Read Time: 3 Minutes
Word Count: 708
Key Takeaway: Adding a purpose-built, machine-tending robot gives you greater control over production and costs.
What the value of your robot isn't a trick question. But the answer can be tricky.
Let’s get some definitions out of the way:
- Cost is the price you pay for something. Think of monetary value only.
- Worth refers only to the monetary cost of an item.
- An item's value refers to the emotional and monetary costs of something.
The cost of the robot is easy to calculate - look at your invoice. Cost and value are often conflated, yet they are rarely the same.
You can easily figure out the ROI of adding our robot. That is easy and fairly straightforward. We see payback typically in 6 to 18 months.
Over the robot's life, we see machine shops saving at least 4 to 6x over the price they paid for the robot.
Outside the savings and increased profits, the robot brings other things of value that can be difficult to calculate.
Why? Because it will be different for each machine shop leader and their business.
How do you establish the value of controlling production and quickly responding to customer needs? It can be difficult to pinpoint the exact monetary value of a quick response to customer needs. You can see anecdotal evidence, but there is no line item in your P&L.
How do you establish the value of being able to quote faster and more accurately because you have greater control over costs? You might see the value in how frequently you win the business when quoting. You can certainly track the value of the quotes you win and lose.
Business is supposed to be logical. But face it, there is plenty of emotion involved. When you are winning the emotions are very different than when you are not. If your robot helps you win more often, how does that make you feel? Is the impact a little or a lot?
How do you establish the value of that smile on your face because your machine shop is more profitable and your shop runs with fewer bad surprises? Yes, you can look at your P&L and know that your profits are up 31% YOY. But what is the value of the feeling you get when you are in that position?
What is the value of knowing you can run a job over lunch or overnight, and the work will get done because the robot is always there? Having control over production brings a certain peace of mind to you and your operation. How do you place a value on that?
What's the value of laughing and smiling more often?
No line item in your P&L directly tracks the value of happy customers, but they dramatically impact your machine shop. Your bottom line may reflect those happy customers, but no line item calls it out. But a feeling goes with looking at a fatter bottom line. How would that change your machine shop? How would that change your life?
No line item in your P&L directly tracks the value of no longer having to field phone emails and phone calls from unhappy customers wondering where their parts are.
Nothing brings on a pounding headache like calls from unhappy customers. Making those unhappy calls go away and turning unhappy calls into happy calls is a HUGE impact.
We would be able to help you with the ROI calculations. That part is easy.
The hard part is figuring out what it feels like to have greater control over your machine shop because you have purpose-built CNC machine tending robots bolted in front of your CNC machine.
That is establishing what the robot is "worth." That is the hard part. And that is up to you.
While we can’t tell you what that smile will be worth to you, we can tell you that seeing our customers smile after their robot installation is worth everything to us.
To explore the value our robots bring to your machine shop, call us at 866-952-9020 and then press 1 to start the conversation.