Your Forward Deployed Engineer — from procurement to ramp-up.
Automation project management for manufacturers without a controls engineer in-house. PITCO manages your integrators, keeps the schedule and budget honest, and supports FAT, SAT, commissioning, and ramp-up so the line starts on time.
From writing the scope to signing off the punch list, PITCO carries your automation project as a single point of accountability — controls-literate, owner-side, and working only in your interest.
We write the scope of work and RFQ, support vendor selection, and manage your integrators and machine builders on your behalf — one point of accountability holding the build to the spec you actually signed.
No build conflict, no marking their own homework. PITCO represents the owner, so the questions get asked that an integrator won't ask itself.
Capital project schedule, budget, and change-order discipline that keeps the build visible. We track risk from procurement through integration so slips surface early — while they're still cheap to fix.
Scope creep, vendor swaps, and rushed commissioning are where projects go sideways. We name those risks at the start and manage them all the way to launch.
Owner-side support through factory acceptance test, site acceptance test, commissioning, and start-up. We prove the line works before you accept it and own the punch list through to final acceptance.
Then we stay through production ramp-up, carrying your team to planned rate and quality — not just first parts off the machine.
A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is an independent firm the manufacturer hires to provide technical oversight of an automation project from inception through start-up. It acts only in the owner's interest and has no design-or-build conflict. An owner's representative advocates for the owner on schedule, budget, and quality but isn't necessarily controls-literate. A system integrator is the firm that designs, builds, programs, and commissions the equipment. PITCO is your FDE. We manage the integrator on your behalf — we are not the integrator.
That distinction matters most when you don't have a controls engineer in-house. The integrator is the expert in its own build, which is exactly why it shouldn't be the one judging whether that build meets your requirements. PITCO reads the same drawings, speaks the same controls language, and asks the questions on your side of the table.
For a first automation line, or a one-time capital project where staffing a full project team doesn't make sense, an FDE gives a mid-size manufacturer the same oversight a large plant gets from its internal engineering group — without the headcount.
Automation launches rarely slip for one dramatic reason. They slip because requirements change mid-build, vendors get swapped late, commissioning gets shortcut to recover lost time, or an unstable process gets automated before it was ready. Each of those is manageable — if someone owner-side is watching for it.
That's the job. We hold the scope steady, manage change orders so every "small" addition is costed against the schedule, and protect commissioning time when the pressure is on to ship. Industry guidance commonly puts schedule and budget contingency at 10–15% on automation projects, depending on how novel the work is — we plan to that reality up front rather than pretending the first estimate is the last.
A project that's planned and standardized is a project that can be managed. Much of this risk is settled before procurement even starts — which is why this work pairs so closely with Planning & Standardization and, where the stakes justify it, Simulation & Virtual Commissioning to prove the plan on a model before any machinery is ordered.
FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) happens at the builder's facility before shipment: it proves the machine works and is ready to ship. SAT (Site Acceptance Test) happens at your plant after install: it proves the machine runs your actual parts, on your power and network. Commissioning is the final acceptance — it proves the machine works integrated into the whole line, talking to the equipment upstream and downstream, not just as a standalone cell. Start-up brings the line online for real production, and production ramp-up climbs to your planned rate, quality, and volume. The punch list is the open-items log that gets tracked through commissioning and closed before final acceptance.
FAT matters because the earlier you catch a defect, the cheaper it is to fix. Industry guidance holds that a problem found at FAT typically costs an order of magnitude less than the same problem found at site — and less again than one found in production. So we treat FAT as the buyer's test, not the builder's formality: we go in with a checklist tied to your requirements and don't sign off because the demo looked good.
For regulated buyers, FAT and SAT generate evidence inside the broader qualification chain (URS → DQ → FAT → SAT → IQ → OQ → PQ) but don't replace IQ/OQ/PQ. And when a project is already behind or over budget, the same owner-side eye runs an independent assessment of where it stands and what it takes to recover — often the fastest way to stop the bleeding is an honest read from someone who didn't build it.
Start with an honest, independent read from someone who didn't build it. PITCO runs an owner-side assessment of where the project actually stands — open scope, change-order history, integrator progress against the spec you signed, and the real gap to a working line — then sets a recovery plan that re-baselines the schedule and budget and protects the commissioning and acceptance work the team is tempted to cut.
The fastest way to stop the bleeding is usually not "push harder." It's to find which requirement, vendor handoff, or shortcut quietly broke the plan, and fix that — before FAT and SAT, not after. Because we manage the integrator on your behalf rather than grading our own work, we can say what isn't working without protecting a build we sold you.
Whether you're installing a first line or rescuing one that's stalled, the questions are the same: what does it really take to reach planned rate and quality, and who is accountable for getting there? We answer both, owner-side, and carry the project the rest of the way to an optimized, stable line.
Manufacturers running an automation project without a controls engineer on staff tend to ask the same questions about scope, schedule, and acceptance gates. Here are straight answers from the owner's side of the table.
A system integrator designs and builds the line. A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) represents you, the manufacturer, and manages that integrator on your behalf. PITCO sits on the owner's side of the table: vendor-neutral, with no equipment to sell and no construction margin to protect, so our only incentive is your schedule, budget, and a line that runs. We review the integrator's design, challenge assumptions, witness acceptance tests, and keep the project honest from kickoff through ramp-up. Think of it as having a full automation engineering team in-house for the duration of the project, without the headcount. The discipline starts before anyone quotes: see our planning & standardization work.
They are three separate acceptance gates, and skipping one usually shows up later as cost. The Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) happens at the builder's shop and proves the machine works and is ready to ship — sequencing, alarms, I/O, and safety functions verified before it leaves the floor. The Site Acceptance Test (SAT) happens after it lands at your plant and proves the machine runs your actual parts, on your power and your network. Commissioning is the final acceptance: it proves the machine works integrated into the whole line — talking to the equipment upstream and downstream — not just as a standalone cell. FAT is your last low-cost chance to reject or fix equipment, so PITCO witnesses it against your spec rather than the builder's.
Industry studies of large capital projects consistently show most run late and a large share run over budget, with overruns often cited in the range of 40%. The causes are rarely the technology itself. They are unclear scope, optimistic timelines, weak communication between owner and builder, and design problems caught at install instead of on paper. Rework alone commonly costs single to low double-digit percentages of contract value. An FDE attacks this early by forcing a clear specification, validating the design before steel is cut, and proving control logic in software first. PITCO leans on Simulation & Virtual Commissioning to catch faults before they reach the floor.
Not just a controls engineer — and rarely for a single project. An automation build needs a whole engineering team: planning engineers, project managers, controls engineers, and mechanical and electrical engineers, each at the right moment. Hiring all of that in-house only pays off when you have continuous automation work to keep them busy. PITCO delivers it as a fractional service instead: you get a Forward Deployed Engineer at the decision points — specification, quotes, design review, FAT and SAT, schedule — and behind that one person stands our full back office. So when a problem doesn't fit neatly inside one discipline, your FDE pulls in the rest of the team rather than leaving you stuck. If you do plan repeat automation, we help you build a reusable engineering baseline through Start with Standard.
First, get an honest picture. We audit actual progress against the contract, the open design issues, and what the integrator can realistically deliver, separating recoverable slip from sunk problems. Then we re-baseline: a workable schedule, a meeting cadence both sides commit to, and clear measurable acceptance criteria so "done" is not negotiable later. Communication failures drive a large share of troubled projects, so a single owner-side point of contact managing the integrator usually does more than adding people. Where the process itself is the bottleneck rather than the controls, we bring in process engineering to fix the root cause instead of patching symptoms.
Managing the build works best when the work upstream is solid. PITCO pairs project management with Process Engineering and Planning & Standardization — and a standardized starting point keeps the launch repeatable, through Start with Standard.
Tell us where your build stands — an engineer will be in touch.
