Buyer guides
How to Write a Robotics RFQ Suppliers Can Actually Quote
By the GlobleMatch Editorial Team · Last updated 5 November 2026 · General information, not engineering or legal advice.
A robotics RFQ (request for quotation) gets accurate, comparable quotes when it describes the task rather than the robot: what is handled, how fast, in what environment, with which systems, under which safety rules, and what “done” means at acceptance. Suppliers price uncertainty, so every gap in the request tends to come back as a margin, a caveat or a site visit fee.
Most first-time buyers write a robotics RFQ the way they would order a machine — a model, a payload, a quantity. That works for spare parts. For anything that has to be integrated into a line, a warehouse or a cell, the robot is usually a minority of the project cost; tooling, guarding, programming, integration with existing systems and commissioning make up the rest. An RFQ that only names the robot invites quotes that are cheap on paper and expensive in change orders.
The eight sections a robotics RFQ needs
| Section | What to include |
|---|---|
| 1. Task | What is picked, moved or processed: sizes, weights (minimum and maximum), materials, how parts arrive and where they go. |
| 2. Throughput | Target cycle time or units per hour, shifts per day, days per week, and expected peak versus average. |
| 3. Environment | Floor space and height, temperature, dust or washdown, floor condition for mobile robots, people working nearby. |
| 4. Systems | PLC, WMS, MES or ERP the robot must talk to, and the interfaces you already use. |
| 5. Safety and compliance | The standards and documents you expect (for example, conformity with ISO 10218 for industrial robot systems) and any local electrical approvals. |
| 6. Scope split | Who supplies what: robot, end effector, guarding, installation, programming, training, spare parts. |
| 7. Acceptance | How you will test it: a factory acceptance test at the supplier, a site acceptance test, and the performance figures that must be met. |
| 8. Commercial | Quantity, timeline, budget range if you have one, warranty and support expectations, payment milestones. |
Describe the task, not the robot
If you specify “a 10 kg collaborative arm”, you get quotes for 10 kg arms — even if the job would be cheaper with a different approach. If you specify “move 12 kg cartons from conveyor to pallet, 8 per minute, two shifts”, suppliers can propose an arm, a gantry or a different layout and explain why. Name a preferred technology only if you have a reason, and say what the reason is.
Include the awkward cases: the heaviest item, the most fragile one, the bag that deforms, the label that sometimes faces down. Integrators routinely discover these during commissioning, and that is where budgets slip.
Ask for comparable answers
Quotes are hard to compare when each supplier structures them differently. Ask every supplier to break the price into the same lines — hardware, end effector, safety and guarding, software and programming, installation and commissioning, training, and annual support — and to list what is excluded. Ask for the assumptions behind the cycle time they promise, and whether it has been tested on your parts or estimated.
What to leave out
- Confidential drawings in the first round. Share a description first; send drawings under a non-disclosure agreement once a supplier is shortlisted.
- Unrealistic “must haves”. Each hard requirement narrows the field. Separate “required” from “preferred”.
- Brand names you have not checked. Requiring a specific brand for every component can lock out good integrators who standardise on others.
Cross-border requests
When the supplier is in another country, add three things: where the system will be installed and who will be on site; which documents you need for import and local acceptance; and how support will work after handover — remote access, local service partner, spare-parts stock and response times. A supplier that cannot answer the support question clearly is a risk, however good the price.
A short template
“We are a [type of company] in [country]. We need to automate [task] handling [items, weights] at [rate] over [shifts]. The cell must interface with [systems]. We require [standards/documents]. We expect the supplier to provide [scope]; we will provide [scope]. Acceptance: [test and figures]. Quantity [n], timeline [date], budget range [optional]. Please price using the attached line items and list exclusions.”
Related companies in the directory
Listed for discovery only — inclusion is not a recommendation for your application.
Destro AINot yet claimed
United States · Robot software & AI
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