Your figures
Indicative planning estimate
- Potential labour-cost impact
- €291,840
- Operators × hourly cost × hours × shifts × days, per year
- Estimated annual benefit
- €283,840
- Labour-cost impact + productivity/scrap benefit − maintenance
- Simple payback
- 11.8 months
- Initial investment ÷ estimated annual benefit
- 3-year net benefit
- €571,520
- (Estimated annual benefit × 3) − initial investment
Planning estimate only. Actual project economics depend on application, utilization, engineering scope, labour deployment and operating conditions.
Discuss the business caseWhat it measures
Potential labour-cost impact: operators assigned × loaded hourly cost × hours × shifts × operating days.
Estimated annual benefit: impact plus any other benefit you enter, minus annual maintenance.
Simple payback in months, and the 3-year net benefit.
What it does not measure
Engineering scope, price or feasibility of a specific system.
Ramp-up losses, financing, tax or depreciation.
Whether redeployed operators reduce cost — most projects redeploy people rather than remove roles.
Input guidance
Use loaded labour cost (wages plus employer costs), not base pay.
Count operators assigned to the task per shift, not total headcount.
If you have no investment figure, use a typical range: €150,000–€2,000,000.
Interpreting the result
A payback under 24 months usually justifies a site survey and budget estimate. Above 36 months, look for benefits the estimate does not capture — output in a constrained line, scrap, safety — before deciding. Either way, the figure is a planning estimate, not a quotation.