A young analyst pitches a warehouse automation project to a sceptical finance director and must answer her toughest questions.
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Tell us what is wrong and we'll fix it.
Come in. You've got fifteen minutes, I'm afraid.
Great, that's plenty. Thanks for making the time.
Right, so... I'd like to put forward a proposal.
Essentially, it's a business case for automating the warehouse.
Ah, automation. I've heard that pitch before, you know.
I appreciate that. But hear me out.
The thing is, our picking errors have doubled in a year.
And overtime is really eating into our margins.
Fair enough. So what are we talking about, cost-wise?
Well... the capital expenditure would be around two million pounds.
Two million? That's hardly a rounding error!
Our risk appetite this year is pretty limited.
What's the payback period on something like that?
Just under three years, on conservative estimates.
Operating costs would drop by roughly a fifth.
And headcount? I won't sign off on mass redundancies.
None, actually. Staff would be retrained and redeployed.
Look, I take your point, but forecasts are notoriously optimistic.
That's why I've benchmarked it against two competitors.
Both saw a full return on investment within thirty months!
Really? I wasn't aware of that.
To be fair, that's more compelling than I expected.
What I'd suggest is a small pilot scheme first.
One section of the warehouse, six months, limited spend.
And if it works, it's fully scalable across every site!
Hmm... a pilot does lower the stakes considerably.
Mind you, you'd still need stakeholder buy-in from operations.
Ah, already sorted. Operations are fully on board.
Well! You've clearly done your homework.
Right. Send me the figures, and let's approve the pilot.
Brilliant! Thank you, you won't regret it!
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