AUTOMATIONMES
solar manufacturer needs to way up the pros and cons in introducing a cost intensive addition to their manufacturing mix. Some industries bring in automation to improve what hey do as the automobile industry has done while other industries wait until they are forced towards it as occurred in the semiconductor industry when 300mm manufacturing was introduced. The solar and PV is not in the same position and many manufacturers are rightly asking what is the need.
Francisco Almada-Lobo was Infineon’s technology man at their Porto back end plant for semiconductors. He has left Infineon and set up Critical Manufacturing with other industry experts. The company specialises in providing information technology solutions for manufacturing. He has recently being made CEO of the new venture and believes MES programmes will become more common for the Solar and PV industries.
“They can call it something else than MES, but functionality must be there for the manufacturer’, explains Almada-Lobo. ‘In today’s economic environment and changing industry it is clear that not all solar manufacturers will survive. Only the ones who can drive efficiency, yield and throughput will remain in the game.”
He is not alone in citing recent economic problems as a key driver in speeding industry maturity and therefore requirements. Andreas Strauch is the Product Manager for MES at AIS Automation in Germany. He feels ‘the game has changed for the industry due to rapid growth of PV manufacturers while at the same time demand has started to level.’ Strauch believes manufacturers will no longer be able to make profit through volume alone and will have to distinguish themselves from competitors. He would rephrase the question to “How can a modern PV manufacturer achieve the highest quality for the lowest cost?” rather than wonder whether they should or not.
Of course MES is a very wide concept rightly pointed out by Marc Schaeffers, COO of DataLyzer International. Although he believe that PV can not achieve future needs and goals if they don’t implement such systems he feels the most pertinent questions are how mature is the organisation, how mature is the technology and what is the complexity of the process model? To make an MES work effectively Schaeffers says the most important part is data collection, tracking, tracing and performance analysis that must be achieved with flexibility and speed.
Brad Connor, managing director and co-founder of Savantech is more definite and believes PV manufacturers cannot achieve their future needs and goals without implementing an MES system. He points out that they can certainly run their facility without an MES but a plan to increase throughput, improve process and reduce scrap will require an MES as a key element. He does caution that an system for another industry could be overkill for a smaller venture.
Lessons learnt
Connor’s point is an issue that crops up time and again when discussing automation issues with manufacturers. What lessons can be learnt from similar industries in defining parameters for the PV industry? Travis L Stevens is President of SYSTEMA USA and feels that the PV MES market has already stabilised and there are few reasons for a manufacturer to consider building a solution internally as the ability to provide off the shelf solutions for industries such as Semiconductor, MEMS, A&D, Medical and Chemical Processing have all demonstrated success and with more exacting parameters expected in some of those industries, the solutions required by the PV industry can be calculated. Internal or custom developed systems are costly enough to typically eliminate the build option, regardless of the perceived strategic benefits.
Critical Manufacturing’s Almada-Lobo agrees that as a relatively young industry, PV shall take advantage from knowledge gathered with the other advanced industries. Although Almada-Lobo sees similarity in the semiconductor industry he does not feel the processes developed can be directly
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www.solar-pv-management.com Issue IV 2010
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