Absolutely—and serious AGV buyers should ask.

One of the fastest ways to separate a mature AGV manufacturer from a marketing-driven supplier is to ask:

           "Show me your actual AGV installations from the last three years."        

Most suppliers can create impressive PowerPoint presentations.

Far fewer can provide evidence of:

• Verifiable customer deployments

• Repeat orders

• Industry references

• Long-term support history

A three-year installation history helps buyers evaluate:

• Real market presence

• Export experience

• Industry expertise

• Project scale

• Customer satisfaction

• Business stability

What Information Should Be Included in an Installation List?

A useful AGV installation list should contain enough information to verify experience without exposing confidential customer details.

What If the Supplier Claims Confidentiality?

This is completely normal.

Most end users do not allow suppliers to disclose:

• Company names

• Warehouse addresses

• Detailed project information

However, suppliers should still be able to provide:

• Industry category

• Country or region

• Robot quantity

• Deployment date

• General application description

Red Flag:

       Be cautious if a supplier can only provide trade-show photos, factory demonstrations, or anonymous marketing case studies without any verifiable deployment history.

How Many Installations Are in My Specific Industry?

This may be the most important question in your supplier audit.

A supplier might claim:

500+ AGV installations worldwide

But if only two of those projects are in your industry, you may effectively become part of their learning curve.

Why Industry Experience Matters

Food & Beverage projects often require:

• Wash-down environments

• Cold-storage operation

• HACCP compliance considerations

• Food-safe materials

• High-throughput logistics

These requirements differ significantly from:

• Automotive manufacturing

• Electronics production

• E-commerce fulfillment

• General warehousing

Questions Worth Asking

• How many total AGV projects have been completed?

• How many deployments are in my industry?

• How many similar applications were delivered during the last three years?

• How many installations exceed 20 AGVs?

Instead of asking "Have you done Food & Beverage before?", ask:

       "How many Food & Beverage facilities similar to mine have you deployed during the last three years?"

What Is the Customer Retention Rate?

Customer retention is one of the most revealing metrics in the AGV industry.

Many suppliers focus on new sales.

Experienced buyers focus on repeat purchases.

Why Retention Matters

If a customer buys:

• 10 AGVs initially

• Then expands to 30 AGVs later

They are effectively validating:

• Reliability

• Support quality

• Software performance

• Return on investment

Metrics Worth Requesting

• Repeat-order percentage

• Fleet expansion rate

• Largest repeat-order customer

• Revenue from existing customers

Suppliers that can discuss retention confidently often have stronger support systems and more mature customer-success processes.

Can I Speak With One of Their Existing US Customers?

Yes—and for significant projects, you absolutely should ask.

This is one of the most valuable due-diligence activities available.

A Good Reference Customer Can Reveal

• Deployment quality

• Support responsiveness

• Spare-parts availability

• Software stability

• Expansion experience

• Whether they would buy again

A stronger question is not:

       "Can I speak with a customer?"

       It is:

       "Can I speak with a customer who has operated the system for at least two years?"

How Many Units Have They Shipped to Singapore vs. the United States?

This question helps evaluate export maturity.

Successful AGV exports require much more than shipping robots.

• Technical documentation

• Compliance knowledge

• Local support capability

• Spare-parts logistics

• Cross-border communication processes

Ask for Active Installed Base

Don't focus only on historical shipments.

A much better metric is:

500 units shipped
       450 units still operational today

This tells you much more about long-term success.

Hidden Reality Many Buyers Discover Too Late

A supplier may advertise:

"Projects in 30 countries."

But after investigation:

• Many are pilot projects

• Some are single-unit demonstrations

• Few are full-scale production deployments

The better metric is the number of operational installations still running today.

Questions You Should Add to Your Supplier Audit

✓ How many projects are still operational today?

       ✓ What percentage of customers purchased additional AGVs?

       ✓ What percentage of revenue comes from repeat customers?

       ✓ How many support engineers serve North America?

       ✓ How many Food & Beverage installations exceed 20 AGVs?

       ✓ Can I visit a reference site virtually or in person?

       ✓ What was the largest project failure in the last three years and how was it resolved?

The last question often reveals more than any sales presentation.

What Buyers Are Really Asking

"Has this supplier solved my problem before?"

       "Will they still support me years after installation?"

       "Do customers actually expand their fleets?"

       "Can I trust their international deployment experience?"

       "Are they a proven automation partner or simply a strong sales organization?"

The strongest predictor of future success is not how many robots a supplier has sold—it's how many customers chose to buy from them again.

Before You Shortlist an AGV Supplier

Ask for evidence of:

• Last three years of installation history

• Industry-specific deployment experience

• Customer retention and repeat-order rates

• US and Singapore installed base

• Long-term reference customers

• Active fleet statistics

If you're evaluating multiple China AGV suppliers, leave your project details (industry, country, warehouse size, and expected AGV quantity). We can provide a Supplier Reference Verification Checklist to help you compare vendors using objective metrics rather than marketing claims.