Buyer guide
Choosing an automation integrator in Ontario
An integrator is the company that turns a plant-floor problem into an installed cell: mechanical design, controls, safety, installation, and commissioning. Innovation Peer is not that company.
This guide is for operations, engineering, and plant leaders in Ontario who need to hire that work without treating a directory as a ranking. Vendor pages on this site are a lookup. Placement is not pay-to-rank.
Choose the integrator after the process is clear enough to compare proposals. A free process review is how to get there without pretending we will build the system.
What you are hiring
You are hiring responsibility for a bounded scope: the station or route, the interfaces, the safety concept they will submit, and the commissioning they will stand behind. You are not hiring a logo, and you are not hiring Innovation Peer to stand in for them.
Equipment suppliers, controls partners, and safety specialists may sit beside the integrator. Name who owns each role in your project so a proposal cannot leave them implied.
Get comparable proposals
Send the same process boundary, rate, part or load description, and exclusions to each company. Ask them to restate assumptions. A lower number that quietly drops guarding, freight, or commissioning is not a better integrator.
The RFQ checklist on this site is the practical version of that request. Published CAD planning ranges tell you the size of the conversation. They are not the price an Ontario integrator owes you.
Questions that sort a shortlist
Use these in the first meeting. The useful answers are specific to your station.
- What similar physical process have you installed, and what did you not do?
- Who designs the safety concept, and who validates it on site?
- How do you handle our machine control, network, and changeover?
- What is installed scope versus equipment you expect us to buy separately?
- What will you need from our people during runoff, and for how long?
- What would make you decline this job?
How a lookup differs from a recommendation
You can browse automation vendors on this site to see who has a public profile. That list is not a score, not a ranking, and not a statement that Innovation Peer will introduce you. Introductions happen only after you approve what is shared.
Paying for advertising somewhere else does not change the fit of a cell. Do not let a sponsored placement replace the questions above.
When you are not ready to choose
If the process, the rate, or the owner of the project is still unsettled, choosing an integrator is early. Advisors can review one job and return a one-page summary: feasibility, gaps, options, and the next step. That summary is not a booked installation and not a supplier introduction.
Related pages
Questions
Is Innovation Peer an automation integrator?
No. We advise manufacturers before supplier conversations. Design, build, and commissioning stay with the integrator or suppliers you choose.
Do you rank Ontario integrators?
No. There is no pay-to-rank placement. The public vendor lookup is not a recommendation.
Can you introduce us to an integrator?
Only after you approve what is shared. A free process review does not authorize that introduction by itself.
Request a free process review
If you are about to call integrators and the process is still a paragraph in someone’s inbox, request a free process review first. We will not be the company that installs the cell.