What On-Prem, No-Code AI Vision
Actually Pays Back
r.o.i.
Manufacturers ask us the same question in almost every first call: "What's the ROI?" This page gives you a framework to answer that for your own line — plus real numbers from Detect-It deployments and industry benchmarks you can hold us to.
$67k
Typical Year 1 investment, single line
$100.5k
3-year total cost of ownership
hours
Not weeks, to deploy — no code required
Two Industries. Two Failure Modes. Both Paid Back Fast.
the short answer
A single-line Detect-It deployment typically runs $67,000 in Year 1 and $16,750/year in renewals after that. Here's what that bought two real customers.
A Tier 1 Automotive Supplier
That line now runs 40,000+ inspections a day across two shifts – the pilot was the baseline, not the ceiling.
A Multi-Plant Food Manufacturer
Every dollar came from one place: defective product stopped before it reached a package headed to a store shelf.
build your ownn roi case in 4 inputs
the framework
You already know these numbers for your line. Plug them in.
1
Labor Reallocation
What are you paying, per shift, for manual visual inspection? Most customers redeploy inspectors to higher-value QA work rather than cut headcount.
2
scrap & rework
Your current scrap/rework rate and fully loaded cost per bad part. The visible number is often only 20–30% of the real cost.
3
cost of an escape
What happens when a defect reaches your customer instead of your line? Usually the largest number in the equation, and the hardest to see coming.
4
cycle time
Does faster inspection speed up the line itself? One deployment saw cycle time drop 35% — independent of defect-catch savings.
Annual Savings = Labor Reallocation + Scrap/Rework Reduction + Escape Cost Avoidance + Cycle Time Gain
Payback Period (months) = Year 1 Investment ÷ (Annual Savings ÷ 12)
detect-it vs. traditional machine vision
cost of ownership
A 3-year total cost of ownership comparison — because neither Cognex nor Keyence publishes theirs.
Detect-It figures reflect a typical single-Runner-license deployment. Competitor figures reflect publicly available pricing ranges; actual costs typically run higher once proprietary hardware, integration labor, and coding resources are included.
what poor quality actually costs
industry benchmarks
You don't have to take our word for the stakes — here's what's independently published.
where detect-it roi shows up fastest
where it works best
The common thread isn't the industry — it's high volume combined with a real cost when a defect gets missed.
1
automotive manufacturing
High volume, high warranty/recall exposure, tight cycle-time margins.
2
food & cpg manufacturing
High volume, thin margins, direct line from caught defect to avoided waste.
3
heavy equipment
High per-unit cost of a defective or missing component.
4
general manufacturing
High-mix, high-touch inspection points expensive to staff manually.
Detect-it Roi
run your own numbers
Every manufacturer's ROI story is different — it depends on your production volume, your current defect escape rate, and most importantly what it actually costs you when a bad part reaches your customer instead of getting caught on your line. The calculator below uses a framework built from published industry benchmarks and real Detect-It deployment data. Plug in the numbers you already know about your line — the model does the rest. The cost per escaped defect field is the one worth spending time on: it's the number that drives the payback calculation more than any other, and it's yours to know better than anyone else.
ROI Calculator
What Would Detect-It Pay Back On Your Line?
Run your own numbers. Plug in what you already know about your line — the cost per escaped defect is the number that matters most, and it's yours to know better than anyone.
Your Line
% of units produced that are nonconforming before inspection catches anything.
Industry-cited range for manual visual inspection is 70–85%. Adjust if you've measured your own.
Reduction in escaped defects vs. manual inspection, based on Detect-It deployments to date.
What it costs when a bad part reaches the next station or the customer — sort, chargeback, recall, whatever applies to you.
Value of inspection labor redeployed to higher-value QA work, if applicable.
The Payback
2.7 MO
Estimated payback period
This is a planning estimate, not a quote. Manual inspection catch rate and Detect-It's improvement figure reflect published inspection research and Detect-It deployment data respectively. Your cost per escaped defect will make this more accurate. Year 1 investment assumes a single Net Runner license; multi-line deployments scale accordingly.