Use Orion's ROI engine to compare labour, overtime and bottlenecks against a monthly automation route. Estimate labour saving, payback and five-year ROI on UK-built conveyor, sortation, robotics, AMR and turnkey systems.
The real cost of manual handling is usually bigger than finance assume. The point of the ROI engine is to put the number on it.
Worked example. Live engine on homepage.
Three sliders, one comparison. The engine puts your current manual operating cost next to a sized Orion automation case — across conveyors, Helix sortation, robotics, AMRs, print & apply, scan tunnels, vision, ASRS, WCS / WMS integration and full turnkey systems.
Parcels or units per hour at peak. Drives system sizing — Helix module count, sorter slices, conveyor speed and divert density.
Number of cages, chutes or sort lanes. Drives the divert run length and the per-destination element of system cost.
People on the line today across the shift pattern. Drives the labour saving calculation against current operating cost.
Calibrated against real Orion quotes (Chase: 24 destinations, ~£410k; APC: 108 destinations, £1.18m) — the engine fits your config in between.
Standard 60-month amortisation at 8% APR, £12k/yr maintenance. Indicative — final figure depends on lender terms and approval.
Net monthly position (saving minus finance payment), payback in months, and 5-year ROI percentage. The same amortisation maths a finance team would use.
The ROI engine uses fixed UK operating assumptions so the output reflects what a parcel hub or fulfilment line actually spends in real money.
UK National Living Wage + employer NI 15% + pension 3% + holiday and sick cover. Midpoint of £16.25–£16.35 per working hour.
Two 10-hour shifts per day, 7 days per week, 50 weeks per year. 7,000 operating hours per position per year.
Standard 60-month finance term at 8% APR. No deposit, no balloon. £12k/yr maintenance built into the net case.
Helix removes ~85% of manual sort headcount — the remaining 15% covers induction, oversight and exception handling.
The ROI engine gives a serious starting point for finance and operations. It doesn't replace a proper site survey, a Functional Design Specification, or formal lender approval — but it gets you to the conversation with a real number in hand.
Common questions about the ROI engine and what it does.
Orion's ROI engine compares current labour, shift pattern, throughput and manual process cost against a sized automation route. It provides a starting point for payback, monthly cost comparison and five-year ROI.
The cost model is calibrated against two real Orion quotes — Chase Freight (24 destinations, £410k) and APC Overnight (108 destinations, £1.18m) — and uses a power-curve to interpolate between them. Fits both quotes within 1%. Final pricing is confirmed at quote stage.
£16.30/hr is the midpoint of £16.25–£16.35, covering UK National Living Wage plus employer NI (15% from April 2025), auto-enrolment pension (3%) and ~7% for holiday and sick cover. Adjusted on a customer-by-customer basis at quote stage.
The engine assumes 2 × 10hr shifts, 7 days/week, 50 weeks/year (7,000 hours per position per year). For shorter operating patterns, the saving scales down proportionally. Real quotes use your actual pattern.
The current engine is sized around parcel sortation cost models. The same comparison framework — current manual cost vs monthly automation case — applies to robotics, AMR, ASRS, conveyor and turnkey projects. Send your operation and we'll size accordingly.
No. The engine returns an indicative monthly figure using standard 60-month amortisation at 8% APR. Final figures depend on actual system spec, lender terms and finance approval. We don't promise guaranteed approval.
The ROI engine sits on the homepage. Three sliders, live numbers. When you have a result you want in writing, send the email form — we'll come back with a formal proposal.
Finance options available subject to specification and approval. Orion does not promise guaranteed approval.