RTLS pilot success criteria — what proves the business case.
Most failed RTLS pilots failed because the success criteria were defined after the technology choice. Vendor demos are designed to win the deal; production-grade pilots are designed to expose the edge cases before the spend scales.
Proof of Concept (PoC) vs Proof of Value (PoV) — which one do you need.
Proof of Concept answers "can this technology physically work in our RF environment?" with a controlled lab or single-bay test against defined success criteria, 2–4 weeks on rental kit.
Proof of Value answers "does it move the business KPI?" with a fully operational pilot in one area, line or ward, measured against a baseline, 8–16 weeks.
Skipping PoV and going direct to rollout is the most common cause of stalled deployments.
The five non-negotiable pilot scoping rules.
1. Baseline measurement before kit lands. If you cannot say what current WIP accuracy / asset search time / OEE is, you cannot prove the pilot moved it.
2. Production load, not demo load. Single-line, full shift, real operators.
3. Acceptance criteria signed before contracts. Written go/no-go thresholds for accuracy, read rate, latency, integration and adoption.
4. Integration proof to at least one core system. WMS, MES, EMR or ERP — pick one and prove the event flow end-to-end.
5. Named operations sponsor with decision authority. Without an empowered operations lead the technology will work and adoption will not.
Typical pilot timeline and cost ranges.
PoC: 2–4 weeks, €15,000–€40,000. Output: go / no-go on the technology.
PoV: 8–16 weeks, €40,000–€120,000. Output: board-ready business case.
Pilot: 12–20 weeks, €80,000–€250,000. Output: scoped rollout plan and TCO model.
Frequently asked questions
Why do most vendor pilots succeed but rollouts fail?
Vendor pilots are scoped to win the deal — clean environments, short windows, vendor-specified targets. Production rollouts hit edge cases (multipath, shift change, integration depth, change management) that the pilot never tested.
Can we do a pilot without baseline measurement?
Yes, and you will then have no way to prove the pilot moved the KPI. Baseline measurement is 1–2 weeks of work that protects the entire business case.
How long should a pilot run before deciding on rollout?
PoV minimum 8 weeks of full operational load. That is long enough to catch shift-change and weekend-cycle edge cases.
Should the pilot use rental kit or purchased hardware?
Rental kit through PoC and PoV stages. Purchase only at the pilot-to-rollout gate when the business case is signed.
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