whirrwork
🌐 Automatisch übersetzt. Das englische Original ist die Quelle und kann genauer sein. Auf Englisch lesen →

Roboter oder Mensch?

Pallet moving

Forklift or pallet-truck operator vs Autonomous pallet mover (AMR)

Modellschätzungen von Whirrwork, keine Fakten. Methodik · Trefferbilanz

Mensch · Pro Jahr140.339 $Operator with pallet truck
Roboter · Pro Jahr77.430 $Buy an AMR pallet mover
Amortisation14 Monate
Jahr der KostenwendebereitsBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.

Vereinigte Staaten · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

Mit eigenen Zahlen rechnen

Change anything. Results update as you type and stay in your browser; nothing is stored or sent. Works offline after your first visit.

Arbeitsmenge
Annahme

Pallet moves per day on fixed routes (dock to racking, line-side).

Annahme

Operating hours per day.

Annahme

Operating days per month.

Annahme

Active months per year.

Personal
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 53-7051.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

Annahme

Moves per operator-hour on these routes.

Annahme

Truck or forklift cost per operator-hour. Default 0 means the comparison ignores the forklift you might retire; add yours.

Roboter
Annahme

AMR moves per hour relative to a person: slower travel, no shortcuts.

Jtec Products (dealer)

Big Joe Pallet Mover AMR list price, including deployment, training and 3-year software.

Annahme

Site prep, floor marking and change management on top of the vendor package.

Annahme

Yearly maintenance and software after the included period, share of price.

Annahme

Useful life in years.

Annahme

Availability after charging.

Annahme

Work lost to faults.

Annahme

Moves that need a person (damaged pallets, ad-hoc moves, trailers).

Annahme

Staff minutes per robot-hour (calling moves, clearing blockages).

Annahme

kWh per robot-hour.

Annahme

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

Finanzen
Annahme

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

Annahme

Years in the NPV comparison.

Annahme

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

Annahme

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

Annahme

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

Ergebnisse

OptionPro MonatPro JahrPer unit (pallet move)EinmalkostenAmortisationBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Mensch Operator with pallet truck Vergleichsbasis 11.695 $140.339 $2,66 $— — — —
Roboter Buy an AMR pallet mover
Robots needed: 2
 6.452 $77.430 $1,47 $95.000 $ 14 Monate 19 %
Utilisation 66 %
 288.884 $

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy an AMR pallet mover5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy an AMR pallet moverWorkloadlow value: 60 → 62.740 $high value: 600 → 978.777 $Human output per hourlow value: 8 → 486.888 $high value: 20 → 181.543 $Work that stays humanlow value: 0.1 → 368.086 $high value: 0.5 → 207.943 $Hourly wagelow value: 17.856 → 209.101 $high value: 26.784 → 368.667 $Supervisionlow value: 2 → 322.369 $high value: 12 → 210.753 $Human equipment cost per hourlow value: 0 → 288.884 $high value: 8 → 390.830 $Robot output vs a personlow value: 0.5 → 265.398 $high value: 1 → 357.561 $Employer on-cost multiplierlow value: 1.2790000000000001 → 247.010 $high value: 1.579 → 330.758 $Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → 319.428 $high value: 0.12 → 252.781 $288.884 $low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pallet-moving/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. Modellschätzungen von Whirrwork, keine Fakten.

ChartPersonalkosten pro Einheit (Basis), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Basis), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Roboter: schneller Fortschritt), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Roboter: langsamer Fortschritt). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pallet-moving/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.0,00 $1,00 $2,00 $3,00 $2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / pallet movescenario rangePersonalkosten pro Einheit (Basis)Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Basis)Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Robote…Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Robote…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pallet-moving/). Modelled estimate, n…

Jahr der Kostenwende: bereits

What the spreadsheet misses

Sicherheit
Forklifts are a leading cause of serious warehouse injuries; slow, sensor-limited AMRs on fixed routes reduce exposure.
Qualität
Predictable cycle times; fewer racking hits.
Flexibilität
People handle trailers, damaged loads and odd jobs. AMRs want stable routes.
Edge cases
Mixed traffic and blocked aisles stop robots; fix the layout first.
Customer experience
Invisible.
Jobs and redeployment
Operators often move to exception handling and loading; budget retraining.
Regulierung
ISO 3691-4 / ANSI B56.5 for driverless trucks; local workplace rules apply.

Siehe auch

Quellen auf dieser Seite

Hinweise und Quellen sind auf Englisch; maßgeblich ist die englische Fassung.

  1. Big Joe Pallet Mover AMR brochure: $45,000 each incl. deployment, training, annual visit and 3-year software subscription Jtec Products (dealer), 2024-08-14 · vendor
  2. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  3. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  4. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  5. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  6. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  7. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  8. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  9. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  10. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  11. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  12. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013