Build a capex case for automating a manual process
A capital request for an automation project with full costs, realistic savings, payback, and risks, ready for the approval committee.
The prompt
Help me build a capital expenditure (capex) request to automate a manual process.
Process today: [what operators do, number of operators per shift, shifts, cycle time, quality issues, safety or ergonomic risks]
Proposed solution: [e.g. "collaborative robot for machine tending", "vision inspection system"]
Costs: [equipment quote, integration, guarding and safety, installation, utilities, training, spare parts, software licenses, downtime during installation]
Expected benefits: [labor hours, scrap reduction, throughput gain, overtime, injury risk reduction]
Volumes and product life: [annual volume and how many years the product will run]
Company hurdle rules: [payback limit, IRR or NPV hurdle rate, discount rate]
Steps:
1. Build the total installed cost, flagging common items left out (safety risk assessment, guarding, changeover tooling for other parts, engineering time, ramp-up losses).
2. Calculate annual savings with my rates and volumes. Count labor savings only if the people will be redeployed to real open work or the roles will not be backfilled; otherwise say so.
3. Add ongoing costs: maintenance, programming support, spare parts.
4. Calculate simple payback, NPV, and IRR. Show the math.
5. Run a sensitivity check: what happens if volume drops 20%, the ramp-up takes twice as long, or savings come in at 70%.
6. List non-financial benefits and risks: ergonomics, quality consistency, flexibility for future products, single point of failure, skills needed to support it.
Return: an executive summary (under 150 words), a cost and savings table, the financial results, the sensitivity table, risks with mitigations, and the decision being asked for.
Use only my figures; mark gaps [ADD]. Do not overstate savings. Have finance check the numbers before submission.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Finance & Accounting prompts
What to fill in
- annual volume and how many years the product will run
- payback limit, IRR or NPV hurdle rate, discount rate
- ADD
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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