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Robô ou humano?

Pallet moving

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

Estimativas modeladas pela Whirrwork, não fatos. Metodologia · Histórico de acertos

Humano · Por anoUS$ 140.339Operator with pallet truck
Robô · Por anoUS$ 77.430Buy an AMR pallet mover
Prazo de retorno14 meses
Ano da viradajáBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.

Estados Unidos · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

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Volume de trabalho
Premissa

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

Premissa

Operating hours per day.

Premissa

Operating days per month.

Premissa

Active months per year.

Pessoas
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).

Premissa

Moves per operator-hour on these routes.

Premissa

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

Robô
Premissa

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.

Premissa

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

Premissa

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

Premissa

Useful life in years.

Premissa

Availability after charging.

Premissa

Work lost to faults.

Premissa

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

Premissa

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

Premissa

kWh per robot-hour.

Premissa

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

Finanças
Premissa

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

Premissa

Years in the NPV comparison.

Premissa

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

Premissa

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

Premissa

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

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Resultados

OpçãoPor mêsPor anoPer unit (pallet move)Investimento inicialPrazo de retornoBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Humano Operator with pallet truck Referência US$ 11.695US$ 140.339US$ 2,66— — — —
Robô Buy an AMR pallet mover
Robots needed: 2
 US$ 6.452US$ 77.430US$ 1,47US$ 95.000 14 meses 19%
Utilisation 66%
 US$ 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 → US$ 62.740high value: 600 → US$ 978.777Human output per hourlow value: 8 → US$ 486.888high value: 20 → US$ 181.543Work that stays humanlow value: 0.1 → US$ 368.086high value: 0.5 → US$ 207.943Hourly wagelow value: 17.856 → US$ 209.101high value: 26.784 → US$ 368.667Supervisionlow value: 2 → US$ 322.369high value: 12 → US$ 210.753Human equipment cost per hourlow value: 0 → US$ 288.884high value: 8 → US$ 390.830Robot output vs a personlow value: 0.5 → US$ 265.398high value: 1 → US$ 357.561Employer on-cost multiplierlow value: 1.2790000000000001 → US$ 247.010high value: 1.579 → US$ 330.758Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → US$ 319.428high value: 0.12 → US$ 252.781US$ 288.884low 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. Estimativas modeladas pela Whirrwork, não fatos.

ChartCusto humano por unidade (Base), Custo do robô por unidade (Base), Custo do robô por unidade (Robôs: avanço rápido), Custo do robô por unidade (Robôs: avanço lento). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pallet-moving/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.US$ 0,00US$ 1,00US$ 2,00US$ 3,002026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / pallet movescenario rangeCusto humano por unidade (Base)Custo do robô por unidade (Base)Custo do robô por unidade (Robôs:…Custo do robô por unidade (Robôs:…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pallet-moving/). Modelled estimate, n…

Ano da virada: já

What the spreadsheet misses

Segurança
Forklifts are a leading cause of serious warehouse injuries; slow, sensor-limited AMRs on fixed routes reduce exposure.
Qualidade
Predictable cycle times; fewer racking hits.
Flexibilidade
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.
Regulamentação
ISO 3691-4 / ANSI B56.5 for driverless trucks; local workplace rules apply.

Relacionados

Fontes desta página

As notas e as fontes estão em inglês; a versão em inglês é a referência.

  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