How do you weigh optical sorter labor against reject accuracy?

Defaults with no state selected

On these worksheet defaults, annual savings are $429,271.20. Payback, NPV, discounted payback, and IRR stay blank until equipment cost is entered.

Throughput

5,000 lb/hr

Schedule

8 h × 2 shifts × 5 days × 48 weeks

Wage, no state

$19.50/hr, burden 32%

Product value

$0.55/lb

Current loss

8%

Yield points

2

Labor reduction

50%

Person-hours per shift

40

Electricity

3 to 9 kWh per 1,000 lb

Electricity price

$0.085/kWh

Equipment cost

Blank

Annual lines

• Labor19,200 h × 50% × $25.74$247,104.00
• Yield19,200,000 lb × 1.5% × $0.55/lb$158,400.00
• Waste144 tons × $40.00$5,760.00
• Energy(57,600 - 172,800) kWh × $0.09 + (0 - 0) therms × $0.95-$9,792.00
• MaintenanceEnter capex or a dollar amount. Current maintenance is a percent of replacement value × condition.$0.00
• Downtime(80 - 20) h × $463.32$27,799.20
• Water(0 - 0) gal/1,000 lb × 19,200 × $12.00/kgal$0.00
• ConsumablesNot entered.Not entered
• Capacity gainNot entered. No default. Extra sellable lb/yr × margin per lb.Not entered
• QualityNot entered. No default. Fewer downgrades or rejects, percent × value per lb.Not entered
• Avoided rebuildNot entered. No default. One-time dollars in a chosen year, not an annual saving.Not entered
• Annual net savingsLabor + yield + waste + energy + maintenance + downtime + water + consumables + capacity + quality.$429,271.20

Annual throughput on this default is 19,200,000 lb. Capacity, quality, and avoided rebuild are not entered. Maintenance stays at $0.00 until equipment cost or a typed maintenance dollar amount is entered.

What is the labor side of the case?

Labor dollars are annual person-hours times the labor-reduction percent times the loaded wage. The sorter worksheet starts at 40 person-hours per shift and a 50 percent reduction. Both figures are worksheet assumptions. The 50 percent counts only if those hours leave the belt. If graders stay for a customer or an audit, lower the percent.

With no state selected the wage is $19.50 per hour plus a 32 percent burden. That wage is a planning rate. It is not the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 national mean of $24.81 per hour for Production Occupations, SOC 51-0000, all industries, in the news release Table 1 at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Selecting a state uses that state's production-occupation mean from the same survey, still all industries, not food manufacturing alone. Either wage is loaded with the same 32 percent burden.

Where do false rejects go?

The sheet has no false-reject rate and no accuracy percent. A false reject is a good pound that does not ship. Put it in yield. The sorter default current loss is 8 percent and the default yield points recovered are 1.5. Yield points cannot exceed current loss. Product value starts at $0.55 per lb. If the machine will reject more good product than the belt does today, lower the yield points or raise current loss. If it will sell fewer pounds of a better grade, set yield points to zero and use the quality pair instead. Using both for the same pounds counts those pounds twice.

Where do missed defects and claims go?

A missed defect is a bad pound that still ships. The only priced field for that is the quality pair. Quality improvement is fewer downgrades or rejects, as a percent of input weight. Quality value is extra value per pound, not the full product price. Both fields are blank until you type them, and the dollars are annual input pounds times that percent times that extra value. A claim, a deduction, or a returned load is not a separate line. If you cannot defend both quality fields, leave them blank.

Electricity on the sorter default moves from 3 to 9 kWh per 1,000 lb. Those intensities are worksheet assumptions, not a published series. When the projected figure is higher, energy is a cost. With no state selected the price is $0.085 per kWh, a planning rate. It is not the EIA 2025 U.S. industrial average of 8.62 cents per kWh.

Weigh sorter labor savings against reject accuracy

1. 1. Set the inspection hours. The sorter worksheet starts at 40 person-hours per shift and a 50 percent reduction, on a line of 5,000 lb per hour, 8 hours a shift, 2 shifts, 5 days, and 48 weeks. Keep the 50 percent only if those hours leave the belt.
2. 2. Price the wage you can defend. With no state selected the wage is $19.50 per hour plus a 32 percent burden. That is not the BLS May 2025 national mean of $24.81 per hour for Production Occupations, SOC 51-0000. Select a state or type the plant's loaded rate.
3. 3. Put false rejects in yield. Current loss starts at 8 percent and yield points recovered start at 1.5. Yield points cannot exceed current loss. Product value starts at $0.55 per lb. There is no separate false-reject field.
4. 4. Leave missed defects blank unless both fields are known. Quality improvement and quality value have no default. A claim is not its own dollar field. Do not raise product value for pounds you also put in the quality pair.
5. 5. Enter equipment cost before you read payback. Electricity starts at 3 kWh per 1,000 lb current and 9 kWh per 1,000 lb projected. Payback, NPV, discounted payback, and IRR stay blank until equipment cost is entered. Blank install is 12 percent of that cost and blank freight is 3 percent. The PDF marks a prefill you did not type as "(default — not entered)".

Run it on the worksheet

• Optical sorter payback and ROI
• Methodology, sources, and exclusions

Questions