A worked ROI example for a 4.5 M TRY welding cell with labor, scrap, capacity and maintenance items.
The phrase "the robotic investment pays for itself" is often left vague: what, how and in how long? A correct calculation must include not only labor savings but also scrap, capacity and operating costs. You can use the framework below for a cell or line investment.
1. Gain items
- Labor savings: Operators freed per shift × shifts × total monthly cost (including social security and benefits). It still counts as a gain if operators are reassigned to other tasks; layoffs are not required.
- Reduced scrap and rework: Because the robot repeats the same motion every time, quality variation falls. Estimate your current scrap cost and the expected reduction rate.
- Capacity increase: Count as extra profit only where demand exists; calculate on gross profit contribution, not revenue.
- Additional benefits: Reduced accident and ergonomic risk, lead time, customer satisfaction. These may not be added to ROI but matter for the decision.
2. Cost items
- Investment: total cost including robot, gripper, safety, installation and training
- Annual maintenance: about 3-5% of the investment
- Energy and consumables
- Financing cost (loan interest) — should be evaluated in a separate analysis
3. The calculation
Monthly net contribution = labor saving + scrap saving + extra profit − monthly maintenance − energy
Payback (months) = total investment / monthly net contribution
A worked example
Consider a 4.5 million TRY welding cell. 2 operators per shift over 2 shifts; operator cost 42,000 TRY. Labor saving: 2 × 2 × 42,000 = 168,000 TRY. Monthly scrap cost of 60,000 TRY falls by 50%: 30,000 TRY. The line's monthly gross profit contribution is 700,000 TRY and capacity rises by 15%: 105,000 TRY. Maintenance (4%/12) is 15,000 TRY and energy 9,000 TRY.
Monthly net contribution = 168,000 + 30,000 + 105,000 − 15,000 − 9,000 = 279,000 TRY. Payback = 4,500,000 / 279,000 ≈ 16 months. Annual return is about 74%.
Making the calculation robust
- Also calculate without a capacity increase (conservative scenario): in this example net contribution is 174,000 TRY and payback about 26 months.
- Account for the learning curve for the first three months.
- Do not forget hidden costs such as spare parts and operator training.
You can enter your own figures in the ROI calculator on our site, and we can verify the results together in a feasibility meeting.