Process automation case study using the ROI-FIRST approach
Installation Project Coordination for Advertising Displays
Industry
Advertising & Signage - Production and Installation
Date
Sep 1, 2026
Recommendation
✅ Automate
Time saved
From 9.5 h to 4.7 h per project
ROI Automation, recommendation and costs
USD
currency $:
Level of Automation | % Automation | Cases x Month | Time x Case (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
Medium - single request form with material lists, routed approvals, task assignment by work front, client notifications, mobile field reporting with photos and closures, and automatic handoff to invoicing | 50 | 108 | 9.49 |
Personas Involucradas | Nivel de Cargo Promedio | Average Monthly Salary | Real Company Cost with Benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
24 | Mixed: General Manager/Director (Level 1, x3), Senior Area Manager (Level 2, x1), Coordinator/Supervisor (Level 3, x3), Senior Analyst (Level 4, x10), Junior Analyst/Assistant (Level 5, x4), Assistant/Operator (Level 6, x3) | 1.266 | 1.710 |
Monthly Operational Cost | Annual Operational Cost | Estimated Monthly Savings |
|---|---|---|
10.429 | 125.145 | 5.214 |
Estimated Annual Savings | Year 1 Investment | Net Benefit Year 1 |
|---|---|---|
62.573 | 3.104 | 59.469 |
Cumulative Net Benefit 3 Years | FTE Equivalente Liberado |
|---|---|
178.902 | 6.1 |
Power in Numbers
1916
ROI Year 1 (%)
0.6
Payback (months)
20.2
Cost/Benefit ratio
✅ Automate
50% of this process is automatable with a conservative estimate. The coordination effort consumes 6.1 FTE and USD 125,145 per year in company cost, not to install displays but to chase the status of each project. The financial case is decisive: USD 62,573 in annual savings against a USD 3,104 Year 1 investment, for a 1,916% ROI and a payback of 0.6 months. Even at only 20% automated, savings would still exceed eight times the investment. The structural risk matters as much as the numbers: Finance learns about a project when money is requested, nobody knows which stage each project is in or where each crew is installing, and every product line is coordinated informally by the people who hold the knowledge. Automating here is not about reducing headcount, it is about giving the same team one shared, approved order to work from.
Signs of inefficiency detected
High manual follow-up: Sales requests work directly from Operations, and Finance only finds out when payment is requested. A task nobody wants to do: recording project information in the accounting ERP and the internal system is postponed because the team is always putting out fires. Approval bottlenecks: 20 to 30 projects per week move through graphic proposal, costing, financial proposal, client approval and work order by email and WhatsApp. No status visibility: nobody knows which stage each project is in, what resources it needs or where each crew is installing in the country. Unknown real time: deliveries range from 1 to 15 days with no standard and no measurement by stage. Dependency on key people: there is no written procedure and each product line (metalwork, wood, volumetric, electrical) is coordinated informally. Steps outside the system: 90% of the management runs on Excel, email and WhatsApp, and WhatsApp alone carries 80% of the flow.