Transforming today's chemical industry into a sustainable and robust economic sector poses significant challenges in the coming decades. This shift requires the development of automated test stands for research and development (R&D) and quality management (QM) to support a digitalized industry and address volatile market demands. With rising complexity and uncertain planning, essential steps may seem overwhelming. Thus, general recommendations can prevent an excessive focus on details. In the development of a fixed bed catalyst test rig for methanol or ethanol to hydrocarbons processes, we address the challenges and offer recommendations for design, construction, automation, safety engineering, and final deployment. The test rig includes an independent programmable logic controller (PLC), a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI), a comprehensive mass balance, and a streamlined design that facilitates maintenance.