Robot or Human?
End-of-line palletizing
Packer stacking cases by hand vs Cobot palletizing cell
Whirrwork modelled estimates, not facts. Methodology · Track record
Human · Per year$78,952Hand stacking
Robot · Per year$31,287Buy a palletizing cell
Payback20 months
Crossover yearnowBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)
On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.
United States · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation
Run your numbers
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Results
| Option | Per month | Per year | Per unit (case) | Upfront | Payback | Break-even utilisation | 5-year NPV vs baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human Hand stacking Baseline | $6,579 | $78,952 | $0.10 | — | — | — | — |
| Robot Buy a palletizing cell | $2,607 | $31,287 | $0.04 | $104,750 | 20 months | 18% Utilisation 64% |
$210,238 |
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.
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. Whirrwork modelled estimates, not facts.
Crossover year: now
What the spreadsheet misses
- Safety
- Repetitive lifting is a classic back-injury job; this is the strongest non-cost case on the list.
- Quality
- Tidier, more stable pallets.
- Flexibility
- Frequent SKU changes need easy pattern setup (cobots are good at this).
- Edge cases
- Bags, irregular or very heavy cases need special grippers.
- Customer experience
- Fewer damaged shipments.
- Jobs and redeployment
- High turnover on these roles means automation often fills vacancies rather than replacing people.
- Regulation
- ISO 10218; area scanners for collaborative cells.
Related
- Palletizing & depalletizing Prices and providers for this job
- Essay: when robots beat humans on cost
- Projections
- Methodology
- API and MCP tool
- Research hub
Sources on this page
- Turnkey FANUC CRX cobot palletizing cell, from $94,750 RobotPalletizer.com, 2026-10 · vendor
- Complete cobot palletizer cell $119,850 PicPac USA, 2026-10 · vendor
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
- 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
- Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
- 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
- Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
- 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
- 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