Getting buy-in for automation isn’t just about the technology. It’s about the math your CFO can follow and the risk case your CEO can approve.

Here’s the honest answer on ROI: it depends on your current labor costs, your shift structure, and how many robotic cells you deploy. There’s no universal number. But the inputs are straightforward.

Start with your fully loaded labor cost per picker — wages, benefits, overtime, turnover and rehiring, temp agency premiums. Then calculate what you’re spending to hit a throughput number that a robotic automation cell can match at 650 picks per hour. The gap between those two numbers is where the payback comes from.

CMES AI Robotics systems process over 10 million items in production globally, across hundreds of deployments. Typical configurations with three robotic cells and one monitoring operator replace a meaningful portion of variable labor cost with a fixed automation cost. That predictability matters as much as the savings.

The other factor your CFO will ask about: what happens if the company exits the market? CMES is publicly traded and has been deploying systems globally for years. That’s not a venture-backed bet. It’s a capital investment with a counterparty that will be around to support it.

If you’re preparing a business case for warehouse robotics, the proof points exist. The math holds. The risk is lower than the alternative of staying dependent on a labor market that isn’t stabilizing.

Connect with the CMES team at piecepicking.com or email us at info@piecepicking.com