Your Robot Fleet’s Go-Live Week: A Process Guide

What Really Happens During Go-Live Week?

After months of planning, site assessments, and a successful pilot program, your new commercial robot fleet is ready for full-time work. The 'go-live' week is the critical period when this transition happens. It is the formal handover from a test environment to full production, where the robots begin performing their duties as a regular part of your daily operations.

This crucial first week is a structured process managed by your integration partner. It is not simply about turning the machines on. It revolves around a final, rigorous series of checks called Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), the last phase of hands-on staff training, and dedicated on-site support to manage the small but inevitable adjustments that come with any new technology.

The objective is to move your team from guided assistance to confident, independent operation of the fleet. By the end of the week, the robots should be running their assigned routes and tasks, and your staff should be comfortable with their new robotic coworkers.

The Final Exam: What is Site Acceptance Testing (SAT)?

Site Acceptance Testing is the final verification stage that confirms a robot fleet meets all performance requirements in its actual operating environment. This is not a demonstration. The SAT is a formal process, using a detailed checklist, to prove that everything works as promised on your floors, in your hallways, and with your infrastructure.

An integrator's deployment engineers will work alongside your operational team to validate every key function. This is a collaborative process designed to give you complete confidence before final sign-off.

A typical SAT checklist for an AMR fleet deployment rigorously evaluates several key areas:

This pass-fail test is the gateway to full production use. A successful SAT provides documented proof that your investment is ready to deliver its expected value from day one.

• Navigation: Robots must accurately follow all mapped routes, including interacting with automatic doors or elevators if part of the project scope.
• Task Performance: The test confirms each robot can execute its main job to the agreed-upon standard, whether that involves a large facility coverage for a cleaning robot or meeting cycle times for a material handling robot.
• Safety Systems: All safety features, from obstacle detection to emergency stops and keep-out zones, are systematically tested to ensure they function correctly.
• Fleet Management: The central software must correctly dispatch jobs, manage traffic between units, and oversee automated charging cycles without manual intervention.

How is the Final Staff Training Conducted?

While initial training may have happened during the pilot, the go-live week is for cementing practical, everyday skills. The goal is not to make your staff robotics experts but to make them comfortable and competent in their daily interactions with the new fleet. Inadequate staff training can hinder the successful integration of AMRs into your workflows.

Training during this phase is hands-on and takes place in the live work environment. It focuses on the specific tasks your employees will need to perform. This often includes tiered training, where daily operators learn a different skill set than maintenance supervisors.

Key training modules cover procedures for starting and stopping tasks, responding to common alerts (like a blocked path), using the fleet management dashboard, and understanding basic safety protocols. This direct practice builds confidence and ensures employees see the robots as helpful tools, not complex obstacles.

Why is an Integrator's On-Site Support So Important?

A key marker of a turnkey robot deployment is the presence of the integrator's engineers during the first week. A true partner doesn't just install the hardware and leave. They provide on-site support to ensure a smooth transition and rapid troubleshooting.

This is the commitment Service Robot Co. delivers. As a vendor-neutral robot integrator, our job is to ensure the solution works for you, regardless of the manufacturer. Our nationwide US engineer network provides that critical go-live support, acting as your one partner with one number to call.

Having an expert on-site is invaluable for resolving the minor, real-world issues that can arise. It could be a Wi-Fi dead spot no one knew existed or a workflow bottleneck that only appears under full operational load. Our engineers can perform remote triage or work directly on the machine, handling these issues immediately so your operation never stops.

What Kinds of Problems Emerge in Week One?

No matter how thorough the planning, the first week of full operation will reveal minor, unpredictable challenges. This is normal. The real-world environment is always more dynamic than a controlled pilot.

Common day-one issues often relate to the environment or human workflow, not fundamental robot failures. For instance, a pallet might be left in a hallway where it wasn't before, or a newly cleaned floor might have a different friction level, requiring a minor route adjustment.

Other small challenges can include network hiccups or user errors as staff get accustomed to the system. The value of having an on-site integrator is that these issues are resolved in minutes, not hours or days. This builds your team's confidence and prevents small problems from becoming sources of frustration.

The Handover: From Guided Support to Your Operation

The end of a successful go-live week is marked by a formal handover. The integrator, having proven the system's stability through the SAT and addressed initial challenges, transitions primary operational control to your trained staff. This does not mean support ends.

At Service Robot Co., this is where the next phase of our partnership begins. The deployment and integration process is complete, but the lifecycle support continues. We ensure every client has a clear path forward, which often includes a robot maintenance service plan.

This ongoing relationship is a core benefit of working with a full-service integrator. Whether you have a 'robot as a service' (RaaS) monthly subscription or purchased the fleet, you have a single point of contact for maintenance, emergency response nationwide, and future expansion planning. The goal is to ensure you achieve zero downtime and can focus on your core business, not on managing robots.

How Do You Measure a Successful Go-Live?

Success in the first week is not just about the absence of errors. It's about establishing a positive trajectory and confirming the business case. Defining key performance indicators (KPIs) before going live is essential for an objective assessment.

Metrics should be reviewed regularly, perhaps weekly for the first month, to ensure the fleet is performing as expected. Key indicators of a successful go-live week include:

These early metrics provide the first real data on your return on investment and set the baseline for optimizing the fleet's performance over its entire lifecycle.

• Task Completion Rate: Are the robots completing their assigned jobs successfully at the target rate?
• Uptime: What percentage of scheduled operating hours was the fleet available and working?
• Staff Adoption: Are employees able to manage the robots with minimal support calls? How quickly are minor issues being resolved internally?
• Throughput: For material handling or cleaning robots, is the volume of work completed per hour meeting the project's goals?