What do you deploy a humanoid for?
Short answer
A good business case starts with one clear question: what do you want to achieve? Lowering costs, increasing capacity and freeing up employees are three different goals. Each goal calls for different tasks and different metrics. Choose one as the main goal and make it measurable before you choose a robot.
Three goals, three business cases
| Goal | What you measure | Often suits |
|---|---|---|
| Lowering costs | Hours per task, errors, rework | Repeatable high-volume tasks |
| Increasing capacity | Output per day, extra shifts, waiting times | Tasks where work is now left undone because of shortages |
| Freeing up employees | Hours that go to other work, heavy or monotonous work that disappears | Light handling, fetching and carrying, reception and information |
In practice the goals overlap. Still, it helps to put one at the centre. Then after a pilot you know whether the project has succeeded.
Why costs are rarely the best starting point
Today a humanoid does not take over a complete job. It supports people with clearly defined tasks. A business case that only counts on ‘one FTE less’ is therefore rarely right. The value often lies in capacity: work that is now left undone, shifts you cannot staff, or employees who would rather spend their time on skilled work.
Soft values count too. Think of less heavy lifting, more attractive work and an innovative image among customers and applicants. Do make them as concrete as possible. How to calculate the hard side is explained in calculating the payback period of a humanoid.
Set success criteria in advance
- Which task exactly does the robot do, and which not?
- How often per hour or per day must it succeed?
- What share of the actions must succeed without intervention?
- How much supervision is acceptable?
- When do you decide to scale up, adjust or stop?
With these criteria a proof of concept a real test rather than a show.
Sometimes a cobot is the better business case
Is the task at a fixed location and do cycle time and repeatability weigh most heavily? Then a cobot or robot cell is often cheaper and faster. A humanoid or mobile manipulator such as the Genie G2 pays off mainly with changing tasks, multiple workstations and spaces made for people. See also humanoid robot or cobot.
How Humanoid-direct helps
As part of robot integrator WiredWorkers, we look at the whole process. In an opportunity scan we jointly determine the goal, the promising tasks and the metrics. If a humanoid does not fit, we say so. Sometimes a cobot or another solution is the better step.
Frequently asked questions
Can I deploy a humanoid to save on staff costs?
Sometimes partly, but do not count on replacing a complete job. The biggest gain is often in capacity and in freeing up employees.
How do I make soft benefits measurable?
Translate them into something you can count: hours of lifting work per week, or the number of open vacancies for that work.
Which task do I choose for the business case?
A clearly defined, repeatable task that stays safe if something goes wrong. See which task first.