Capacity planning / three tiers, four figures each

Choosing Between Three Pack Line Tiers,
Including Where the Data Runs Out

Takt alone will not separate them — the first two tiers overlap on it. Footprint, installed power and how many positions are machines are what actually decide which one you are buying.

Send output, bay and headcount budget See the full comparison

Read this before the table

The first two ranges meet at 8 PPM
That is not a typo and it is not a rounding
It is why section 07 exists

4–8 PPMBLP-P8S — semi-automatic
8 PPMBLP-P8 — standard
12–15 PPMBLP-P15 — high automation

You have an output target, a building and a headcount budget. Two of the three are fixed.

Which tier fits is decided by all three together, and almost never by the output target alone.

The output was promised

To an investor, a customer or a parent company — and usually before the equipment budget existed. It arrives at this conversation as an input, not as a preference.

The building is already standing

Its length, width and clear height are what a line has to fit inside. A tier that needs more floor than you have is not a tier you can buy at any price.

The headcount budget is the one people forget

It is not the equipment cost and it is not a one-off. It repeats every year the line runs, and it is signed off by somebody who was not in the equipment meeting.

The tier is the only variable left

Which is why choosing it well is worth more attention than it usually gets — and why this page publishes the comparison in full rather than as two columns.

Module and pack assembly line seen along its length — The line — one of three builds

Assembly line installed inside a plant bay — The building — already standing

Every other page on this site gives you two of these figures at most. This is the page that gives you all of them at once, including the three places where the source data does not agree with itself.

Three ways a tier is chosen wrongly, and what each one costs afterwards

All three are decided in a week and paid for over a decade.

High-automation line running with most positions unoccupied

Chosen against the peak month

The busiest month on the forecast becomes the takt, so a 12–15 PPM line is bought to run at a fraction of it for years. You paid for automation that idles and for floor area you cannot reclaim.

Assembly line matched exactly to a current order book

Chosen against today

The line matches the current order book exactly, reaches its ceiling in the second year, and the next increment is a second line rather than a shift pattern. That is the expensive way to buy capacity twice.

Economy build of the line, one of the two that overlap on rate

Chosen on takt alone

The first two tiers overlap at 8 PPM. Picking between them on rate is picking on the one figure that does not separate them — and what does separate them is the building and the running cost.

The first two are forecasting problems, and you know your forecast better than we do. The third is a specification problem, and it is ours to fix — which is what section 05 and section 07 are for.

Two of these tiers publish takt figures that touch. The one that separates them is the building — and the building is the thing you cannot change afterwards.

56 × 10 × 4 m — BLP-P8S

Economy build, and the widest of the two that overlap on rate.

55 × 9 × 3.5 m — BLP-P8

Standard build, the narrowest and the lowest of the three.

54 × 20 × 4 m — BLP-P15

High automation, and more than twice the width of the standard build.

Three tiers, four figures each, and every gap named

⚠️ Four cells in this table carry a label instead of a number. None of them is blank — each label says which kind of absence it is.

	BLP-P8SSemi-automatic · economy	BLP-P8Standard	BLP-P15High automation
Takt	4–8 PPM	8 PPM	12–15 PPM
Footprint L × W × H	56 × 10 × 4 m	55 × 9 × 3.5 m	54 × 20 × 4 m
Installed power	200 kW	≤250 kW	300 kW
Annual output	500 MWh – 1 GWh	Not in the source dataOn request, once the line is engineered	1 – 2 GWh
Headcount — cell handling	4	Conflicting in the source data	4
Headcount — module welding	4	Conflicting in the source data	3
Headcount — pack assembly	12–14	Withheld with the rest of this row	12–14

Annual output assumes the blueprint cell, 300 days a year, eight hours a day. The blueprint itself is published on the energy-storage pack line page.

⚠️ BLP-P8 annual output is not in the source data. We publish it when the line is engineered, not as an estimate that fills a cell.

⚠️ BLP-P8 headcount is contradicted by the source data — two internal documents give different figures for cell handling and for module welding. They agree on pack assembly, but we withhold that figure too: half a row invites a comparison the other half cannot support. Until the factory confirms one set, we publish none of it. The other two tiers are consistent and are published above.

⚠️ BLP-P15 footprint: two figures also exist in the source material. We publish the one from the layout drawing, not the one from the summary table, and we do not print both.

We do not print floor area. Length × width is arithmetic we could do, but the product is not a figure the source data states — and a derived number in a specification table reads exactly like a published one.

Utilities are deliberately absent from this table rather than dashed out: supply, compressed air, nitrogen and floor loading do differ by tier, and they are stated one by one on the layout and utilities page. A dash here would have read as “not applicable”, which is the one thing they are not.

Economy build of the assembly line seen along the aisle — BLP-P8S — the economy build

Standard build of the assembly line seen along the aisle — BLP-P8 — the standard build

High-automation build of the assembly line seen along the aisle — BLP-P15 — the high-automation build

Three figures the source data does not settle, and what we do about each

The absence has a name in every case, and the name says which kind of absence it is.

Figure	Kind of absence	What would resolve it
BLP-P8 annual output	Not in the source data	Published when the line is engineered against your cell and your shift pattern
BLP-P8 headcount	Conflicting in the source data	Two of the three cells disagree between internal documents. The third agrees, and is withheld with them so the row is read as one figure or not at all
BLP-P15 footprint	Two figures exist	Resolved already — we publish the layout-drawing figure and only that one

A contradiction is not the same as a gap

One of these is missing; two of them exist twice. The second kind is the more dangerous, because either number looks authoritative on its own and neither one announces the other.

The rule we apply is the same in all three

Publish nothing we cannot stand behind, say which kind of absence it is, and say what would resolve it. That is the whole rule, and it is why the cells are labelled rather than empty.

What this costs you: nothing you were going to get anyway

A figure invented to fill a table is a figure that moves at commissioning. An absence with a reason attached is one you can plan around from the first week.

If a competing specification has a number in all of these places, that is worth a question rather than a point in its favour. Ask what it is based on, and ask it before the layout drawing rather than after.

Assembly line seen from the aisle, stations in sequence — The line the figures describe

Two tiers meet at 8 PPM, and takt is the one figure that will not separate them

This is the question the rest of the page is arranged around, so it gets the long answer rather than a footnote.

Why this one
The two ranges touch, so the headline figure is the one they share.

BLP-P8S is quoted at 4–8 PPM. BLP-P8 is quoted at 8 PPM. A buyer comparing the two on rate is comparing them on the only figure they have in common — and every other figure in the table differs. Those others are the ones that decide what the line costs to own.
Without it
You take the cheaper build because the rate looks equivalent.

Then you inherit its consequences after the bay is committed: a different footprint, a different installed power, and a different number of positions that are machines rather than people. None of those is recoverable once the building is laid out around the line.
What it actually is
The economy tier is wider, longer and draws less power.

56 × 10 × 4 m against 55 × 9 × 3.5 m, and 200 kW against ≤250 kW. That combination is not an accident: fewer automated positions need more floor for people and less installed power for machines. The economy tier is not a smaller line — it is a bigger, quieter one.
What we do about it
We do not quote either of them as “an 8 PPM line”.

They are quoted as an economy build and a standard build, and the separation is published as footprint, installed power and automation level rather than described in adjectives. That is also why the takt row in section 05 is not the first row in the table.
What proves it
The table above: two tiers, one shared takt figure, four rows where they differ.

Take any tier comparison on your desk and check how many rows separate the tiers. If a specification separates its tiers only by rate, it has not told you what you are choosing between.

Station-level automation levels are published per station on the module and pack segment pages.

Semi-automatic position with an operator station alongside — More floor for people

Automated position enclosed within its own frame — More installed power for machines

Welding position seen close up where the two builds diverge — Where the two builds diverge

The fastest tier needs twice the width, and the slowest one is not the smallest

Footprint tracks automation level and people, not throughput. Reading it as a proxy for capacity gets the building wrong.

Length

56, 55 and 54 metres — it barely moves

The line is about as long whichever tier you buy, because the station sequence is the same on all three. Length is the dimension least likely to decide anything.

Width

10, 9 and 20 metres — this is where they separate

The high-automation tier is more than twice the width of the standard one. Width is the single figure most likely to disqualify a building outright, and it is usually checked second.

Height

4, 3.5 and 4 metres of clear height

It is the dimension buyers check last and the one that cannot be negotiated with. A beam at the wrong height is not a layout problem, it is a building problem.

Which is why the second question we ask is about the bay rather than about the output. A tier that does not fit is not a tier, regardless of what it would have produced. Layout is adjusted to the building you have — but adjustment works within a footprint, not against it.

Wide line layout occupying the full width of a bay — Twenty metres wide — the high-automation build

Narrow station row occupying one side of a bay — Nine metres wide — the standard build

Automation buys one person in the module segment, not an empty floor

⚠️ This is the figure that repeats every year, and the two tiers we can publish differ by exactly one position.

4 → 4Cell handling — P8S and P15 alike

4 → 3Module welding — P8S versus P15

12–14Pack assembly — both tiers, unchanged

The pack segment does not shrink

Twelve to fourteen operators on both tiers we can publish. Whatever automation buys, it does not buy that — the pack segment is where the manual positions live and it stays that way across the range.

The module segment gives back one person

Four to three, between the economy tier and the high-automation one. That is the honest size of the difference, and it is the whole of it.

So headcount is not the reason to move up a tier

Rate is. If somebody sells you a tier upgrade on labour savings, ask which positions disappear — and compare the answer against the station lists, which name every one.

The station-by-station automation levels behind these figures are on the module segment and pack segment pages. ⚠️ BLP-P8 headcount is not published anywhere on this site, for the reason given in section 06.

Bench-type manual position with its own control panel — The positions that stay — manual, on every tier

Enclosed automated position behind fixed guarding — The one position that changes

Three questions decide the tier, and you can answer all three today

None of them requires a drawing. They are the three inputs a tier recommendation is actually built from.

What annual output are you committed to?

Not the peak month — the figure somebody signed for. It is the only one that belongs in a capacity calculation.

What are the bay's clear dimensions?

Length, width and clear height, in that order of usefulness. Clear height means under the lowest obstruction, not to the roof.

What headcount can you sustain?

For ten years, not for the ramp. The ramp number is the one everybody quotes and the one that never holds.

What comes back

A tier, the reason it is that tier, the layout drawn into your bay, and the figures above restated for your pack.

If two tiers fit, we say so

Sometimes the honest answer is that both work and the choice is commercial rather than technical. We do not manufacture a technical reason for the more expensive one.

If none fits, we say that too

A bay that cannot take the width of the tier your output needs is a building problem, and it is cheaper to hear it now than after the layout drawing is paid for.

Line laid out along the length of a plant bay — The layout drawn into your bay

Line seen end-on, clear height above the tallest station — Clear height — checked last, negotiable never

Four things do not change with the tier

Which is worth knowing, because they are the things you would otherwise have to check three times.

Acceptance yield
Layout adjustability
Two segments
One takt figure

Line acceptance yield — ≥99%

Counting equipment-caused defects only, excluding human factors. The same figure on all three tiers, in the same acceptance document. It is a constant across the range, not a selling point for one build.

The footprint is adjustable to your building

The figures in section 05 are the reference layouts. The line is drawn into the bay you have, within the footprint rather than against it.

Two segments, one takt

Module segment and pack segment, commissioned to one figure, on every tier. You are never buying two rates that have to be reconciled later.

Utilities differ by tier, and are published separately

Supply, compressed air, nitrogen and floor loading are on the layout and utilities page — ⚠️ they are not identical across tiers, which is exactly why they belong on a page that states each one.

The definitions behind the yield figure — utilisation and first-pass yield — are stated once, on the home page. One definition, one place, three tiers that inherit it.

Finished units leaving the line at the offload position — The acceptance position — identical on all three tiers

Send three numbers, get a tier with a reason attached

Annual output, bay dimensions with clear height, and the headcount you can sustain. Three lines of an email is enough to get a recommendation you can argue with.

Send the three numbers WhatsApp

Reply within 24 hours / If two tiers fit, we say so rather than pushing the larger one

We do not publish a payback period, and this is why

It is the figure a capacity-planning page is most expected to provide, and the one it is least able to.

It is made of your figures, not ours

A payback period is labour cost, electricity tariff, utilisation, product mix and the price you sell a pack for. We know none of those, and four of the five change by country.

A published figure would be about our assumptions

Any number we printed would be a statement about a plant we invented — and it would be quoted back to us by somebody whose plant is not that one, in a meeting where it matters.

What we give instead

The inputs: takt, footprint, installed power, headcount for the tiers where it is settled, and an acceptance yield you can put in a contract. Those go into your model. The model stays yours.

The same applies to labour savings expressed in money. We publish how many people staff each segment, on the tiers where the source data is consistent. What that is worth per year is arithmetic only you can do correctly.

Assembly stations in sequence along the line — What we publish — the inputs, not the conclusion

Four questions that make two tier quotations comparable

Ask them of every quotation on your desk, including this one.

Does the specification separate its tiers by anything other than rate?

If not, it has not told you what you are choosing between — and rate is the figure most likely to be shared.

Is the footprint given as L × W × H, or as an area?

An area hides the width, and width is what disqualifies buildings. Two lines of equal area can need very different bays.

Is headcount published per segment, per tier?

A single number for “the line” hides which segment it lives in, and the segments do not respond to automation the same way.

Are there any gaps, and are they labelled?

A specification with a figure in every cell has either engineered your plant already, or has filled the cells.

We publish three tiers, four figures each, and three labelled gaps. The gaps are the part we would most like to remove and the part we are least willing to invent.

One line build seen from the operator aisle — Two builds, one shared takt figure

The other line build seen from the operator aisle — Four rows where they differ

Where the stations, the thresholds and the blueprint are written up

Cell handling
Module segment
Pack segment
Tier selection — you are here

Run section 10 against your own figures first

All three questions there can be answered today, without a drawing.

Then send the answers rather than the question

The comparison above is built entirely from published figures, so most of the work can be done before anyone replies to you.

Go to the enquiry form WhatsApp

Finished module with its connections made, at the end of the line — What comes off, on every tier

sales@batterylinepro.com

Phone / WhatsApp

+86 15327155363

Address

Wuhan, Hubei, China

Response

Reply within 24 hours

Assembly line seen along its full length to the end position — Fifty-odd metres, whichever tier you buy

Choosing Between Three Pack Line Tiers, Including Where the Data Runs Out