Tool 01 · Interactive
Robot Business Case Builder
Every robot deal has two sides. The buyer asks how fast the robot pays for itself; the vendor asks whether the price covers the robot and keeps a margin. Move the inputs and watch both answers change.
Inputs
Illustrative defaultsThe buyer's view
Buy the robot
Robot as a service
The vendor's view · Robot as a service
Both sides win: the buyer keeps a clear share of the savings and the vendor earns a healthy margin.
Assumes eight-hour shifts and that the buyer pays integration under both models. Robot as a service fees include service. Figures are illustrative; replace the defaults with a real site's numbers.
How the calculator works
The calculator compares two ways to pay for one robot. Labor covered equals workers per shift × shifts per day × 8 hours × operating days × fully loaded hourly labor cost. Buying the robot costs the purchase price plus integration upfront, then a yearly service contract set as a percentage of the price. Robot as a service costs integration upfront, then a monthly fee that includes service. Payback is the upfront cost divided by the monthly savings after recurring costs. Three-year net savings equal three years of labor covered minus the upfront and recurring costs of each model. On the vendor side, gross margin is the yearly fee minus the yearly cost to service the robot, divided by the yearly fee; cash payback is the cost to build and deploy the robot divided by the monthly fee net of service cost; and the value the buyer keeps is the labor covered minus the yearly fee, as a share of the labor covered.
With the default inputs (two workers per shift, two shifts, 250 days, $30 per hour, a $150,000 robot, $50,000 integration, a 10% service contract and a $6,000 monthly fee), the robot covers $240,000 of labor a year. Buying pays back in 10.7 months and robot as a service in 3.6 months. The vendor earns an 88% gross margin, recovers the robot's cost in 17.1 months, and the buyer keeps 70% of the value.