Calculating Return on Investment for a Robot Cell
Build the model in four parts
| Part | What to include |
|---|---|
| Investment | Robot, tooling, integration, installation and training |
| Operating cost | Service, spares, consumables, energy and floor space |
| Benefit | Labour, quality, throughput, material yield and safety |
| Risk | Downtime, ramp-up time and volume assumptions |
Making it credible
- Use measured baselines rather than estimates where they exist.
- Model a slow ramp-up rather than immediate full output.
- Test the result against a pessimistic volume scenario.
- Show the assumptions on the same page as the result.
A payback figure is a model, not a guarantee. Review it once the cell is running.