How to Choose an AGV or AMR Provider: What to Evaluate Beyond the Demo

Choosing an AGV or AMR provider based on a product demonstration is one of the most reliable ways to select the wrong system for your factory. Demos run in controlled conditions, on clean floors, in open spaces, with consistent WiFi, and with configurations optimized for the demo rather than for the buyer's operating environment. The criteria that predict real-world performance, local service capability, FMS flexibility, integration depth, and post-go-live support, are not visible in a demo. This guide covers what to evaluate beyond the demonstration and why each criterion matters more than the vehicle's specification sheet.

Why AGV and AMR Demos Do Not Predict Deployment Performance

A well-run product demonstration answers one question: can this vehicle perform the task it was asked to perform in these conditions? That is a useful but narrow data point.

Your factory floor is not demo conditions. It has WiFi dead zones where dense equipment blocks network coverage. It has floor surface variations from years of forklift operation, humidity exposure, and cleaning chemical contact. It has aisle widths that narrow at specific transfer points. It has peak throughput periods that exceed the average load the demo was designed to represent. It has integration requirements with your existing MES, WMS, and ERP that were not part of the demonstration scenario.

The AGV or AMR that performs best in a demo environment and the system that performs best in your factory environment are not necessarily the same vehicle. Evaluation criteria beyond the demo are what close that gap.

Technical Criteria to Evaluate Beyond the Demo

Navigation technology and its fit to your floor

AGVs typically use laser navigation, magnetic tape, QR codes, or a combination. AMRs use LiDAR-based SLAM navigation. Each approach has different performance characteristics on different floor types, in different lighting conditions, and in the presence of different obstacles.

The relevant question is not which navigation technology is most advanced. It is which technology performs reliably on your specific floor, with your specific obstacle profile, and in your specific network environment. Request a site assessment from each shortlisted provider and evaluate whether their navigation approach is suited to your conditions, not conditions in general.

Fleet Management System capability and openness

The Fleet Management System is the software that coordinates vehicle routing, traffic management, charging, and integration with other systems. It is as important as the vehicle hardware and more difficult to evaluate from a demo.

Key FMS questions: Can the system be configured to your traffic management rules, or does it impose a fixed logic? Can it integrate with your existing MES and WMS, or only with systems from the same vendor family? What data does it expose for reporting and analytics, and in what format? How are routing updates deployed, and what happens to active vehicle routes during an update?

Dead zone navigation capability

WiFi dead zones are present in most Vietnamese manufacturing facilities. Dense equipment layouts and metal structures create localized coverage gaps that standard network assessments do not always identify. An AGV or AMR that loses network contact in a dead zone stops as a safety default, halting every vehicle behind it in the route sequence.

Evaluate each provider's approach to dead zone navigation specifically. Capabilities that address this include map pre-loading, which allows the vehicle to navigate through a dead zone without continuous network contact; QR code-based position re-initialization, which allows the vehicle to recover accurate positioning after a network gap; and antenna repositioning options that optimize coverage geometry for specific facility layouts.

Charging strategy and floor space requirements

Charging infrastructure requirements vary significantly by vehicle type and charging strategy. A fleet that requires centralized charging bays needs dedicated floor space. A fleet that supports opportunity charging, brief top-up charges at defined points along the operating route, reduces both floor space requirements and the fleet size needed to maintain throughput during charging cycles.

Hot-swappable batteries reduce the space required further: a depleted battery is replaced in minutes at a compact swap station rather than a fleet of vehicles parked at charging docks. Evaluate each provider's charging strategy against your available space and operating cycle before the floor space discussion becomes a project constraint.

Service and Support Criteria

Local engineering presence in Vietnam

An AGV or AMR system that stops working during a production shift needs an engineer who can reach your facility. The relevant question is not whether the provider has a regional office. It is whether they have engineers based in Vietnam who can respond on-site, and what their committed response time is.

Providers without local engineering presence in Vietnam rely on regional dispatch from Singapore, Thailand, or further afield. Response times and travel costs increase accordingly. In a production environment, the cost of downtime during the wait for an engineer typically exceeds the cost difference between a provider with local presence and one without.

Spare parts inventory and availability

Vehicle downtime caused by parts unavailability is indistinguishable from vehicle downtime caused by engineering failure from a throughput perspective. Ask each provider specifically: which parts are held in local inventory in Vietnam, what is the lead time for parts not held locally, and what is the process for emergency parts supply during a production disruption?

Reference deployments in comparable Vietnamese environments

A reference in a purpose-built logistics center with flat floors, consistent WiFi, and a single product flow does not validate performance in a retrofitted Vietnamese manufacturing facility with narrow aisles, variable floor surfaces, and high-mix production. Request references in facilities that match your operating environment, and speak directly with the operations manager rather than the procurement contact who managed the vendor relationship.

Integration Evaluation

FMS to MES and WMS integration

AGV and AMR systems generate production data: vehicle location, task completion, throughput by route, and downtime events. This data is only operationally useful when it reaches the systems that production and logistics teams use to manage operations. Evaluate each provider's integration capability with your specific MES and WMS platforms, the integration architecture they use, and the data they expose.

ERP integration for production order management

In environments where AGV tasks are triggered by production orders from the ERP, the integration between the FMS and ERP determines whether vehicle deployment is manual or automatic. Manual task creation limits throughput and introduces the human error that automation is deployed to eliminate. Automated task triggering from ERP production orders requires a defined integration that not all providers support.

FAQ

How do I choose an AGV or AMR provider?

Evaluate local service presence in Vietnam, FMS flexibility and integration capability, navigation technology suitability for your specific floor conditions, dead zone navigation features, charging strategy fit to your available space, and reference deployments in comparable Vietnamese manufacturing environments. Product demonstration performance is a starting point, not a selection criterion.

What is the difference between AGV and AMR selection criteria?

AGV selection emphasizes route configuration flexibility, infrastructure requirements such as magnetic tape or QR markers, and the rigidity of the path structure. AMR selection emphasizes SLAM navigation performance in dynamic environments, obstacle avoidance capability, and FMS flexibility for variable routing. Both require evaluation of local service capability, integration depth, and dead zone navigation performance.

Why do AGV demos not predict real deployment performance?

Demos run in controlled conditions optimized for the demonstration: clean floors, consistent WiFi, open spaces, and configurations that showcase the vehicle's strengths. Real factory floors have WiFi dead zones, surface variations, narrow transfer points, and peak load conditions that demos do not replicate. The criteria that predict real performance, service capability, FMS flexibility, and integration depth, are not visible in demo conditions.

What should I ask AGV and AMR providers about dead zone navigation?

Ask specifically whether the vehicle supports map pre-loading for dead zone navigation, QR code-based position re-initialization after a network gap, and antenna repositioning options. These capabilities determine whether the vehicle can operate reliably through the coverage gaps that exist in most Vietnamese manufacturing facilities without generating the ghost stops that disrupt route sequences.

What questions should I ask AGV provider references?

Ask how long commissioning took compared to the original plan, what the system's throughput performance was in the first six months after go-live compared to the specification, how the provider responded when problems occurred after commissioning, and what the current on-site response time is for service calls. These questions reveal post-sale capability more accurately than any pre-sale demonstration.

How important is local service presence when choosing an AGV provider in Vietnam?

Local service presence is one of the highest-weight selection criteria for AGV and AMR deployment in Vietnam. Vehicle downtime during production hours has a direct throughput cost. Response time from a provider with engineers based in Vietnam is measured in hours. Response time from a provider dispatching from outside Vietnam is measured in days. The cost difference between providers with and without local presence is typically smaller than the cost of one extended downtime event during peak production.