Ten questions to ask a robot vendor before you sign
You are about to spend six figures on robots. The buyers who went before you already wrote this list, the hard way. In a 2024 survey of 300 robot buyers, the same problems repeat: slowdowns, routing trouble, integration pain, downtime, surprise maintenance, and too much human babysitting [1]. And satisfaction is low: in DHL's survey of 350 supply chain leaders, only 34% of those at VP and Director level are fully satisfied with their warehouse robotics deployments [2]. These ten questions turn those documented problems into things a vendor must answer before you sign. Bring the list to every meeting.
The ten questions
How often will a person need to step in?
Why: Too much manual intervention is a top buyer complaint after go-live [1].
A good answer: An interventions-per-100-tasks number, measured at a real site. Not a promise.
What is your measured uptime, and what counts as down?
Why: Costly downtime is a top post-deployment pain [1].
A good answer: An uptime figure from a named site, with the definition of down in writing.
How will I know a robot is about to fail?
Why: Buyers report a lack of maintenance prediction [1].
A good answer: Alerts before failure, average time between failures, and a spare-parts plan.
What was throughput in month three, not day one?
Why: Operation slowdowns during rollout are a documented pain [1].
A good answer: Month-three numbers from the last three deployments, not the best one.
What happens when my aisles get crowded?
Why: Routing and tasking problems show up during implementation [1]. Fleets slow down as traffic grows [5].
A good answer: Fleet data at your robot density, and how routing behaves under congestion.
How long to connect to my WMS, and who does the work?
Why: Integration is a leading cause of unmet expectations [3]. At DHL, integrations took up to six to eight weeks before middleware [4].
A good answer: A named connector for your WMS, a week count, and who pays if it runs over.
What is the full five-year cost?
Why: Buyers rank lowest lifetime cost joint top with ease and speed of integration [1].
A good answer: One sheet: hardware, software fees, integration, maintenance, and upgrades.
Can you show the payback math with MY wages and volumes?
Why: 80% of buyers expected payback within three years in 2024, and 61% now want it inside 12 months [1]. Average warehouse pay is $26.66 an hour and rising [6].
A good answer: A model built on your numbers, editable, not a national average.
Can I visit a customer like me?
Why: Buyers expect to see the system in action before purchase [1].
A good answer: A reference site in your industry and size, and time with them without the vendor in the room.
What happens to my robots if you shut down?
Why: Zebra sold off its robot unit in 2026 [7]. Attabotics filed for creditor protection in 2025 [8].
A good answer: Code and spare-parts escrow, plus support clauses that survive an acquisition.
How to use this list
A good vendor answers with data from named sites. A great vendor hands you the data before you ask. A vendor who gets annoyed by these questions is also answering them, just not in words. Two more tips. Get every answer in writing, in the contract, not the slide deck. And when the pilot starts, set the pass mark before the first robot runs [9]. A number agreed after the demo will bend against you.
Scoring vendor answers against a measured pilot is the service we sell. The list is free, and it works without us.
Sources
- Interact Analysis, Mobile Robots Buyer Survey (300 buyers and users across sizes, sectors, regions). Reported pains during implementation: operation slowdowns, routing and tasking difficulties, software integration. After: lack of maintenance prediction, costly downtime, too much manual intervention. Quote: 'Eighty percent of respondents expected an ROI within three years.' Via interactanalysis.com and The Robot Report, therobotreport.com/what-do-customers-expect-from-mobile-robots
- DHL Supply Chain Insight 2030 survey, Nov 2025 (350 North American supply chain and C-level executives, fieldwork Feb-Mar 2025): only 34% of VP and Director level leaders are fully satisfied with warehouse robotics deployments: warehouseautomation.ca/news/dhl-report
- PwC 2026 Digital Trends in Operations Survey (767 US leaders): 89% say tech investments have not fully delivered; integration complexity a leading cause: pwc.com
- DHL Group press release, Mar 17 2026: before the technology-neutral software layer, new automation solutions took up to six to eight weeks to initiate; one integration later completed in three hours: group.dhl.com
- RoboticsTomorrow, May 2026, and Robotics & Automation News interview with Plus One Robotics, Jun 2026: fleet performance does not scale linearly; pilots that work with two units can fail with twenty
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, series CES4349300003: $26.66/hour in May 2026 against $25.46 a year earlier, a 4.7% rise. All-employee average; production and nonsupervisory workers averaged $25.92
- Zebra Technologies SEC filings (CIK 877212): FY2021 10-K, Fetch acquired Aug 9 2021 for total consideration of $301M ($290M cash plus $11M for an existing minority interest); FY2025 10-K, decision to exit the robotics business in Q4 2025; Q1 2026 10-Q, sale to Skild AI completed Mar 27 2026 for $20M total consideration, announced Apr 15 2026
- Global News and The Globe and Mail, Attabotics filed a Notice of Intention under Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, Jul 2 2025 (a restructuring proceeding, not a bankruptcy assignment) (raised over $165M)
- Robot Eval, Evaluation #1: when do robot failures actually begin? (this site): fix the pass mark before the trial