Building the Business Case for Automation: How to Evaluate Automation Investments

Gaining authorization to invest in distribution center (DC) improvements, including automation, is a challenging endeavor in most organizations.

Overall economic conditions, along with individual business concerns such as availability of capital, competing capital projects and myriad obstacles potentially stand in the way.

Reasons commonly cited for rejecting or delaying investments to substantially improve DC operations include:

• Prioritization of capital toward top line growth, e.g., manufacturing capacity expansion, new product development, sales and marketing initiatives, etc.
• Concern about temporary decline in sales or reduction in sales growth due to competitive pressures and/or economic conditions
• Limited availability of capital due to recent business conditionsUnwillingness to put capital at risk due to an unfavorable regulatory climate

Given these immediate obstacles to obtaining investment approval, the development of a sound, thorough business case is essential for the distribution operations management team that wants to move this project forward successfully.

This white paper outlines the key requirements for development of an effective business case that will increase your likelihood for receiving senior management support.

A project business case solely based on financial impact will have little hope of successfully navigating its way through the array of capital competition and other business issues blocking its path to approval.

Inclusion of relevant benefits beyond the pure dollars and cents, such as increased storage and throughput capacity, improved order accuracy, ability to better meet customer ship date requirements, etc., are generally needed to drive the investment request across the finish line.