Their demonstrator. I watched the longer video again and they prepare a second tray while the first runs. That labour is not in our estimate.

There it is. The free pair of hands.

It may still be workable if your packer already has time between other jobs. I'd watch the whole order, though. We had a teaching exercise where everyone timed the smooth middle and nobody timed finding the next carton size, clearing the old inserts or dealing with a partial tray. The robot's part was quick. The person spent most of the exercise rescuing the assumptions.

Victor's whole-order check also catches overlapping jobs. Filling the next tray may fit until that same person has to label the finished cartons.

The packer tried the proposed manual preparation alongside labelling. It clashes at the tray exchange, so the first costing revision now includes a separate preparation allowance rather than assuming it disappears.

Does that allowance mean another person, or the same person spending longer on this order? They have rather different consequences for the shift.

The same person taking longer. With that included, the order saving is very small. We are comparing it with an improved manual bench before deciding whether to buy.

Include the bench change cost too. Cheap still isn't free.

And ask the packer which nuisance the new bench actually removes. A shorter reach might matter more to them than a lovely machine waiting for another full tray.

Has the bench comparison changed your decision, Sarah?