Warehouse Automation ROI Business Case
Model what picking travel, mis-picks and floor space actually cost your operation today, then compare improvement scenarios as honest ranges. Built for the moment someone above you asks what the problem is costing — every assumption is shown and editable.
The hard part is not the equipment. It’s the internal case.
Most storage and automation projects do not fail on a technical question. They fail because nobody could state, in one page, what the current process costs — so the request competes against every other capital ask with nothing but a story behind it.
The numbers required to fix that are not exotic. Headcount, a burdened labour rate, shift length, an honest estimate of how much of the picking day is spent walking and searching, and the cost of the floor area storage occupies. Those five inputs produce a defensible current-state cost. Add an error rate and you have the quality argument too.
This tool builds that page. It does not tell you that automation will save you 40% — nobody can tell you that from a web form. It tells you how large the travel-and-search pool is, and what share of it each class of solution commonly targets, so you can see whether the project is worth a serious look before anyone quotes anything.
Who this is for
- Operations and warehouse managers preparing a capital request
- Plant and facility leaders comparing higher-density storage against leasing more space
- Finance partners who want the assumptions visible rather than buried in a vendor deck
- Anyone who has been asked “what is this actually costing us?” and needs a number they can defend
What you need to hand
- How many people pick or handle material, and their fully burdened hourly cost
- Shift length and operating days per week
- Your best estimate of the share of picking time spent walking and searching
- Optional: lines per hour, mis-picks per 1,000 lines and the cost of an error
- Optional: square feet used for storage and the occupancy cost per square foot per year
- Optional: expected growth, and whether a decision date is driving this
Don’t have all of it? Every field that can be left blank, can be — the tool tells you which missing number would change the answer most.
Build your current-state cost and scenario comparison
The model, the scenario table and every assumption behind them appear on this page immediately. We ask for your details only if you want the business case emailed, the assumptions validated, or a scenario quoted.
Prefer a full window? Open the roi business case builder in a new tab.
How it works
Enter what you know
Four numbers are required; everything else is optional. Leave what you do not know blank — the report lists which missing number would sharpen the case most.
Read the current state
Annual picking labour, the portion spent travelling and searching, error cost and occupancy cost, plus a three-year view if you entered growth.
Compare the scenarios
Re-slotting, high-density static storage, mobile shelving and goods-to-person are shown side by side as ranges, with the space each could free.
Get it validated
Before you budget from any of it, have us challenge the travel share and space cost against your actual operation. That is a free conversation and it is the right next step.
How to read the scenario table
The travel and search figure is the target, not the total. No storage change eliminates picking labour. What it can compress is the share of the day spent walking to and hunting for stock. That figure is the pool every scenario is competing for, which is why an honest travel-share input matters more than any other number on the form.
The ranges are ranges on purpose. Each scenario shows the reduction that class of solution commonly targets — wide, because the outcome depends on your layout, product mix, staffing and process discipline. Anyone who gives you a single confident percentage from a web form is guessing.
Capital cost is deliberately excluded. Payback calculated against a placeholder equipment price is worse than no payback at all. Once a scenario looks worth pursuing, we quote the real system and the payback is calculated against that number.
Reclaimed space is only worth money if you can use it. The occupancy value column assumes the freed area is genuinely usable — for production, for growth you would otherwise lease, or for consolidating another location. If it would just sit empty, treat that column as zero.
What this tool does not do
This is a planning business case built from your inputs. It is not a quote, an engineered design, or a guaranteed savings projection.
- Savings ranges describe outcomes these approaches commonly target — they are not vendor guarantees and not commitments.
- Equipment, installation, integration, freight, downtime and financing are not modelled; those come from a real quote.
- The model does not evaluate whether your building, floor, power or ceiling height can accept a given solution.
- No safety, code or compliance conclusion should be drawn from these numbers.
Related systems and tools
SKU Upload Analyzer
Find out from your own data which SKUs are causing the travel this model prices.
Vertical lift modules
The goods-to-person end of the comparison, with the largest travel reduction and the largest project.
Storeganizer
High-density vertical pouch storage for a large small-parts tail.
Mobile shelving
Primarily a floor-space play — compresses aisles to reclaim area.
Mezzanines and work platforms
When the answer is more usable floor rather than denser storage.
Warehouse mezzanine vs building expansion
Cost and ROI considerations when the alternative on the table is more real estate.
Common questions
What travel share should I use if we have never measured it?
Why does the tool not show equipment cost or payback?
Can I use this for a capital request?
Are the savings ranges yours or the manufacturers’?
What if our problem is space, not labour?
Is there a cost for the review?
Before you budget from these numbers, let us challenge them
We will pressure-test the travel share, the space cost and the scenario ranges against your actual operation — then quote whatever is genuinely worth quoting.