This is the final post in a series on standardizing your company's AGV/AMR fleet manager software. Read the first post about the benefits of standardizing this technology, or download our free Fleet Manager RFI/RFP/RFQ templates.
RFP is an abbreviation for Request For Quote, a type of procurement document that a company distributes to gather specific information, including detailed pricing, from product and service vendors.
The aim of an RFQ is to help your company decide which specific vendor to work with — i.e., from whom to buy a specific product or service — from a final shortlist of most likely just two or three potential partners.
If a Request for Information (RFI) is an early-stage fact-finding document, and a Request for Proposal (RFP) delves significantly deeper into a vendor’s offerings, an RFQ is the highly detailed, pricing-focused step that effectively seals the deal.
An RFQ not only requests a high level of product, service, license, and support detail, but detailed long-term pricing specific to your company. This must also include any customizations or additional development that may be required for a vendor to meet the specifications of your organization’s AGV/AMR program.
Download: AGV/AMR Fleet Manager RFQ Template.
Large companies that have, or are looking to deploy, several fleets of automated vehicles such as AGVs and AMRs – often in operation at multiple sites – are increasingly looking to standardize the fleet software they use to manage these installations, by partnering with a single supplier.
There are several potential benefits to this approach:
Issuing a Request for Quote, or RFQ, which is sent to as few as two or three pre-qualified fleet management suppliers (possibly assessed via a previous RFI or RFP), can be a key step in the procurement process.
Important to note: it may not be necessary for your company to go through the full process of issuing RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs. Instead, the more advanced your team’s fleet manager knowledge and research, the further along in the process of RFI, RFP, RFQ you can begin.
Creating and distributing an RFQ is therefore a good plan if you and your team already have in-depth fleet management experience and have pre-qualified a handful of potential suppliers in order to now move to a final decision. Since an RFQ delves deep into pricing models and specific costs, this final step of the process is also likely to involve your company’s procurement or purchasing team.
Download: AGV/AMR Fleet Manager RFQ Template.
At the beginning of any potential partnership, vendors will want to know about your organization and the collaboration you are envisioning. They will also need to know what specific information you need from them, including what level of detail, and by when.
Typically, a vendor would start by needing to know the following:
They would then provide your team with an overview of:
However, it is rare to start the RFQ process at this stage, with this level of questions. More realistic is that your team either completes a Request For Proposal (RFP) process first to ascertain this information, or else achieves the same through a series of less official video calls or meetings.
Which leaves the core goal of your RFQ document: to learn what each of your remaining vendors proposes, and will charge, for a specific package (or packages) of fleet manager technology (including licenses), services, and support. Packages that suit the project goals and specific requirements you have already described and discussed with their teams.
Ideally you want this pricing information to cover a timespan of several years (i.e., five), in order that you can fully cost out the deployment not only of the fleet manager solution itself but also the first batch of individual AGV projects (e.g., at different plants).
So, how should you break down this pricing request into clear, manageable sections?
Ask ten different automation teams this question and you might well receive ten different answers. However, our team at ANTdriven.com (BlueBotics) has worked on numerous fleet manager RFQs to date, so we have begun to note some similarities.
With this experience in mind, we have attempted to synthesize these large manufacturer RFQs into one clear guide. Download the RFQ Template for free.
Here is our proposed list of sections for your fleet manager RFQ:
1. Contact info
This short section clarifies the contact details of the vendor’s project lead, or the full team, responsible for submitting the completed RFQ.
2. Fleet manager license costs
In this key section a vendor should explain in full how it structures and prices the licensing of its core fleet manager solution. These costs may, for example, be based on the number of AGVs in operation, costed per site, or some blend of both.
The number of AGVs required should be a result of the vendor's own estimation, based on its experience and knowledge of your specific project. However, this figure could also come from your own calculations.
Tip: If a vendor does not provide a cost for software updates, be sure to ask if these are included by default, for free, or charged extra (e.g., via annual fee). Also, ask how these updates are supplied/accessed.
Download: AGV/AMR Fleet Manager RFQ Template.
3. Software tool license costs
This section covers other related software costs, such as the price of any simulation or API tools, database access and so on. What you are looking for here is a precise and comprehensive list of all the tools necessary to complete an AGV/AMR project, and a good understanding of the role of each of these tools.
4. Programming costs
Your fleet manager supplier will likely also be involved in the programming of your company first AGV/AMR project(s), such as programming devices/interfaces, and creating any additional logic required. Your project(s) may even require the vendor to develop new software functions and features that don’t yet exist.
This section is where your vendor should offer an exhaustive list of such non-recurring fees, related to any specific project(s) you have discussed.
5. Commissioning costs
It is likely that your fleet manager partner will be involved in the deployment of your future fleets. If this vendor is also the main contractor, it may even be involved in the installation of your automated vehicles themselves.
In both cases, it would be ideal if the fleet manager vendor could be present during commissioning, at least for the first installation involving its technology. This would also present the opportunity for its team to train yours while on-site.
Tips:
6. Maintenance and support costs
The vendor should explain how and at what cost it can support your daily operations. Main line items should include: the maintenance of your system (debugs, updates etc.), and support services (e.g., Service Level Agreements, additional support hours, on-site support fees etc.).
Tips:
Be sure to request references from other customers so that your team can more precisely estimate what real-world support costs will eventually look like.
7. Training costs
Since solid training will be key to your project's ongoing success, fleet manager vendors should share a full picture of all possible training costs. If no training is offered or priced, that should be a red flag. Note also that training packages can span several levels. It is also common to offer some form of continuous training (for example via access to an online learning management system).
Tips:
8. Miscellaneous costs
A vendor may occasionally need to charge unique, individual costs that are not covered in the categories above. For example, if flying internationally to your site (and therefore incurring higher commissioning and/or training costs). This section is for such 'others'.
9. Total cost
Here, the vendor should detail the total cost of the fleet manager implementation project or projects you have discussed.
This feedback may include two or more total cost versions, depending for example on the role of the fleet manager vendor (commissioning or not) and any different license options available.
Tips:
Any promise of fleet size reduction should be taken with a generous pinch of salt (not fully believed), as this is virtually impossible to validate at such an early stage.
To get management buy-in for any fleet manager investment, ROI calculations will be essential.
The basic formula below will help you calculate the breakeven period and potential longer-term ROI of your fleet manager project. For this calculation, you will require an estimate of what annual savings your company might achieve once a fleet manager is installed and operational versus your current infrastructure.
| Initial Investment (I) | This RFQ's total cost | $ |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Savings (S) | Your estimated annual saving | $ |
| Breakeven (B) | B = I/S | years |
| 5-Year ROI | ((Sx5)-I)/I | % |
Be sure to inform your RFQ vendors to whom the completed RFQ documents, and any supplementary materials, should be sent, and by what deadline.
Tip: To avoid confusion, give your RFP document a version number, as you may create several iterations following vendor feedback.
Download: AGV/AMR Fleet Manager RFQ Template.
ANT server is BlueBotics' powerful AGV & AMR mission and fleet management software. This proven tool is used to control and manage interoperable fleets of ‘ANT driven’ and/or VDA 5050-based vehicles.