How should I decide whether another bag guide is worth making?

I have the preparation times from the trial sheets. They are longer for the last two bag types than for the first, and the transfer itself has changed very little.

Is that extra work once per bag type, or every time somebody presents the next batch? I'd find those quite different reasons to continue or stop.

Both. I make a new guide for the type, then the loader still spreads and arranges the bags for each batch.

Then a better guide may not remove the recurring preparation. What is supposed to change in the next design, specifically? Another outline that fits this bag is not enough.

And how many more bag types are actually expected?

You could restrict the application to an established bag family if there is enough real work for it, but I would ask planning before inventing a permanent stream of the one bag the tool likes.

Naomi's narrower application might keep the useful bit. NadiaCarter, do your existing order records show that steady family, or are the shapes changing with almost every order?

Most orders vary. The first bag family repeats occasionally, but its recorded volume is small. I have no commitment from planning that it will grow.

Then compare at that volume. A fixture dedicated to a hypothetical larger order would answer a different question.

Sounds like you already have the numbers.

I have more than I had admitted to myself. The manual comparison includes arranging and packing, while my headline robot time starts after the bags are ready. That headline is not a fair comparison.

Keep the successful transfer result, just describe its preparation honestly; stopping this production application does not require pretending the tooling never moved a bag successfully.

I've struggled with that too. The urge is to either rescue the whole project or call all of it wasted. Could your teaching material use the limited transfer result without keeping a production promise attached?

Yes. It could be a useful lesson about presentation work, provided the preparation remains visible. I do not want teaching use to become an excuse for another production guide.

Separate budgets would help. Teaching value is legitimate; it does not pay the production labour bill by itself.

Have you shown the complete comparison to the person who covers you yet? Their answer may make this less of a private argument with yourself.

We reviewed the existing records together. We are ending the production trial and returning the packing work to the manual method. The transfer example can remain in teaching, with its preparation and limited bag range stated.

No new guide, then. That is a decision too.