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Warehouse and CAPEX

Warehouse Slotting & Automation Payback Calculator

Price the free re-slot before the automation: three labour scenarios, the walk time a golden-zone layout recovers, and the payback a vendor model hides by measuring both savings from the same baseline.

Runs in your browser Audited by Gini Loh
Instrument panel Deterministic · nothing leaves the page
The picking operation6
days
lines
ft

Distance from the pick face to the next, averaged across the layout.

ft/s
s

Scan, grab and confirm, before any walking.

$/hr

Wage plus burden and supervision, not the hourly rate on the offer letter.

Layout and utilisation2

Productive share of paid hours, as a decimal: 0.85 is 85%.

Share of walking removed by moving fast movers to the golden zone.

The vendor's proposal5
$
$

Usually quoted separately and left out of the payback.

of CAPEX

Annual service and parts, as a decimal share of the capital: 0.09 is 9%.

Reduction in pick time, as a decimal: 0.55 is 55%.

$
Buyer payback9.93 yrvendor says 3.13 yr
Free recovery$208ka year, before any capital
Picker miles a day193131 after re-slotting

The vendor number is short

The quoted 3.13 years becomes 9.93 years on your own baseline.

Slotting returns $208,000 a year before any capital is committed, and the automation adds $434,888 on top of that layout rather than on top of today's.

Payback horizonvendor model against your baseline
Vendor payback3.13 yr
Both savings measured from today's layout, maintenance deducted
Buyer payback9.93 yr
Capital plus $220k of WMS integration, maintenance and $60k of downtime
Vendor modelBuyer audit
Labour cost by scenario$998,706 a year today
Today$999k
34.4s a line
After re-slotting$791k
27.2s a line, no capital
After automation$356k
12.2s a line, $167k of maintenance a year
What the two claims share$114,400 counted twice
Vendor combined saving$757k
Slotting alone$208k
Automation on the slotted layout$435k
  • Payback is undiscounted and pre-tax: it measures when the cash returns, not the return on it.
  • Slotting and automation savings are not additive. The two figures a vendor adds are both measured against your current layout.

When the model is the thing being sold

This page re-runs the arithmetic. CaseProof takes the vendor's own business case, re-prices it on your loaded costs and lists what has to be confirmed in writing before anyone signs.

Open CaseProof ↗

Operator notes

How to run it

    ["\t\t\t\t
  1. 1. Enter days, lines a day, walk per line and the loaded wage — that is today's pick cost.
    2. ", '\t\t\t\t
  2. 2. Set the walk the re-slotting removes; 32% is the published range for an ABC layout.
    3. ', "\t\t\t\t
  3. 3. Enter the vendor's capital, maintenance and throughput gain as quoted.
    4. ", '\t\t\t\t
  4. 4. Add the WMS integration and the downtime cost, which the quote usually leaves out.
    5. ', "\t\t\t\t
  5. 5. Read the buyer payback against the vendor's, then decide whether the machine is the first move.
    6. "]

Model logic

Annual hours = days × lines × (fixed seconds + walk ÷ speed) ÷ (3600 × utilisation). Slotting is priced against today's layout, and the automation only against the already-slotted one, so the walk seconds are not counted twice.

FAQ

Why is the buyer payback longer than the vendor's?

Because the vendor measures both savings from today's layout and leaves out the maintenance contract, the WMS integration and the downtime. Once the free re-slot is credited to the layout rather than to the machine, the machine's share of the saving is smaller.

Is the slotting saving really free?

It costs labour to move the racks and no capital. The engine prices the walk it removes and not the weekend it takes to move, which is the one cost a buyer still has to add by hand.

What does undiscounted payback leave out?

The time value of the money. A payback printed here is when the cash returns, not the return on it; two projects with the same payback and different cash shapes are not the same investment.

Which number should I take to the vendor?

The buyer payback, with the maintenance contract and the integration quoted separately in writing. A vendor who recognises those two lines in the meeting is a different risk from one who does not.

Related dispatch

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