Batteries and energy storage: Lean software for battery manufacturing and energy storage plants
LeanSuite gives battery manufacturing and energy storage plants one system for the ramp-up. Scrap and losses are costed by stage, dry-room and equipment checks carry photo proof, and new hires train to one method. Every abnormal check becomes a tracked action with an owner.
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The problem
What slows battery and energy storage plants down
Lithium-ion cell and pack lines and lead-acid plants run long chains of process steps, and a defect made early is often found days later at formation or end-of-line test. Many are new sites ramping up with new people. Automotive programs add IATF 16949, and products are tested to standards such as UL 2580, UL 9540 and UN 38.3. Here is where that slows them down.
Scrap during ramp-up
Coating defects, misaligned stacks, weak welds and cells that fail at formation all turn into scrap, and a cell scrapped late carries the cost of every step before it. During a ramp the biggest loss changes from week to week, so it is hard to know which one to attack first.
Formation and aging set the pace
Formation charges each cell for the first time, and aging then holds it for days or weeks before grading. Racks and channels are the plant's slowest and costliest capacity, so an empty channel, a late load or a rework loop there limits output for the whole plant.
Dry-room and contamination discipline
Electrolyte filling and cell assembly need very dry, clean air, and metal particles in a cell can cause an internal short. Door discipline, gowning, cleaning and dew point checks are done by many people on every shift, and a paper log cannot show whether each one was done properly.
Coater, calender and stacker downtime
Coaters, calenders, slitters, stackers and winders are few, fast and expensive, and one stop starves every step after it. During a ramp, maintenance is busy finishing the installation, and small faults operators could catch early turn into long stops.
Thermal, chemical, electrical and lead hazards
Charged cells can go into thermal runaway, electrolyte is corrosive and flammable, packs carry high voltage, and lead-acid plants handle lead every shift. Near misses go unreported when reporting is a hassle, and lockout procedures for the equipment go out of date.
A workforce new to batteries
New plants hire hundreds of people who have never built a cell, often speaking several languages, while engineers are still tuning the process. Training by shadowing cannot keep up, and each new hire learns a slightly different method.
A ramp that slips week by week
The ramp plan sets output, yield and staffing targets week by week. When each area tracks its own numbers in its own spreadsheet, a slipping stage is found late, and actions agreed in one meeting are forgotten by the next.
How LeanSuite helps
How LeanSuite helps battery and energy storage plants
Each problem maps to a LeanSuite module you can start with on its own, then connect to the rest.
Scrap during ramp-up
In LeanSuite: Loss and cost management in LeanSuite shows where your plant loses money: import your loss data, get a loss tree that puts a cost on each loss, and track the savings as you remove them. Issue Management logs each defect where it is found, and Kaizen & Projects runs the root-cause project and verifies the fix.
Formation and aging set the pace
In LeanSuite: Log lost production by cause, from breakdowns and changeovers to material shortages, and use it to fix maintenance and scheduling. LeanSuite's KPI dashboards for manufacturing track every KPI against its target, with RAG ranges, KPI trees and live huddle boards, so operators and the plant manager act on the same numbers.
Dry-room and contamination discipline
In LeanSuite: Schedule dry-room, cleaning and gowning checks every shift with pictures and videos for each step. Critical checks can require a QR scan or photo as proof, a missed check triggers an alert, and operators raise an issue tag without leaving the checklist.
Coater, calender and stacker downtime
In LeanSuite: LeanSuite runs autonomous maintenance with visual CILR checklists, abnormality tags routed to maintenance, and skills tracking, so small problems are caught before they cause downtime. Operators confirm machine condition on a tablet, with required photos as proof.
Thermal, chemical, electrical and lead hazards
In LeanSuite: Anyone can report a near miss by scanning a station QR code with their phone, anonymously if you allow it, and each hazard becomes a corrective action with a due date. Lean Creator turns lockout procedures into photo-verified isolation steps, and only trained, authorized people can start a lockout.
A workforce new to batteries
In LeanSuite: Film the job once and LeanSuite drafts the work instruction with numbered steps, photos and safety notes, and you can translate it into the languages your teams speak. A learning plan gives every new hire the same courses and on-the-job sign-offs, and the skills matrix updates on completion, so supervisors see who is cleared to run each machine.
Digital Work InstructionsTrainings (LMS)Competency Management
A ramp that slips week by week
In LeanSuite: Lean Studio runs tiered meetings on live, cascaded SQDCM boards, and red metrics become tracked actions. Issue Management escalates blockers to the next tier, and KPI Dashboards keep every tier on the same numbers.
Customers
Companies that use LeanSuite
Whirlpool case study
How Whirlpool tackled project visibility and continuous improvement across 14 manufacturing plants with LeanSuite.
Its Global Kaizen Power Pitch saw 150 Kaizen presented, $14.8M in hard savings and $17.6M in soft savings.
14
Manufacturing plants
150
Kaizen presented at the Global Kaizen Power Pitch
$14.8M
Hard savings
$17.6M
Soft savings
What getting started looks like
Under a week
Until your first module is live; our team does the setup
$3,000
90-day pilot per facility
One flat price per facility
Unlimited users, so adding people does not change the price
99.5%
Monthly uptime commitment in the service agreement
SOC 2 Type 1 audited, hosted on secure cloud infrastructure, with single sign-on through Microsoft Entra ID or Okta and employee-ID sign-in for operators without email. Details on the security page.
Want to try it on one line first? See how the 90-day pilot works.
Free tools
Related free calculators
Work out the numbers behind these problems. Each calculator shows its formula and a worked example, with no sign-up.
Scrap rate calculator
Scrap rate, the cost of scrap per period and per year, and what reaching a target rate would save.
Open calculatorFirst pass yield (FPY) calculator
First pass yield at each step and rolled throughput yield (RTY) across the whole process.
Open calculatorOEE calculator
Overall equipment effectiveness from shift time, downtime, ideal cycle time and part counts.
Open calculatorBottleneck calculator
The step that limits your line, from each step's cycle time, machines and uptime, with daily capacity and the gap to demand.
Open calculator
FAQ
Questions from battery and energy storage plants
It depends on the product. Automotive programs usually require IATF 16949. Battery packs for electric vehicles are commonly tested to UL 2580, stationary batteries to UL 1973 and energy storage systems to UL 9540, and lithium cells and batteries must pass the UN 38.3 tests before they are shipped. Lead-acid plants work under the OSHA lead standard, and most sites run ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. LeanSuite does not make a plant compliant with any of these; it keeps time-stamped records of the checks, training and actions your own program produces.
Yes. Film a job once and LeanSuite drafts the work instruction with numbered steps, photos and safety notes, and you can translate it into the languages your teams speak. A learning plan gives every new hire the same courses and on-the-job sign-offs. Operators sign in with an employee ID, no company email needed, and pricing is per facility with unlimited users, so hiring for the ramp does not change the price.
Yes. Import your downtime, scrap and quality data and LeanSuite sorts each record into a cost bucket and a causal or resultant loss, then builds a loss tree that puts a cost on each loss. The biggest losses become Kaizen projects, and the savings are tracked as you remove them.
No. Cell genealogy, process data and test results stay in your MES and test systems. LeanSuite runs the improvement system around them: finding losses, fixing them and keeping the fix in place through standards, audits and training.
LeanSuite is one flat price per facility with unlimited users, so every operator on every shift can use it without adding seats. There is no published annual price; you can request a quote on the pricing page. The first module is live in under a week, and LeanSuite's team does the setup. A 90-day pilot costs $3,000 per facility.
Companies that use LeanSuite include Moura.
See LeanSuite on your ramp-up
Bring the loss you want to fix first. We will show you how LeanSuite handles it and what a 90-day pilot would cover.