Calculator
Will AI inspection pay for itself on your line?
Enter your volumes, escape and false-reject rates and inspection staffing. The calculator models annual savings, payback and 3-year net benefit for a subscription or a capital purchase.
Inputs
What the calculator asks for
- Parts inspected per day
- Parts passing the inspection point on a typical production day.
- Production days per year
- Days the line actually runs, net of shutdowns and holidays.
- Current escape rate (ppm)
- Defective parts reaching customers, in parts per million. Work it out from complaints and returns over a year divided by parts shipped.
- Cost per escape ($)
- The full cost of one defective part reaching a customer, including returns, sorting and chargebacks.
- Current false-reject rate (%)
- Good parts rejected by your current inspection, as a percentage of parts inspected.
- Cost per falsely rejected part ($)
- What each good part rejected in error costs you, whether scrapped or reworked.
- Manual inspectors per shift
- People whose job is visual inspection at this point in the line.
- Shifts per day
- Shifts that run the line on a production day.
- Loaded inspector cost ($/hour)
- Wages plus benefits, payroll taxes and other per-hour costs.
Modeled defaults
Assumptions and costs you can change
These are modeled defaults, chosen as planning assumptions rather than measured results. Replace them with your own figures whenever you have them, especially after a Feasibility Sprint.
| Assumption | Default | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Escapes reduced | 80% | Share of today's escapes the new system is assumed to stop |
| False rejects reduced | 50% | Share of today's false rejects the new system is assumed to eliminate |
| Manual inspection time redeployed | 50% | Share of inspector hours moved to other work, not necessarily removed from payroll |
| Inspection-as-a-Service | $2,950 per station per month | Our published starting price, 36-month term, with hardware, Console and Care Essentials included |
| Capital purchase | $90,000 plus Care Essentials at $650 per month | A representative single-station figure within our typical $48,000–$140,000 installed range |
The method
How the machine vision ROI is calculated
The calculator adds three sources of savings, then compares them with the cost of the option you choose.
- Escapes avoided. Parts per day × production days × escape rate (ppm ÷ 1,000,000) gives escapes per year. Multiply by the cost per escape, then by the escape reduction (80% by default).
- False rejects avoided. Parts per day × production days × false-reject rate gives falsely rejected parts per year. Multiply by the cost per falsely rejected part, then by the false-reject reduction (50% by default).
- Inspection time redeployed. The annual cost of staffing manual inspection, across your inspectors per shift, shifts per day and production days at the loaded hourly cost, multiplied by the share redeployed (50% by default).
Annual savings is the sum of the three. Payback in months is the upfront cost divided by monthly savings after recurring fees. A capital purchase has a $90,000 upfront cost and $650 per month in Care Essentials; a subscription has no upfront purchase, so the question becomes whether monthly savings exceed the $2,950 monthly fee. 3-year net benefit is three years of savings minus three years of cost: $106,200 for the subscription (36 × $2,950), or $113,400 for the capital purchase ($90,000 plus 36 × $650).
From modeled to measured
This calculator gives a planning estimate. A 6-week Proof of Value replaces it with a measured result on your line, against success criteria agreed in writing before we start. Once that baseline exists, part of the fee can be tied to measured escape or scrap reduction through our shared-savings option, described on the pricing page.
FAQ
Questions we hear often
Where do the 80% and 50% defaults come from?
They are modeled planning assumptions, not measured or guaranteed results. Actual performance depends on the defect, the optics and the line. A Feasibility Sprint gives you measured detection and false-reject rates on your own parts to replace them.
Why does the capital option use $90,000?
It is a representative single-station figure inside our published range of $48,000–$140,000 installed. Your written proposal, delivered within 5 business days of a scoping call, gives the real number for your station.
What does the subscription include?
Inspection-as-a-Service starts at $2,950 per station per month on a 36-month term and includes the Lensnode cameras, the Gatepoint, Perflens Console, Care Essentials and hardware replacement. See pricing for every option.
Can we tie the fee to the savings?
Yes, after a Proof of Value has established a measured baseline. Part of the fee can then be linked to measured scrap, escape or downtime reduction against that baseline. Our article on outcome-based pricing explains when it fits.
Replace the defaults with your own numbers
A three-week Feasibility Sprint measures what AI inspection can detect on your parts, and the go/no-go report includes a modeled ROI built on those measurements.