She sorts the housing orientation, checks the locating face and loads it between other assembly tasks. Our demo used a tray I had filled beforehand. I did not count that preparation.

Compare an ordinary order from unsorted housings to accepted output, including that tray filling and clear-down. Give the fixture study a time and spend limit you both agree. We had a helpful person feeding a demo for half a morning, then discovered that helpful person was the only one who could answer the packing team's questions. The movement was quick. The rest of the workshop spent the trial waiting for her. Your colleague's interrupted work deserves a place in the comparison too.

We observed the full manual job and costed the proposed preparation with her. The robotic loading would still leave her orienting and checking the same housings, plus filling its tray. The fixture study has stopped at that comparison.

So are you dropping the purchase, or narrowing the job?

A narrower job is worth pricing only if it actually occurs, Jo. I wouldn't rescue this estimate with a large uniform order the workshop doesn't receive.

Dropping this FR5 proposal. We do not have a regular uniform order that removes the preparation. My colleague suggested a better manual presentation rack; that has its own modest quote. Thank you, Leah, the interruption cost was the missing part.

Fair decision. Did she get to choose the rack arrangement?