I've priced an FR5 and gripper for loading our machined spacers. My colleague asked who builds the nest and covers his ordinary work while he does it. Fair question, though the meeting went downhill from there.
Can I get a useful first decision from the spacer job we've already got, before asking him to design anything?
Yes. Start with the actual loss you want to remove. If loading is a small part of the job, a beautifully automated loading step may leave the same queue. Fixture work should have an owner and estimate before you spend on hardware.
I'd still pay for a small fixture feasibility check if that is the big unknown. Counting the current job won't tell you whether the spacer can be presented reliably.
Loading isn't the whole delay. He spends more time finding the right tray than putting spacers into the fixture. I hadn't included that in my little saving calculation.
I inherited a small loading trial where the robot waited for trays beautifully. The person who had previously carried them over was also doing inspection, and the proposal had quietly allocated that person elsewhere. We ended up changing the tray route before touching the robot work. Your colleague may be guarding more than his fixture-making time. Ask him what he stops doing when he feeds this pilot.
Asked him. Inspection, exactly. Thanks Luis. He'll walk one ordinary spacer order with me; I've agreed it happens in work time with cover, not as a favour after hours.
We've deferred the robot purchase. That order spent longer waiting for inspection than being loaded, and a labelled tray shelf removed one of the searches. There's still a job here, but not the arm-saving story I sold him.