This is what a buyer checks before they shortlist machinery and equipment suppliers.
What does a buyer check before shortlisting a machine supplier?
They check the output rate against their production requirement, the utilities and footprint against their plant, and whether spares and service reach their location. A machine page without a capacity figure cannot be shortlisted, however good the machine is.
A plant manager is drawing up a shortlist for a capex proposal and needs numbers he can put in a table.
Last corpus review: 4 August 2026 · Written for machinery manufacturers selling to business buyers
What does a buyer check before shortlisting a machine supplier?
What buyers check in machinery and equipment
Three things, in order: what the product is, what the paperwork proves, and when each document gets asked for.
Capacity, dimensions, utilities and options…
Technical specification sheet
Asked at: shortlisting
That the machine fits the intended space
General arrangement drawing
Asked at: layout planning, before order
Conformity with the applicable European dir…
EC Declaration of Conformity
Asked at: by eu buyers, before shipment
First, what the product is
The fields a buyer scans before deciding whether you are worth contacting. Missing one of them usually ends the visit without an email.
- 1
Model and machine family
The buyer needs something to name in an internal document.
- 2
Output rate or capacity
The number the whole purchase is justified against.
- 3
Materials or products handled
Determines whether the machine fits their process at all.
- 4
Footprint, weight and headroom
Plant layout kills more deals than price does.
- 5
Power and utility requirement
Compressed air, water, voltage and phase are commissioning blockers.
- 6
Automation and control level
Manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic are different products.
- 7
Options and configurable modules
Lets the buyer see how close the standard machine is to their requirement.
Then the paperwork
Naming the documents you can issue is what separates a supplier who can be audited from one who cannot.
| Document | What it proves | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| Technical specification sheetAsked at: shortlisting | Capacity, dimensions, utilities and options in a comparable format | Publish it |
| General arrangement drawingAsked at: layout planning, before order | That the machine fits the intended space | Name it, share on request |
| EC Declaration of ConformityAsked at: by eu buyers, before shipment | Conformity with the applicable European directives — this is the document; CE is the marking | Publish it |
| Electrical safety compliance (IEC 60204-1)Asked at: technical review | That the control panel meets machine electrical safety requirements | Name it, share on request |
| Factory Acceptance Test protocolAsked at: contract negotiation | What will be demonstrated before the machine leaves your floor | Publish it |
| Spare parts list and manualAsked at: total cost evaluation | That the machine can be maintained over its life | Name it, share on request |
| Installation reference listAsked at: risk assessment | That machines of this model are running in production somewhere | Publish it |
The shortlist moment
A buyer lines up a few suppliers and keeps the ones whose proof is easy to check. The rest get a closed tab, not an email.
The buyer asks: What does a buyer check before shortlisting a machine supplier?
A few suppliers get compared side by side:
A supplier with Technical specification sheet on the page
Capacity, dimensions, utilities and options in a comparable format
A supplier with EC Declaration of Conformity on the page
Conformity with the applicable European directives — this is the document; CE is the marking
A supplier with Factory Acceptance Test protocol on the page
What will be demonstrated before the machine leaves your floor
Is one of them you?
What Plact does for machinery and equipment suppliers
Four jobs, done on your site. Each one is a document buyers in this industry already ask for.
Put the Technical specification sheet on the page buyers check
Capacity, dimensions, utilities and options in a comparable format
Put the EC Declaration of Conformity on the page buyers check
Conformity with the applicable European directives — this is the document; CE is the marking
Put the Factory Acceptance Test protocol on the page buyers check
What will be demonstrated before the machine leaves your floor
Put the Installation reference list on the page buyers check
That machines of this model are running in production somewhere
What a useful enquiry looks like
A form that collects these fields can be answered properly the first time. A form that collects a name and a message cannot.
Enquiry form · industrial machinery
Enough to reply usefully, short enough that a buyer finishes it.
- Application and material
- Decides which machine family applies.
- Required output rate
- Decides the model and the price band.
- Available space and utilities
- Prevents quoting a machine that cannot be installed.
- Automation level wanted
- Materially changes the configuration.
- Installation location
- Drives freight, commissioning and service planning.
- Target commissioning date
- Tells you whether this is budgeting or buying.
An enquiry from this search asks for
- Application and material
- Installation location
- Target commissioning date
- Required output rate
Questions suppliers ask
Should we publish prices for machines?
A price band with the conditions attached usually helps more than it costs. Buyers building a capex case need an order of magnitude, and the ones who leave because the band is too high were never going to buy. If configuration makes a band meaningless, publish the basis instead — what drives the price up and down.
How much of the specification should be public versus gated?
Capacity, footprint, utilities and materials handled should be public — they are the shortlisting fields. Detailed drawings, control architecture and commercial terms are reasonable to share after contact. Gating the shortlisting fields removes you from the shortlist.
Do installation references need to name the customer?
No. Industry, country, model and year is usually enough for a buyer to judge relevance, and it avoids the permission problem entirely. A named reference is stronger, but only with written permission on file — an unapproved logo is a real commercial risk.
Documents and standards named here are the ones buyers in this industry commonly ask for; requirements vary by market, customer and contract, so treat this as a starting checklist rather than a compliance list. Clearer pages can help discovery and evaluation. They do not guarantee rankings, AI citations, enquiries or revenue.
Plact Research. Plact's editorial desk for buyer-evidence research. Industry standards, documents and buyer questions are researched and drafted with Plact's AI tools, then reviewed by Praveen Kavuri before publication. Every claim cites the standard, regulation or public source it rests on.
Related buyer questions
- Contract manufacturingWhat does an engineer check before uploading a part for production?
- CompressorsWhat does a buyer check before specifying an air compressor?
- Conveyor systemsWhat does a buyer check before specifying a conveyor?
- Cranes and hoistsWhat does a buyer check before ordering a crane or hoist?
Get your free review
A free review of what a buyer finds when they look for machinery and equipment suppliers, and what to fix first.