Fabrication Planning of Module Manufacturing Plants – Analysis of Site Parameters and Modelling Tools

This study examines the effectiveness of simulation tools in the planning and optimization of photovoltaic module manufacturing plants. We compare the static analytical model SCost.Module with the dynamic model Tecnomatix to assess their accuracy in predicting throughput under various scenarios. Our findings indicate that SCost.Module shows good agreement (Δ < 3%) with Tecnomatix for single-product manufacturing, making it sufficient for most module manufacturing sites. However, more complex environments, such as BIPV module manufacturing, may benefit from the dynamic tracking capabilities of Tecnomatix. Throughput calculations for different scenarios reveal variances between the static and dynamic models, under conditions of yield loss, equipment downtimes, and organizational reductions. The impact of product mix and manufacturing order further highlights the importance of detailed production planning in multi-product environments. Additionally, our analysis of equipment parameters demonstrates that changes in technical parameters significantly impacts process costs. For instance, a decrease in uptime from 95% to 90% results in a 2.5% increase in process costs for the stringer, while an increase in the breakage rate from 0.3% to 0.5% adds an additional 0.3%. Location-specific cost analyses show that local prices for electricity and personnel have a more substantial impact on manufacturing costs than building construction costs. Lower costs in China and Türkiye provide cumulative advantages in module manufacturing compared to Germany.