Economics of Deployment

The $50,000 Robot That Costs $200,000

You are the operations manager at a mid-sized manufacturer. A cobot vendor shows you a UR20 arm: $63,000 list price. It can tend two computer numerical control (CNC) machines, loading and unloading parts around the clock. Your machine operators cost $55,000 per year fully loaded. Simple math: the robot pays for itself in 14 months. You have done this calculation on the back of a napkin and it looks bulletproof. You sign the purchase order.

Eighteen months later, the robot is running. But the total bill is not $63,000. It is closer to $190,000.