to a clause.
- The problem and the target. The corrected problem statement from the line walk, as described in how an automation buyer defines the problem, with the target in the plant's own unit.
- What you supply. Equipment by make and model, software, drawings, manuals and training.
- The parts the system must handle. Drawing numbers, variants, and a tolerance band for incoming parts, including flash, oil and temperature.
- Exclusions. Everything you are not doing, named one by one.
- Who supplies what. The table below.
- Factory acceptance at your works. On parts from the plant's current production, worst cases included, witnessed by the plant.
- Site acceptance. The defined run in the next section.
- Handover. Programme backup, source code if agreed, passwords, drawings, spares list and training records.
- Warranty. When it starts, what it covers, and what voids it, such as a crash caused by parts outside section 3.
- Changes. Any change after sign-off goes on a change note with its cost and time effect, signed before work starts.
- Payment stages. Tied to milestones in this document, not to dates alone.
Who supplies what
| Item | Supplied by | What to write down |
|---|---|---|
| Robot, grippers, controller and cell guarding | Integrator | Makes, models and the guarding layout drawing |
| Foundation or floor preparation | Plant | Load and levelling from your drawing, ready by an agreed date |
| Power to the panel, compressed air at the cell | Plant | Voltage, air pressure and flow at the connection point |
| Signals and door actuators on existing machines | Integrator, with the machine maker's consent | Who obtains that consent, and any effect on the machine's warranty |
| Link to the plant's ERP or MES | Plant, unless priced | Out of scope unless a line in the quote says otherwise |
| Trial parts for factory acceptance | Plant | Quantity, from current production, worst cases included |
| Operators for site acceptance | Plant | Names, shifts and attendance at training |
| Shutdown window for installation | Plant | Dates, and what happens if they move |
| Safety check of the finished cell | Both, as agreed | Who arranges it; the rules differ by state and body and change, so check with your adviser |
Write acceptance as a run, not a word
"Acceptance" with no definition is a dispute waiting for a date. Define it as a run the plant can witness and record. A clause in this shape works:
Site acceptance: the cell runs for [hours] across [shifts], operated by the plant's trained operators, on parts within section 3, including one changeover from [variant A] to [variant B]. It passes if average cycle time is at or below [target] and stops caused by the cell do not exceed [number]. Stops caused by parts outside section 3, missing material or upstream machines are logged with the time and excluded.
Fill the blanks with the plant, not for it. The figures belong to the two of you, and a target you set alone will be argued over later.
Imagine a machine-tending cell in Jalgaon
Imagine an integrator building a robot cell in Jalgaon MIDC to load valve body castings into two vertical machining centres. The details are illustrative. Factory acceptance passed on a crate of clean castings the buyer had picked. At site, production castings arrived with flash and shifting datum faces. The gripper missed its seat, the machines alarmed, and cycle time fell well short. The buyer held back the final payment. The integrator blamed the foundry. The scope said only "cell to load castings as per drawing".
The foundry's own inspection data broke the deadlock. Both sides agreed a tolerance band for incoming castings and a deflashing step at the foundry. The integrator reshaped the gripper fingers to locate on a machined face, and a signed change note split that cost. Site acceptance was re-run against a written clause like the one above, six weeks after the first attempt, and it passed. The final payment came in those six weeks late, and the integrator carried half the gripper rework at its own cost. The integrator's next scope carried a section 3 from the first draft, worst-case castings at factory acceptance, and the rule for counting stops.
What to keep short, and what to hand to your lawyer
A small retrofit, such as a new sensor or an HMI swap, needs one page: what you do, what you exclude and a one-line acceptance test. Do not bury a two-day job in eleven sections.
On a full cell or line, draft the technical substance yourself. Your lawyer drafts liability limits, delay penalties, rights in software and how disputes are settled. Guarding and electrical work also carry safety rules that differ by state and body and change, so check with your own adviser before the scope claims anything is compliant. The wider sale, from the first problem page to the service contract, is laid out on the industrial automation and robotics page.
Add the part specification to your next scope
Open the scope for your next proposal and write section 3 before anything else: the parts, their variants and the tolerance band for what arrives, with a crate of the worst parts the plant makes in mind. Then write the acceptance run with the plant engineer on a call. Building such a scope into the proposal is proposal development. If you want your scope template written with you, tell us what you need.
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