# 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.

- Topic: Finance & Accounting
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Advanced
- Tags: Finance, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/build-a-capex-case-for-automating-a-manual-process

## Prompt

```text
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.
```

## What to fill in

- annual volume and how many years the product will run
- payback limit, IRR or NPV hurdle rate, discount rate
- ADD

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